Comparative Analysis of the Novella and Film Adaptation of Shawshank Redemption in Delivering the Themes

            I. Introduction

The Shawshank Redemption was actually the first movie in which I felt that the film adaptation was as good if not better than the novel itself. The film in general was faithful to the original novella, following the general plot and incorporating significant amounts of the diction and narratives from the novella. However, being that novellas and films are two totally different modes of expression, there obviously exist discrepancies between the two. In this essay, I would like to explore the portrayal of important scenes in the movie and how it differed from the book and its role in delivering the theme of the Shawshank Redemption.

II. Brooks and Jake - institutionalism

The movie reorganized the characters to make the story more coherent. In the book, it was not Brooks, mentioned without much gravity as a former librarian, but Sherwood Bolton who owned a pigeon (a crow in the movie) named Jake in his cell. This little scene does not take a large part of the story, but is rather mentioned quite briefly in the beginning of the novel as a kind of digression from the story of Andy’s trial and does not hold a prominent place in the story. The scene starts out with a quote also mentioned in the movie in a similar way, “they give you life, and that’s what they take – all of it that counts, anyway” and describes the process of Sherwood Bolton setting Jake free the day before Sherwood Bolton was to be freed from Shawshank and finding Jake dead a week later in the corner of the exercise yard where Sherwood used to hang out. So, in the book, it is a little scene that delivers the theme of being institutionalized by the death of Jake the bird after Sherwood had been paroled.

The movie further developed this particular scene into a separate little story taking a large part of the movie. It is the story of the librarian Brooks, an insignificant character in the book animated by the movie into one of the main characters. In the movie, it is not the bird that dies, but Brooks. Brooks is shown as a respected friend of Red's and Andy's, portrayed as an old man with a generous heart who has been in the Shank for a long time. This portrayal of Brooks in the movie sets up a very likable character and the viewers warm up to Brooks. However, Brooks is finally paroled after at least 50 years of prison life and he is unable to take it. At first, he tries to kill one of the inmates trying to commit a crime so he won’t have to get out of the Shank, and he eventually commits suicide, unable to adapt to the society. He says in a letter to Andy and Red, “I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense any more. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.” And Jake is the being that is insignificant in the movie. He shows up a few times in the movie and is set free, but the viewers are not informed of his fate. Thus, the theme of institutionalism was delivered more bluntly and straightforwardly in the movie because the movie developed Brooks as a likable character throughout, then after Brooks’ parole, effectively depicted the irony of the whole prison “giving you life and taking it away” in Brooks’ letter to Andy and Red, and showed the scene of Brooks actually committing suicide.

III. Music Scene - freedom

The music scene, the scene where Andy decides to play “Canzonetta sull’aria” (“Letter Duet”) from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro on the loudspeakers for everyone in the prison to hear, is completely absent from the book. However, this is a central scene in the movie that exemplifies the auditory technique, usable in only films and not novellas, applied to give deeper meaning into a scenario. It is well established in both the book and the movie that Andy did not want to lose the sense of freedom. In the book, Andy is described as holding himself differently than the other inmates, with a sense of dignity and the making of the rock-sculptures were a pastime of the free life and he continued practicing it behind bars. The movie incorporated this and took the theme of freedom a step further by adding a different subject matter – music. "It was as if a beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest moments everyman at Shawshank felt free.” Music is a widely accepted symbol of therapy of the troubles of life. As such, music symbolizes freedom and hope for Andy and he wishes to share the freedom with his fellow inmates, which is why he put the music on for everyone to hear on the loudspeakers. Therefore, I believed that the movie’s auditory techniques gave a more strong impression of the theme of freedom than the subtlety of the book.

IV. The Reunion of Andy and Red - hope

As the subtitle “Hope Springs Eternal” implies, the central theme in the novella is the theme of hope. Both the book and movie puts emphasis on this theme nearing the end. In the book, Red finds the place in Buxton where he finds a letter from Andy. It reads, “hope is a good thing, red. Maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” (also mentioned in the movie) and Red ends his narrative saying, “I hope Andy is down there. 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.” The book ends there, and leaving the readers to use their imagination to decide the two friends’ fate. However, the movie gives a solid ending by inserting a scene where Red and Andy meet, smiling, on the beach of the Pacific. There are no words between them, they just look at one another, smile from ear to ear, and they run toward each other as the credits begin to show.

 I believe that this final scene in the movie gives weight to the actual fruit of hope – the reunion, and thus gives the movie a happy ending and leaves the viewers satisfied. However, in the book, the act of Red hoping retains great significance in itself. The last sentences “I hope, I hope, I hope…” leaves a trailing note and leaves readers to mull over the idea of hope and its value. So if the movie summed the story up with the insertion of the reward of hope, the book had a more attenuated ending that posed meaningful questions.

V. Conclusion

There are many more scenes with significance, but I wanted to focus on the scenes that portray the main themes of institutionalism, freedom, and hope. In general, the movie delivered the themes in a straightforward manner, while the book delivered the themes subtly, requiring the readers to read between the lines and to formulate their own thoughts.