The Hero’s Journey in Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

The Hero’s Journey in Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

10b1 111034 Jonathan Hongsoon Kim

        

         Humans have always enjoyed telling tales. Starting from the dawn of the first civilizations on Earth or perhaps even earlier, societies have passed on stories and legends to later generations; this trend is still present in the modern era in the form of novels, movies, or even bedtime stories millions of parents tell their restless children every night. Within these diverse stories, we can find certain patterns. There are certain events or aspects that seem to appear in one form or another in these stories; there is a certain pattern that the heroes of these stories all seem to take. From Gilgamesh to Bruce Wayne, from Jesus Christ to Little Red Riding Hood, and from Beowulf to Luke Skywalker: these heroes, all in their individual worlds,` travel a path that is known as the Hero’s Journey.

           The hero of Stephen King’s novel Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is no exception. While, of course, there may be a few steps altered or missing from the traditional hero’s saga the overall flow is still observable.

           When trying to analyze the Hero’s Journey in Shawshank Redemption, we run into one initial problem: who is the Hero? There are two main protagonists, Red and Andy, and both of them, though from different perspectives, go through the events that make up the plot. At first glance, it may seem like Andy is the sole hero; Red’s narration is centered on Andy and his actions. However, I believe that the character that actually went through the Hero’s Journey is Red himself. Of course, physically speaking, Red hardly went anywhere; he was confined in Shawshank prison for decades before finally being paroled almost at the end of the novel. Yet we can see that Red has experienced certain changes, particularly in the way he views the world. Thus, I think that Red’s journey is not a physical one, but a process that changed the way he perceived the world and himself.

           The “Ordinary World” that Red lives in could mean many things. It could mean the outside world that Red lived in before coming to Shawshank, it could mean his life before Andy appeared, or it could mean Shawshank life in general. However, I think that the Ordinary World is not a physical world, but rather Red’s mentality of not having much hope. Red was a down-to-earth, slightly pessimistic man who avoided having any high hopes, should they lead to disappointment; this was the world that he lived in prior to meeting Andy. Even when some convicts around him attempted escapes or were paroled, Red did not expect much from his own chances of getting out of Shawshank. He was prepared to live his entire life in prison.

           After “Refusing the Call” of hope several times, Red meets his “Mentor” in the form of Andy Dufresne. Andy, in the eyes of Red, immediately distinguishes himself as “different” from the other convicts. Andy, quite unlike Red, is always hopeful and does not lose this hope. The two become friends and, over the decades they spend together in Shawshank, Red slowly begins to regain hope. The next few steps of the Hero’s Journey are not clearly defined in Red’s story, but eventually, after Andy’s climatic escape, Red starts to believe in the power of hope again.

           Thus Shawshank Redemption is a hero’s tale. It is not one of slaying dragons or saving mankind from alien invaders but of one man’s humble road to regaining hope that he had once lost. Red, after being paroled, completed his Hero’s Journey of regaining hope and used it to write a memoir, spreading his tale of hope to the rest of the world.