The film itself reflects the slow passage of the decades. "When they put you in that cell," Red says, "when those bars slam home, that's when you know it's for real. Old life blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it."

The story is narrated by "Red" Redding, who has been inside Shaw Shank prison form many years. One day he and his fellow inmates watch the latest busload of prisoners unload, and they make bets on who will cry during their first night in prison, and who will not. Red bets on a guy named Andy, who looks like a "babe in the woods."

But Andy does not cry, and Red loses the cigarettes he wagered. Andy turns out to be a surprise to everyone in Shaw Shank, because within he holds a powerful quality of determination and strength that nothing seems to be able to break. Andy was a banker on the outside, and he's in for murder. He's apparently innocent, and there are all sorts of details involving his case, but after a while they take on a kind of unreality; a

Red had been up for parole several times and was rejected over and over. In the movie, he reflected back on his thoughts during the first part of his incarceration, when he thought he was just "doing time" (Mays & Winfree, p. 200). Over the years and after several rejections from the parole board, he became increasingly entrenched into the inmate subculture and increasingly segregated from the outside world. After so long, inmates like this develop a fear associated with being released and doubt their ability to function as a normal member of society. The issue of prisonization is a major factor affecting the recidivism rates of ex-convicts.

Brooks had been incarcerated for 50 years and prison life was all that he knew. Mays and Winfree call prisoners like Brooks "jailers" (they are "jailing") (1998, p. 200). These inmates fail to see the outside world as home and as inmates seek to hold positions of power or authority. Brooks worked in the library and distributed reading materials to the inmate population. In the movie, Brooks said that he was "important" in prison, and that he would be "nobody" on the outside. Like Brooks, may inmates who serve lengthy sentences have a difficult time trying to return to a normal life on the outside.

Prisonization occurs "when inmates take on in greater of lesser degree the folkways, mores, customs, and general culture of the penitentiary (Mays & Win

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mays Winfree, Shaw Shank, Brooks Red, Shank Redemption, mays winfree, shaw shank, Red Redding, function normal society, shaw shank redemption, life outside red, recidivism rates, solitary confinement, outside world, function normal, normal society, inmate subculture, shank redemption, outside red,
Approximate Word count = 951
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)