1. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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To what extent do American narratives of punishment subject the idea of
“freedom” to deep scrutiny?
Freedom is attainable in American prison narratives through death - either by natural causes
or execution - release, or escape. Prison narratives are constructed as a bildungsroman that
provides a conflict between the rebellious prisoner hero and a sadistic warden who serves
as the embodiment of an oppressive, totalitarian, carceral system. Prison narratives
generally follow a strict formulaic structure that decriminalises and humanises the
protagonist in an attempt to provoke a sympathetic reaction from the audience. This is
achieved in a variety of ways, such as marginalising the prisoner hero’s criminality and
portraying their punishment as unbefitting of the crimes that they have supposedly
committed. For example, in Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption (screen
adaptation of Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption), Andy ironically
claims that ‘everybody's innocent in here.’1 Furthermore, it can be said that the repressive
prison institution is symbolic of a communist regime that threatens the spirit of American
capitalism and entrepreneurial independence. This in turn encourages support for the
prisoner hero as ‘culturally conferred associations [are] made between representations of
the criminal as “outlaw” and the mythological heroes of the American West.’2
Upon entering prison, the protagonist undergoes a de-humanisation process
whereby their name is replaced by a number; their ordinary civilian clothes are replaced by
a uniform; they are subjected to derogatory prison vernacular - such as ‘fresh fish’ - and
receive a harrowing speech from the warden. In The Shawshank Redemption,3 Warden
1 The Shawshank Redemption, dir.,Frank Darabont (CastleRock Entertainment, 1994)
2 Howard Cunnell,‘Condemned Men and CompulsiveMasculinity’in Prose and Cons: Essays on Prison
Literature in the United States, ed. Daniel Quentin Miller (Jefferson: McFarland,2005),pp.95-108.

2. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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Norton says ‘put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me’ and this is followed by the
bad guard, Captain Hadley, exclaiming: ‘You eat when we say you eat. You piss when we say
you piss, and you shit when we say you shit. You got that, you maggot dick mother fucker.’
Here, Warden Norton and Captain Hadley are instantly informing the new prisoners that
they no longer have ownership of themselves and that they shall subsequently be deprived
of all basic bodily functions. Moreover, Hadley sets about immediately emasculating and
humiliating the prisoners with his closing references to penis size and the prisoner being a
‘mother fucker.’ All of these plot devices combine with generic prison locations and routine
- such as, the yard, mess hall, movie room, infirmary, gym, cell, solitary confinement, the
warden’s office, slopping out, lights out, lock down and shower time - to represent an
‘institutional destruction of selfhood.’4 This establishes the prison itself as a star character
that plays a defining role in shaping the narrative.
As well as this, the prisoner hero may have to overcome the sadistic Neanderthal
rapist, epitomised by characters such as Wolf from Escape to Alcatraz and Bogs Diamond
from Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. These characters serve to highlight the
sexual deviancy and sadomasochistic urges that play an integral role in prison narratives.
The shift from classical punishment to modern discipline that occurred in the late
eighteenth century meant that ‘torture as a public spectacle’ and the ‘body as a major
target of penal repression’5 disappeared. In turn, this meant that an internalised,
psychological form of punishment was created and executed in private. Therefore, modern
discipline accentuates previously repressed sexual deviances and unresolved oedipal
conflicts were brought to the fore in a highly pressurised, all male environment. It is all of
4 Brian Jarvis,‘Insidethe American Prison Film(1)’in Cruel and Unusual: Punishment on Trial in American
Culture (Loughborough: Loughborough University,2013)
5 Michael Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (London: Penguin, 1991), pp. 7-8 (All further
references shall begiven in parentheses directly after quotation)

3. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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the previously mentioned factors that help to create the difficult and destructive process of
a prison education. This process must be undertaken and overcome by the prisoner hero as
the bildungsroman progresses inevitably towards freedom in the form of release, pardon,
escape, or death. With this in mind, and given the connotations of modern discipline, it can
be said that the maintenance of hope in search of freedom is absolutely necessary for the
prisoner hero.
In a prison narrative, the concept of hope represents freedom and stands in direct
opposition to institutionalisation and recidivism. In Rita Hayworth and Shawshank
Redemption, through rape, injustice and gross mistreatment, Andy Dufresne maintains
hope, preaches the importance of hope to his surrogate prison family and wears ‘his
freedom like an invisible coat’ (p. 84). However, after several decades of incarceration Red
still remains sceptical and wary of such an abstract thing as hope. In Darabont’s The
Shawshank Redemption, Red states that ‘hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man
insane.’6 Yet, in the letter that Andy leaves for Red to find as a free man, he reaffirms the
significance of hope: ‘remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no
good thing ever dies’ (p. 130). This is the defining character trait of Andy throughout the
narrative as he constantly ‘resists the powerful forces that would turn him into an
institutional man.’7 Andy manages to find and sustain an internal sense of hope that derives
from his love of cultured activities, such as, geology, sculpting, chess and classical music:
‘That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you.’ Additionally, Red states that
Andy’s hope was evident in the way that he had ‘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’
6 Stephen King, ‘Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption’ in Different Seasons (London: Hodder, 2012)
pp. 1-132 (All further references shall begiven in parentheses directly after quotation)
7 Adele Reinhartz, Scripture on the Silver Screen (Louisville:Westminster John Knox Press,2003), p. 135

4. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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(p. 50). Moreover, Andy’s hobbies and his previous job as a banker can be associated with
the upper classes. Therefore, it can be said that they make a political statement regarding
prison and the prospects of freedom in relation to a hierarchical social class system. For
example, in Dead Man Walking (dir. Tim Robbins; Working Title Films, 1995) Matthew
Poncelet claims that ‘you’re not going to find many rich people on death row.’
In contrast, Brooks Hatlen - an amateur zookeeper - provides the audience with an
example of what it is to become institutionalised. It can be said that ‘the institutional man is
someone who has lost all hope [and] all sense of his own humanity.’8 And, in Rita Hayworth
and Shawshank Redemption, Red says: ‘at first you can’t stand those four walls, then you
get so you can abide them, then you get so you can accept them… and then, as your body
and your mind and your spirit adjust to life on a HO scale, you get to love them’ (p. 120).
Characters like Brooks become so dependent on the rigid routine and structure of prison life
that adjustment to the outside world is impossible. For example, Red describes it as ‘the
toughest adjustment [he’s] ever had to make’ (p. 125). Therefore, after so long in prison, it
would seem that reintegration into society is almost impossible. Red comments that he has
become ‘an institutional man’ (p. 93) and in prison, he is ‘the man who can get it for you’,
but ‘out there, anyone can get it for you’ (p. 93). Foucault states that ‘detention causes
recidivism; those leaving prison have more chance than before of going back to it’ (p. 265).
And, Brooks does contemplate buying a gun and reoffending in an attempt to return to
prison. However, ultimately Brooks resists against recidivism and - as an old and irreversibly
institutional man - decides that death is his only hope of freedom. Alternatively, Red claims
that ‘Andy was the part of me they could never lock up, the part of me that will rejoice
when the gates finally open for me’ (p. 123). Therefore, Red uses Andy as the driving force
8 Reinhartz, Scripture on the Silver Screen, p. 135

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behind his re-integration into society and ultimately, his quest for freedom. (Black buddy?)
Another key factor in Andy’s search for freedom is his superior intelligence.
Knowledge is power and power means freedom, therefore although Andy’s means of
financial security outside of Shawshank differ from book to movie, both are equally as
impressive and important as each other. However, Andy’s intelligence also contributes to
his links with masochism. As well as this, Andy adopts the role of Tommy Williams’s tutor,
and Sigmund Freud associated the educator with masochism. It can be said that Andy’s wife
and her adulterous acts are responsible for Andy not only being in prison, but influential in
the development of his masochism. Sadism and masochism are terms coined by Richard Von
Krafft-Ebing in Psychopathia Sexualis and according to Freud they are interchangeable and
reversible: ‘masochism is sadism turned round on the subject’s own self.’9 Therefore, it can
be said that his wife’s adulterous acts provide the catalyst for a reversal between the
stereotypically male sadistic urge and female masochism. This reversal is completed when
Andy’s wife becomes the person that takes over the ‘role of the dominant partner, a person
who has to take over the role of the subject.’10 This reversal is carried forward into the
prison environment and reinforced by the fact that Andy’s work duty is in the laundry room;
representative of stereotypically feminine work. And significantly, it is here where Andy is
the victim of violent and sadistic rape at the hands of Bogs and the ‘sisters.’ It is only when
Andy reaffirms his internal hope with a feasible means of escape that the process of re-
reversal begins. Significantly, this hope is built upon Andy’s move away from the laundry
room and into the library upon the room roof. Here, Andy’s previous
Andy begins an objectification of women - in the form of pin-up posters - to hide his
9 Jean Laplancheand Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, TheLanguage of Psychoanalysis (London: Karnac Books,2012),p.
405.
10 John Kenneth Noyes, The Mastery of Submission: Inventions of Masochism (Cornell:Cornell University Press,
1997),p. 142

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plans for escape. He tunnels for almost three decades and keeps the ‘growing hole covered
with a poster of one voluptuous movie actress after another, until it is finally large enough
for him to fit through.’11 In Darabont’s screen adaptation, as Andy prepares for his escape
‘mother’ can be seen etched into the cell wall above the poster of Raquel Welch. Andy then
pulls the poster up and squeezes into the hole dug beneath to begin his route to freedom.
With ‘mother’ etched above, Andy crawls into the hole and through the tunnel, - which can
be said to be symbolic of female genitalia - breaks the waters of a sewer pipe and falls from
the tunnel soaking. Subsequently, it can be said that Andy possesses three masochistic
tendencies: educator, rebellion and associations with the mother. Therefore, the process of
Andy’s escape can be said to represent his re-birth as an individual in the outside world.
Subsequently, in escape, Andy achieves freedom from not only injustice and imprisonment,
but from masochistic sexual deviancy.
Luke, the prisoner hero in Stuart Rosenberg’s Cool Hand Luke,12 refuses to conform
to the generic prison formula. Cool Hand Luke uses its ‘setting, a prison and chain gang, to
examine and criticise contemporary American attitudes toward individuality, authority and
power.’13 Consequently, this instils within Luke a masochistic death drive that provides ‘the
ultimate release of tension; it promises the ultimate experience of stasis and complete
calm.’14 Furthermore, one poster for the film uses the tag-line of ‘the man… and the motion
picture that simply refuse to conform’15 in order to reinforce Luke’s suicidal rebellion. Luke’s
refusal to ‘acknowledge either his failures or the Captain’s authority makes him a hero to
11 Reinhartz, Scripture on the Silver Screen, p. 13
12 Cool Hand Luke, dir.,Stuart Rosenberg (Jalem Productions:1967)
13 Sarah Boslaugh,‘Cool Hand Luke’ in Encyclopaedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture And Counterculture, ed.
Abbe A. Debolt and James S. Baugess (Santa Barbara:ABC-CLIO, 2011), pp. 152-153
14 Pamela Thurschwell, Sigmund Freud (London: Routledge, 2009),p. 86
15 Boslaugh,‘Cool Hand Luke’ in Encyclopaedia of the Sixties, ed. Debolt and Baugess,pp. 152-153

7. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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the other prisoners, as do his tales of adventure on the outside.’16
Luke’s masochistic tendencies can also be said to derive from the all-male
environment that he is placed in. All of the prisoners sleep in the same room and they are
half naked throughout large sections of the film. Given this, and Luke’s friendship with
Dragline, the film can be said to possess some elements of repressed homosexual feelings.
Indeed, upon receiving a postcard from Luke during his spell away from prison, Dragline
proclaims: ‘oh Luke, you wild, beautiful thing.’ Therefore, it can be said that the scene in
which Lucille seductively washes the car, stands as an ironically exaggerated reaffirmation of
the prisoners’ heterosexuality. Also, Luke has a strong affiliation with his mother, yet no
mention or regard for his father. Therefore, it can be said that Luke is the unassuming victim
of unresolved oedipal conflicts that only enhance his masochism.
Luke’s masochistic death drive is further emphasised by the fact that ‘he invites
arrest by destroying state property.’17 Regardless of this, Luke’s sentence is a mere two
years and there is no burning need for Luke to rebel and attempt to escape when his jail
term is so short, yet he seems to seek punishment intentionally. Therefore, it can be said
that it is via his masochistic death drive that Luke searches for freedom as opposed to
escape or release. This combines with various examples of religious symbolism evident
throughout the narrative to portray the process of Luke’s growth into a form of Christian
masochism. Luke seems intent on continuously punishing his mind and body in search of
spiritual freedom. Luke self-punishes himself in a way that is inspirational to the other
prisoners. For example, he is severely outmatched in a boxing match against Dragline; he
stands as the driving force behind tarmacking a road in a single day and accepts a challenge
to eat fifty boiled eggs within an hour. At the end of this challenge, Luke lies in a crucifix
16 Boslaugh,‘Cool Hand Luke’ in Encyclopaedia of the Sixties, p. 152
17 Brian Jarvis, Cruel and Unusual: Punishment and US Culture (London: Pluto Press,2004),p. 189

8. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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position upon the table. It can therefore be said that Luke adopts the role of Jesus and the
rest of the prisoners are his disciples with Dragline ultimately becoming Judas. Yet, like Jesus
Christ, Luke has provided his ‘disciples’ with the route to salvation and subsequently,
freedom.
In the concluding scene, after another escape attempt, Luke is surrounded and
Dragline convinces him that it is safe to step out of the church. Luke steps from the church
and is subsequently shot in the neck, yet in his dying moments he remains smiling in a way
that represents a contented closure to his masochistic death drive. Throughout the
narrative, Luke is a ‘willing martyr, a man so obsessed with the wrongness of the world that
he invites death to prove himself correct.’18 It can be said that it is Luke’s unresolved oedipal
conflicts that exist as the basis of all the ‘wrongness’ in Luke’s world and this viewpoint is
only further emphasised by firstly his experiences in the Vietnam War (Communism?) and
later, the news of his mother’s death. Therefore, the religious symbolism created around
Luke is underlined by his continuous taking of ‘the moral high ground by physical travail.’19
Subsequently, Luke’s relentless self-flagellation is symbolically representative of Jesus
Christ. And, in the final scene, ‘in a little rural church, he addresses his Father on the subject
of whether he has been forsaken. Will he die for the sins of his fellow prisoners?’20
18 Ebert, The Great Movies III, p. 101
19 Ebert, The Great Movies III, p. 102
20 Ebert, The Great Movies III,p. 103

9. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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Bibliography
Primary
The Shawshank Redemption dir. by Frank Darabont (Castle Rock Entertainment,
1994)
King, Stephen, ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’ in Different Seasons
(London: Hodder, 2012), pp. 1-132
Dead Man Walking dir. by Tim Robbins (Working Title Films, 1995)
Cool Hand Luke dir. by Stuart Rosenberg (JalemProductions, 1967)
Secondary:
Boslaugh, Sarah, ‘Cool Hand Luke’ in Encyclopaedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture
and Counterculture, ed. Abbe A. Debolt and James S. Baugess (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO,
2011), pp. 152-153.
Cunnell, Howard, ‘Condemned Men and Compulsive Masculinity’ in Prose and Cons:
Essays on Prison Literature in the United States, ed. Daniel Quentin Miller (Jefferson:
McFarland, 2005), pp. 95-108.
Ebert, Roger, The Great Movies III (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2010)
Foucault, Michael, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (London: Penguin,
1991)

10. B115507 Cruel and Unusual Summative Assignment
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Jarvis, Brian, Cruel and Unusual: Punishment and US Culture (London: Pluto Press,
2004)
Jarvis, Brian, ‘Inside the American Prison Film (1)’ in Cruel and Unusual: Punishment
on Trial in American Culture (Loughborough: Loughborough University, 2013)
Laplanche, Jean and Pontalis, Jean-Bertrand, The Language of Psychoanalysis,
(London: Karnac Books, 2012)
Noyes, John Kenneth, The Mastery of Submission: Inventions of Masochism (Cornell:
Cornell University Press, 1997)
Reinhartz, Adele, Scripture on the Silver Screen (Louisville: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2003)
Thurschwell, Pamela, Sigmund Freud (London: Routledge, 2009)