The story takes place inside the penitentiary named Shawshank. The plot itself is quite jumpy, meaning the narrator (Red) does not tell the story straight to the reader. The narrator seems to be telling the story through his train of thought, rather then thinking about what he says he just says it. For example Red says "I remember the first time Andy Dufresne got in touch with me for something; I remember like it was yesterday. That wasn't the time he wanted Rita Hayworth, though. That came later. In the summer of 1948 he came around for something elese" (26). He then starts a new paragraph saying, "Most of my deals are done right there in the exercise yard, and that's where this one went down. Our yard is big, much bigger than most" (27). He speaks to the reader as if he is thinking and when he thinks of one thing, it reminds him of another and so he feels the need to elaborate on that thought before coming back to his original. Confusing I know but that is how it is supposed to be told, as if through a prisoner's mind.
Point of View
The story is told through the thoughts and words of Red. He is the narrator who is writing a book about his time at Shawshank. Like I mentioned above the story is quite jumpy and it is because Red is just a prisoner trying to get his thoughts down on paper in hopes that someone may read them someday. He wants to tell the reader about his troubles at Shawshank but mainly the actions of Andy Defresne, his good friend who eventually escapes from Shawshank. Red describes himself as, "...the guy who can get it for you" (15). He continually talks about how he can get anything anyone would need at Shawshank, except for weapons of course.
Characterization
Red describes the people he talks about in great detail. He mainly describes their actions and how they present themselves but sometimes he also describes the past and current problems in their lives. He describes Andy Defresne as "... a short, neat little man with sandy hair and small, clever hands. He wore gold-rimmed spectacles. His fingernails were always clipped, and they were always clean" (17). He also describes Andy's back story in further detail. Andy was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was blamed for killing his wife and her secret lover. Red describes others in about the same way he described Andy, including himself.
Setting
The story is set at Shawshank penitentiary, mainly in the main yard but Red also describes the cells and solitary confinement. Most of the story talks about certain things that are happening at Shawshank. It is not a very action filled story, it deals more about past events that he has heard from people rather than his own personal experiences. The story is mainly about things that happened rather than the places that it happened. The story takes place in Shawshank physically, but Red talks more about the actions of Andy Defresne than anything. Red describes Shawshank as "a happy little family" on more than one occasion but other than that he does not describe it that much. He hints that it is just like any other prison, stone and concrete walls with iron bars for cell doors and a dismal dirt-filled lot for the yard.
Theme
One big theme of this story is hope. Later in the story Red finds out that Andy has a lot of money stashed outside of the walls of Shawshank and that he hopes to get out someday and go to Mexico. Andy says, "And at the north end of this particular hayfield there's a rock wall, right out of a Robert Frost poem. And somewhere along the base of that wall is a rock that has no business in a Maine hayfield. It's a piece of volcanic glass, and until 1947 it was a paperweight on my office desk. My friend Jim put it in that wall. There's a key underneath it. The key opens a safe deposit box in the Portland branch of the Casco Bank" (78). This is Andy's hope. Inside the safety deposit box is a whole new identity with a lot of money to his name. Andy wants to get out of Shawshank and get that key to get to his box and his new life. It is the only thing he has to help keep his head up, without it Andy would not have been the same person. He needed that hope to keep from going insane.
