The American film The Shawshank Redemption is based on the short story "Rita Hayworth and the Redemption of Shawshank Prison" from Stephen King's "Different Seasons", which is a prison-themed film.
However, it breaks the limitations of prison genre films, shows prison life in detail, integrates the author's deep interpretation and serious thinking about human nature, and successfully portrays different types of characters under the prisonization system. Although the film did not win the 1995 Academy Award, it was sought after by fans and recognized as one of the greatest films in film history.
The film is set in American prisons in the mid-20th century, showing the different performances of different types of criminals under the prison system. In the film, Old Brooks is a typical character who is imprisoned. The term "prisonization" first appeared in American sociologist Donald Kramer's Prison Society. According to Donald Kramer's understanding, prisonization refers to the process of learning and internalizing prison subculture by criminals.
The so-called criminal subculture refers to a set of informal and unwritten codes of conduct, values and habits that prevail within the small society of criminals and influence the way criminals behave. In fact, prison subculture not only affects criminals, prison managers are also subtly influenced by the prison environment, forming a prisoned personality. For example, in "The Shawshank Redemption", the prison warden Norton's arbitrariness and arbitrariness, and the warden's foreign strength and cadre are all traces of prison life in their personalities.
This paper mainly discusses the prisoned personality from the perspective of criminals' prisoning. In prison science, prisoned personality refers to an unsound psychological characteristics and behavior patterns formed by criminals in prison life, that is, personality alienation formed by criminals' imprisonment and life. Such as antisocial personality, depressive personality, dependence personality and a series of personality disorders.
In the film, Brooks and Red lived in prison for decades before they became alienated and formed dependent personalities. They know every rule in prison, they know everyone in prison, and they are very accustomed to prison life. When Brooks learned of the parole passed, he felt not euphoria, but extreme fear and unease.
In order to remain in prison, the usually gentle Brooks even kidnapped his cellmate Haiwu. After being released from prison, he could not adapt to the outside society, and lived in constant anxiety, so that he could not withstand this pressure and finally hanged himself in his room. The film uses his friend Red to explain why, "These walls of the prison are interesting. At first you hate it, then you adapt to it.
After enough time, you start relying on it. This is institutionalization. They locked you up here all your life and took your life. At least the useful part, whatever one may say. "It is this long period of imprisonment that makes your personality gradually smoothed and rounded, forming a prisoned personality, and Old Brooks is the most typical victim of this habit or mechanism. Some people call criminals whose personalities deteriorate or atrophy in prison "prison nerds" and "psychologically paralyzed."
Prisoned personalities manifest themselves differently in reality. First, it is manifested as extreme low self-esteem, lack of autonomy, self-esteem and sense of responsibility, rigidity, numbness, dullness, etc. In The Shawshank Redemption, Red is a prison authority figure who can get all kinds of contraband for his companions. He had a clear understanding of the process of self-imprisonment and had struggled to maintain his independence, but he eventually gave up under the strong prison system. Therefore, when released on parole, he was as unable to adjust to outside society as Brooks Sr.
As a supermarket cashier, he always reports to the manager before going to the toilet. Because "I asked for permission to pee for thirty years, and I couldn't pee a drop without permission." He realized that he was "outside, there was no way to return to normal", he was extremely inferior, lacked initiative, almost lost the independence of thinking and the autonomy of action, and was subject to the orders of the authority for everything that happened around him.
So he just wanted to interrupt his parole and go back to the place where he never had to be afraid. Prisons are safe places. Second, it manifests itself as a bully personality trait. They are good at disguising themselves, observant, and opportunistic; Subordinate to authority and the strong, domineering to the weak. For example, the "three sisters" of Boggs in the film obey the prison rulers while oppressing other prisoners in the prison.
Andy endured harassment from the three Boggs sisters for the first two years in prison, often showing new scars on his face. In the film, such a scene is described: one day, after Andy left the theater, he was immediately pestered by the three sisters, because Andy did not comply, they beat Andy severely, so that Andy rested in the infirmary for a month.
After the leader of the three sisters, Bogus, came out of the confinement room, he was immediately beaten by Captain Haley until he was paralyzed in the lower body. Third, some offenders exhibit sexually perverted behavioral characteristics. Prisoners in prison have been isolated from the opposite sex for a long time, are in a state of sexual hunger and thirst, and are very prone to sexual perversion. The "three sisters" in "The Shawshank Redemption" are representatives of sexual repression and sexual perversion.
