Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982) is a novella by Stephen King. It originally appeared in King’s collection Different Seasons. The novella’s first-person narrator, Red, tells the story of fellow inmate, Andy Dufresne, who was wrongfully convicted, mistreated by the prison warden, and successfully escaped the prison. Through Andy’s steadfast optimism, Red transforms from a cynical ex-con to a man who believes in the power of hope and redemption.

The novella was adapted into a film in 1994. The film was directed by Frank Darabont and starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, though it did not win any.

The edition used for this guide is the Kindle edition, published in 2020 by Scribner.

Content Warning: The guide discusses the book’s portrayal of sexual assault, murder, violence, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

The story begins as Red describes the crimes that landed him in Shawshank prison. After marrying a woman, and taking a job with her father’s company, Red experiences growing hatred for her. He discovers that she has a life insurance policy, and plans her murder by compromising the brakes on her car, hoping to get away with the crime and receive the insurance benefits. He did not plan that his wife would bring along the neighbor and the neighbor’s child. All were killed in the accident, and Red was sentenced to life in prison.

Red says that while many inmates in the prison claim that they are innocent, he does not. He openly admits his crime and says that if he could have the chance to relive his past, he would choose differently. Red mentions that he is the leader of a smuggling operation within the prison. Through various points of contact both outside and inside Shawshank, Red smuggles products such as cigarettes, marijuana, and pornography.

Red states that while he is the storyteller, the story is in fact not about him, but an inmate named Andy Dufresne. Andy arrives at Shawshank after being convicted for the murder of his wife and her affair partner, a local golf pro named Glenn Quentin. Andy maintained his innocence during his trial. The details of his case were turned into a media spectacle; because the district attorney for the prosecution was seeking election to higher political office, Andy was effectively deemed guilty before the trial even began.

Andy’s initial time at Shawshank is brutal. Almost upon arrival, he is targeted by a prison gang known as “the sisters” who sexually assault him, beat him, and nearly kill him. Andy finally achieves some level of protection by paying off one of the guards with money that he had smuggled into prison. Even though Andy is brutalized, he fights back. The experience does not put a dent into his optimistic, composed manner.

Red is the person inside Shawshank who knows how to get things. Andy seeks Red’s services and asks him for a rock hammer. Red is unsure what this is, and is skeptical if Andy will use it as a weapon. Andy says that he wants to use it to shape rocks, and shows Red various kinds of rocks that are on the ground in the prison yard. Red is able to secure the rock hammer and within a short time, has it delivered to Andy. Sometime after requesting the rock hammer, Andy requests a poster of Rita Hayworth that he can hang on the wall of his prison cell. This request is a common one, according to Red, and he acquires it easily and gives it to Andy. As a way to return the favor, Andy gives Red a gift: two pieces of polished quartz that Andy had found in the yard and shaped.

Red tells of an incident involving Andy and a guard by the name of Byron Hadley. A group of prisoners, including Red and Andy, are working on retarring the roof of the prison when they overhear Hadley discuss a recent inheritance that he is about to receive, but that the IRS would likely take most of. At this point, Andy chimes in and asks Hadley if he trusts his own wife. All of the prisoners are stunned at this, half-expecting Hadley to kill Andy on the spot. However, Andy presses on, pushes his luck, and finally tells Hadley that he can gift the inheritance to his wife to avoid having to pay taxes on it. Hadley, a brutal and violent guard, is eventually convinced that Andy is telling the truth, and Andy even offers to do the paperwork for Hadley. Andy makes a deal to do just that in exchange for beer to be brought for the other prisoners in the work group to drink at the end of the day.

The incident with Hadley gets around. Among the prisoners, the story takes on a mythical quality because of the way Andy interacts with the vicious and harsh Hadley. Among the guards, news spreads that Andy would do their accounting. Andy begins doing this for many personnel at the prison, including the new warden, Sam Norton. Red speculates that Norton is an especially corrupt administrator of the prison, and takes cuts from just about all prison-related activities and projects. Since Andy is his accountant, Andy is well-informed about his corruption.

A 27-year-old thief and burglar named Tommy Williams arrives at the prison. Tommy has a wife and a young son on the outside. A career criminal, he has been unable to find a stable life for himself and his family since he lacks a proper education. Developing and growing the prison library is at the top of Andy’s list of primary responsibilities. As part of developing the library, Andy is able to secure a program whereby convicts can attain their high school diploma equivalency. Tommy enters this program and takes an immediate liking to Andy.

One day, Tommy and another inmate are discussing the nature of Andy’s case. The inmate reveals the names of the people Andy was found guilty of murdering, and Tommy is shocked. He has heard the names and story of their murders from an inmate at a different prison by the name of Elwood Blatch. Blatch had bragged openly about killing Andy’s wife and Glenn Quentin during a robbery, and that he got away with the murders.

Tommy tells Andy the news. Immediately, Andy brings it to the warden’s attention, hoping that it could be investigated and his case retried. Much to Andy’s shock, the warden is not interested in pursuing Tommy’s story. After they engage in a heated argument, the warden sends Andy to solitary for 20 days, during which time, he transfers Tommy to another prison, one with a work-release program which enables him to see his family occasionally. In exchange for this transfer, the warden demands Tommy’s silence on the Elwood Blatch story.

Andy emerges from solitary and tries once more to persuade the warden. Andy suggests that if he was ever set free, he would keep all knowledge of the warden’s illicit activities secret. The warden responds by once again sending Andy to solitary, this time for 30 days.

When Andy emerges, he becomes much more brooding compared to his usual light and optimistic self. This lasts a few years and then suddenly, one day, his mood returns to his baseline optimism. He and Red have a lengthy conversation, and Andy tells him of his dream to one day open a business in a Mexican resort town by the name of Zihuatanejo, on the Pacific Ocean. Andy tells Red that if he ever leaves Shawshank, he should go search for a box in a hayfield in Buxton, Maine. He will be able to find this box because it will be underneath a piece of volcanic rock which will appear blatantly out of place. Red promises Andy that he will.

Red declares that in 1975, Andy escaped Shawshank. Red provides the details of the escape, speculating on some of it. Andy had used the rock hammer to chip away at the wall in his prison cell, and the poster of Rita Hayworth and later of Linda Ronstadt to hide the hole he had been digging. Andy would fill his pockets with dirt and release it into the yard when given time outside. After digging about four feet, Andy knew from the blueprints that there would be a sewage pipe that emptied outside of the prison. During his escape, he crawled through the sewage pipe and eventually to his freedom.

Three months after Andy’s escape, the warden resigns from his position in disgrace. Red receives parole and leaves Shawshank. Red briefly chronicles his struggles with adapting to his freedom, then discusses his search for the box in the hayfield in Buxton that Andy had told him of. Red finds the box, and when he opens it, there is a letter from Peter Stevens, the alias that Andy has created for himself, and money. The money is for Red to use to travel to join Andy in Zihuatanejo, which he does.