Part One
RED
Red is the narrator through the entire story. He is serving three consecutive life sentences for murdering his wife and two passengers who were in the car with her after he disabled the brakes. Red came to Shawshank when he was twenty so at the time he is writing the story, he is around sixty years old, having served almost forty years. He shows regret for his actions and he questions whether he is rehabilitated, even though given another chance, he would not commit the same crime again.
I believe that this establishes Red as a thoughtful man, who isn't inherently a bad person. He is affable and often philosophical in his narration. As mentioned in the section on resilience, he is the "guy who can get it for you." (King 2) He procures items for prisoners ranging from legal to illegal, although he draws the line at "...guns and heavy drugs. I won't help anyone kill himself or anyone else." (King 4)
Red shows himself to be somewhat skeptical when he says that out of all the prisoners he has known, he considers Andy Dufresne to be one of only "...ten men whom I believed when they told me they were innocent." (King 5) He nods to the fact that "everyone in prison is an innocent man." He infers that he does not believe this to be true for most people, so making this assertion about only ten men in forty years increases their credibility.
Red often refers to Shawshank as "our happy little family.' (King 1, 15, 53) repeatedly throughout the story. I did not keep full track of the times he said it but the citation above notes three. Other than that he feels a brotherly warmth to some of the prisoners, this is a baffling phrase. Clearly Shawshank is anything but happy.
The first part of the book establishes Red as a detailed and engaging writer who appears to be a minor character in his own story.
ANDY DUFRESNE
Andy Dufresne, the protagonist of the story, came to be imprisoned in 1948, when he was thirty years old. Andy was a successful banker on the outside when his wife and her lover were murdered. He is an intelligent, self-possessed, meticulous man who keeps mostly to himself. He maintains his innocence.
Andy's self-possession is hard won. In the past, his drinking to excess contributed to his murder conviction because he was not fully aware on the night of the murder. Red says that Andy has "Four drinks a year-and that is the behavior of a man who has been bitten hard by the bottle. Hard enough to draw blood." (King 8)
Red and Andy became acquainted when Andy requested a rock-hammer from Red. Red was concerned by the description of a rock-hammer and Andy explains that he wants it because "I'm a rock-hound. At least...I was a rock-hound. I'd like to be one again, on a limited scale." (King 18) Over the course of the story, they become good friends.
He funds his purchases from the $500 he brought to jail with him "...not to put too fine a point on it, a man who is really determined can get a fairly large item quite a ways up them-far enough to be out of sight..."(King 25) Andy is well prepared for his entry into prison, where "a dollar bill in your hand looks like a twenty did outside." (King 25)
Red suspects that Andy could have behind the beating of Bogs Diamond, which effectively ended Bog's participation in terrorizing Andy. He theorizes that while it would have cost a lot to have that done, Andy can afford it, because of his $500. As mentioned in my comments about resilience, Andy decided to fight the sisters and never give in easily to them. While he does not appear to be an inherently violent person, if Red's theory is correct, he is not beyond using violence to help him stop the onslaught of rape and assault.
Towards the end of the first part of the book, Andy shows his resourcefulness and also his courage by advising Mr. Hadley about the tax implications of the one time gift to his wife. (King 37)
PART TWO
RED
After Andy started doing work for the prison staff and laundering money for the scams that were going on in the prison, Andy and Red had a discussion about their limits when doing their 'jobs.' Red made it clear that while he was willing to get his hands dirty, he also had limits to what he would accommodate. For example, when Andy comments that Red will not accept a contract (for murder,) essentially because conscience, Red responds by laughing and saying "Good intentions...I know all about that, Andy. A fellow can toddle right off to hell on that road.(King 47) Red is a person who will not help someone hurt another.
Later in the story, when Andy suggests that he could use a "man who knows how to get things" (King 78) in Zihuatenejo, Red indicates first that despite his competence, he does not have very high hopes that outside of prison he could do the same thing. He considers himself institutionalized and says "I couldn't hack it outside, Andy. I know that." (King 78)
ANDY
In part one, we understand that Red thinks highly of Andy. He further describes Andy's countenance as " ...that graymeat son of a bitch managed to bring in something else, as well. A sense of his own worth, maybe or a feeling that he would be the winner in the end... or maybe it was only a sense of freedom, even inside these goddamned gray walls. It was a kind of inner light he carried around with him." (King 41) From this, I understand that Andy held himself apart in ways that were not snobbish, but had to do with his very core of being.
Andy takes the upper hand by enticing Mr. Hadley with the idea of a tax free inheritance. (King 39) He manages to get his coworkers who are tarring the roof two beers each and is transferred from the laundry to the library for his work. When Red is describing the persistence Andy used to supply and expand the library, he describes Andy's strength of will "to gradually turn one small room (which still smelled of turpentine because it had been a paint closet until 1922 and had never been properly aired) lined with Reader's Digest Condensed books and National Geographics into the best prison library in New England. (King 42)
Andy tells Red that his conscience was "relatively untroubled. The rackets would have gone on with him or without him." (King 46) He feels that his activities in the prison are not much different than they were on the outside, because "the amount of expert financial help an individual or company needs rises in direct proportion to how many people that person or business is screwing. (King 46)
There was a period of time after the Warden refused to hear or help him with Tommy and his willingness to testify about Elwood Blatch when for about four years"...Andy Dufresne had changed. He had grown harder." (King 69)
In part two we find out that Andy prepared for the 'storm' that was his being charged with and convicted of murder by protecting some assets with the help of a friend prior to his conviction. (King 73) The friend had prepared Andy a false identity and that his current assets under the name Peter Stevens amount to around three hundred and seventy thousand dollars. (King 75) He reveals to Red the whereabouts of the safety deposit box key and asks Red to join him in Zihuatenejo, Mexico when they both get out of prison. (King 78)
PART TWO
RED
In part three, Red discusses institutionalization in the context of the number of prisoners that might have successfully effected jail breaks and remained outside of prison. He feels that maybe half the number of getaways might be back in prison after their escapes because "more often than not, a con who's just out will pull some dumb job.. because it'll get him back inside. (King 82)
Red expands on the effects of institutionalization by describing his bathroom habits:
For thirty five years, my time was twenty-five minutes past the hour. And if for some reason, iI couldn't go, the need would pass at thirty after, and come back at twenty-five past the next hour (King 101)
Other than extensive discussion about Andy's jail break, Red addresses a thought that I know I had. That he really does not figure prominently in the story- not really more than any other character other than Andy. He writes that he can "hear someone in the peanut-gallery saying. You were writing about Andy Dufresne. You're nothing but a minor character in your own story. But you know, that's just not so. It's all about me, every damned word of it. Andy was the part of me they could never lock up..."(King 103)
Red finished writing the story after his release. He mentions that because released prisoners were not allowed to carry anything out of the jail with them, " I took out my story of him the same way" (as Andy had brought in his five hundred dollars in 1948.) (King 105) He hid the writing because he was afraid that if it was found, the authorities might have been able to find Andy with the information. He notes that he did change the name of the place to one in Portugal as an extra layer of security, but presumably, they never found his story, because we are reading it now.
After his release, Red searches for Andy's hayfield in Buxton and finds the black volcanic stone as well as the note and funds Andy left for him. He makes plans to go to Zihuatenejo despite his fears, and be reunited with his friend. This activity indicates that rather than having lost all hope for a good life, Red is hopeful.
ANDY
"In 1975, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank." (King 84) Red recounted the prison break details (to the best of his ability by describing all the events as he understood them. We understand that probably through twenty seven years, luck and soft concrete (King 95), Andy managed to make a tunnel hole in his wall which he covered by his posters. Andy's tunnel reached a dead space between the inner and outer walls of the prison which were each four feet thick with a two foot space in between that led to a sewage pipe which Andy broke into and crawled out of for a distance of five football fields.
Red believes that Andy sent a post card from Mc Nary Texas, where Red also believes that Andy likely crossed the border into Mexico. (King 103) Red is also hopeful on Andy's behalf:
He hasn't been recaptured, and I don't think he ever will be. In fact, I don't think Andy Dufresne even exists anymore. But I think there's a man down in Zihuatenejo, Mexico named Peter Stevens. (King 84)
Red surmises that Andy might have been delayed in his escape because he '...would have been wrestling with that tiger-that institutional syndrome-and also with the bulking fears that it all might have been for nothing. (King 101)
We learn that Andy was patient, planned meticulously and played a, very long game that ultimately, he won. We also learn that he trusted and cared enough about Red to bring him in on his plans, in a non-specific way, but one in which Red could find a way to reunite with him.
(Jackson)