One spring day, Andy and Red and some other prisoners are tarring a roof when Andy overhears a particularly nasty and sadistic guard griping over the amount of tax he will have to pay on a sum of money bequeathed him by a long-estranged brother. When taking the order, Red reflects that Andy is, quite uncharacteristically, excited like a teenager about the poster, but does not think more of it at the time. The next item he orders from Red is a large poster of Rita Hayworth. When Red suggests he might use it to tunnel out of the prison, Andy is amused, sayin Red will understand when he sees the hammer, which is very small.

Red is leery of the idea at first, thinking Andy will use the tool as a weapon. This makes him an important man within the prison's social structure, and he eventually crosses paths with Andy Dufresne.Īs a free man, Andy had been a rock-hound, having an interest in geology, and now he has immense amounts of free time on his hands, so he asks Red to get him a rock hammer, a tool like a small pickaxe he uses to shape the rocks he finds in the exercise yard into small sculptures. Red, the narrator, has an ability to deliver contraband of almost any type (except, on his own principles, hard drugs and weapons) into Shawshank. Like almost everyone else in Shawshank, Dufresne insists on his innocence. In contrast to most other convicts, Dufresne is not a hardened criminal but a soft-spoken young banker, convicted of killing his wife and her lover. In 1948, Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank Prison. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is a novella written by Stephen King and published in his 1982 collection Different Seasons.

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