Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

by

Stephen King

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption makes teaching easy.
Pin-Up Posters Symbol Icon

In Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, pin-up posters represent Andy Dufresne’s desire for freedom—and his ability to hide that desire using gender stereotypes. The novella first mentions the pin-up posters early, when the narrator Red explains that in Shawshank prison, he’s the prisoner able to smuggle in contraband. He notes that in 1949, he smuggles in the actress Rita Hayworth for Andy Dufresne. At this point, Red doesn’t make clear he means a Rita Hayworth poster, leaving readers to assume that Red somehow convinces the actress to visit the prison. Later, when Red tells the whole story, readers realize that they’ve been misled: Andy asks Red for a Hayworth poster, not the woman herself. Thus, early in the story, the pin-up posters are associated with misdirection.

Yet Red, like the reader, is misled. When Andy asks for the poster, he seems nervous, excited, and embarrassed—and Red, amused, assumes that’s because the self-possessed Andy is betraying a stereotypical masculine sex drive and wanting to use the poster as a fantasy aid. He doesn’t think Andy might want the poster for other reasons. After Andy puts up different pin-up posters in his cell for years—of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch, among others—Red eventually thinks to ask Andy what makes him so attached to the posters. Andy explicitly tells Red the posters represent freedom; Andy likes the Welch poster best because it shows a beach and he can imagine “step[ping] right through” the poster to coastal freedom. Yet Red still doesn’t understand until Andy escapes—and prison staff, searching Andy’s cell, discover a hole dug in his cell wall that the posters have hidden for decades. Only then does Red realize that Andy never wanted the posters for sexual reasons: Andy used stereotypes about men’s overactive sexual desires and fondness for visual aids to keep anyone from investigating the posters, which figuratively hide Andy’s never-quenched desire for freedom and literally hide Andy’s escape route.

Pin-Up Posters Quotes in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

The Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption quotes below all refer to the symbol of Pin-Up Posters. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Institutionalization vs. Freedom  Theme Icon
).
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption Quotes

I glanced into his cell and saw Rita over his bunk in all her swimsuited glory, one hand behind her head, her eyes half-closed, those soft, satiny lips parted. It was over his bunk where he could look at her nights, after lights-out, in the glow of the arc sodiums in the exercise yard.

But in the bright morning sunlight, there were dark slashes across her face—the shadow of the bars on his single slit window.

Related Characters: Red/The Narrator (speaker), Andy Dufresne
Related Symbols: Pin-Up Posters
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:
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Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption PDF

Pin-Up Posters Symbol Timeline in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

The timeline below shows where the symbol Pin-Up Posters appears in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
Institutionalization vs. Freedom  Theme Icon
Gender Stereotypes, Sex, and Violence Theme Icon
...a year later, during the prison’s monthly film screening, Andy—acting furtive—asks the narrator for a pin-up poster of Rita Hayworth. The narrator, amused by Andy’s demeanor, asks whether Andy wants a small... (full context)
Institutionalization vs. Freedom  Theme Icon
Gender Stereotypes, Sex, and Violence Theme Icon
Justice and Rehabilitation Theme Icon
The narrator sells a lot of pin-up posters . The people running the prison are aware the prisoners sell contraband, but when the... (full context)
Institutionalization vs. Freedom  Theme Icon
...This is in part because, several weeks after the narrator got Andy the Rita Hayworth pin-up poster , Andy sent the narrator (through an intermediary) two beautifully polished quartz crystals, which filled... (full context)
Institutionalization vs. Freedom  Theme Icon
Gender Stereotypes, Sex, and Violence Theme Icon
In 1955, Andy starts replacing the pin-up poster of Rita Hayworth with various other pin-ups, eventually including Raquel Welch—whom Andy keeps up longest,... (full context)
Gender Stereotypes, Sex, and Violence Theme Icon
...No one thinks to search Andy’s cell until the evening, when Norton looks behind Andy’s pin-up poster of Linda Ronstadt and gets “one hell of a shock.” (full context)
Institutionalization vs. Freedom  Theme Icon
Gender Stereotypes, Sex, and Violence Theme Icon
...off the windowsill (Andy took some rocks with him), and tears down the Linda Rondstadt pin-up poster in fury—revealing a big hole in the cell wall. (full context)
Gender Stereotypes, Sex, and Violence Theme Icon
...resigned.” He guesses Andy began tunneling in 1949, after he asked for the Rita Hayworth pin-up poster —Andy’s strange demeanor, which Red took for sexual “embarrassment,” was actually nervous pleasure at the... (full context)