Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption – Stephen King

God, okay, I don’t even know where to even begin with this book.

So I watched the movie Shawshank Redemption before I read the book, which I’m sure many of y’all would probably frown on me for, but trust me when I say this: movie bingers, Morgan Freeman fans, or anyone with amazing film taste would never want to miss this movie for the world. And I’m so happy to say that the book was finally matched with a near-equal cinematic version. Of course, this book would obviously need some kind of introduction, and I’m pleased to say that Stephen King was the one who wrote this book. Let’s jump in!!

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This book was the first book that I had read of Stephen King, and I’m honest to God so amazed by the amount of beautiful writing that Stephen was able to fit into 107 pages of biblical wonderland. The book is part of Different Seasons, a 4-novella collection by Stephen King, and Shawshank Redemption was one that stood out to the producers of major movies, eventually making this masterpiece a video edition around 12 years after the book’s publication.

This inscrutable, impossibly well-written short story was about a man who’s life and mindset changed entirely by going to jail. 

People say that it’s the last shreds of hope that keep you going – even after everything horrible that you can ever imagine has already happened to you, even when you think life has knocked the living daylights out of you and there are no more possible wins in the scenario. It seems fit to be noted that Andy Dufresne had taken that saying very, very seriously.

The Shawshank Redemption was the story narrated in first-person perspective by Red (full name Ellis Boyd Redding), who told us the exquisitely unique story of his fellow prisoner Andy Dufresne, accused of a murder and sentenced to a life behind bars as a result. Andy, a level-headed ex-banker, seemed to be absolutely destined to perfection for the role of everlasting victim in Shawshank State Prison, one hell of a place where brawn would seem to be more valued than smarts, a place destined to break Andy’s spirit.

BUT.

Andy doesn’t want to be broken and fiercely clings to his humanity, and eventually his hope is the one that fuels all of the other prisoners to work hard and be thankful and grateful for what they have, his friend and fellow prisoner Red included.

“It’s funny. On the outside, I was an honest man. Straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook…”

Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption

Andy Dufresne, though put under numerous amounts of stress and badly-disguised torture, meticulously clung to bits and pieces of hope that he found through every secret nook and corner of Shawshank, and honestly it would’ve been considered very irrational to others who noticed him, wondering why and how he’d be able to find hope in a prison full of bad, bad people. And the best part was, it was these small bits of hope that allowed him to keep going despite all the roughness of SSP, with humanity and quiet but undeniable dignity in a place where neither is supposed to exist.
Violence, corruption, power, greed, cruelty – Andy goes through it all with his unexpected backbone of steel, allowing all of it to only barely tarnish his amazing resilient spirit, winning his little victories against the system along the way, in his own way brightening the existence of those for whom there’d appear to be little left, patiently fighting his fight to keep little glimpses of humanity in the place where they are rarely seen.

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.”

Red, Shawshank Redemption

My dad got me this book after some moderate amounts of begging and pleading… and the cover was the first thing I loved about it. I mean, who comes up with these kinds of things??! The red and the black and the white and the IDK it was just so beautifully designed like oml what?? 13 year old me read this book, and I was so happy with it, I cried at the end…it hit me then how, despite my teenage sense of invulnerability, the world can be cruel to you for no reason, and sometimes hope is all you have left.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.”

Red’s Last Words in Shawshank Redemption

Stephen King, by my standards at least, would probably be one of the most enchanting storytellers of our time. His prose was equally enchanting, wonderful, and mesmerizing in Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and It was a sheer delight to read him. And, by the way, it was my first Stephen King novel. All in all, this was a great story vividly told that will leave you with a true sense of ‘redemption’ in your soul. Being a riveting tale about friendship and the strength of character, about going up against what is wrong and unfair and coming out on top through pure true grit and a little luck, this story definitely has the power and potential to leave any of its readers in utmost surprise and solemn happiness.

Thanks for reading this review; I hope it fuels you to read the book too, because if it didn’t, I will probably go and sit in the corner like a frog bc i disappointed you :C

ANYWAYS i must take my leave because now…i need to eat something crunchy. reading just makes me crave food, honestly… byee <3!!