Stephen King’s short story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”—from the collection Different Seasons—is now available as an Encore stand-alone CD.
An unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award–nominee, The Shawshank Redemption.
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Sexual Content - 3/5
3/5
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Violence - 3/5
3/5
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Language - 4/5
4/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 1/5
1/5
Summary
From: Isaac Scego
Book Title: The Shawshank Redemption
Book Author: Stephen King
What do you like about this book:
Summery::
The Shawshank Redemption knows what it is, but do we? From national bestselling horror novelist Stephen King, what would you expect? Another horror story. But this drama is a well-crafted, and perhaps, slightly disappointing story of one man's fight for survival in a place that is dark and hopeless. But that is not to say that Shawshank does not have its own horrors. It does indeed, only they don't come in the form of a shape shifting clown or Johnny swinging and axe or some other freak of the imagination. In fact, the only freak this book contains is the freak of human nature and its fragility under pressure. King paints a honest, yet cruel, bleak picture of prison life and the crimes a human can commit to get there. And although he gets his message through at the end, King does not seem to understand how to spare his audience of explicit detail, which can (and I hope will) discourage discerning readers from picking up this graphic tale.
Sexual Content:: (3/5)
Toward the beginning of the story, we hear about the prison's problem with a gang called the Sisters, who are basically homosexual gangbangers. What they do is never fully described (though it is described vaguely), but they rape men (one scene talks about oral sex; more on that below). The side effects are described briefly (more on that below, as well). This subject lasts about six to ten pages but can be explicit.
Less avoidable is the crude dialogue of the prisoners. They discuss homosexuals, the women they've slept with, etc. Also why they are at Shawshank can get sexual as well. One murdered his wife and her lover, another was jailed for raping women anywhere from three to eighty-one (only mentioned), some are pedophiles.
Red knows how to get things for people, and some of the things he gets include provocative pinup posters and even a pair of panties from their wives or girlfriends. A man is said to have once robbed a clothes store where he thieves several pairs of ladies' undergarments. Women are also said to wear thin shirts that don't hide much (described briefly but sufficiently) and a man is described to be aroused.
Violent Content:: (3/5)
Rape is indeed a problem at Shawshank. One scene includes a man being forced to his knees and the victim says that if he tries, he will bite the man's off the man's privates, where the deed is then terminated. The aftermath of being raped is bleeding and soreness in the obvious areas. Many of the inmates are beaten brutally and stabbed with various objects. Even the warrens beat the prisoners. There is talk of murder and death.
Language:: (4/5)
About a dozen uses of the f-word (including one with "mother"; and four in a sexual context), at least twice that of the s-word. The n-word is said a few times. Words like b--ch, b--tard, a--, h--l, d--n, p--s, and pr--k are used frequently. F-g, t-t, and p--sy are also used. People swear on God's name frequently (with d--n as well) and Jesus' name is thrown around a good bit too.
Drug/Alcohol Content:: (1/5)
Red never deals with drugs, but there are several drug references. Men drink on a few occasions.
TCR:: 1/5
| R | Language throughout, violent content, and some disturbing sexual material
Your ratings of the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use on a scale of 1-5.
Sex:3
Violence:3
Language:4
Drug/Alcohol use:1