Stephen King put these metaphors for Christianity in The Green Mile and Shawshank as well as The Stand. In the uncut reprint of the Stand he refers to "revisiting this tale of dark Christianity" so it is very deliberate.
Red is Dismas, the Good Thief, being crucified next to a Jesus, who is personally promised a place in Paradise with him, which the beach scene captures so gloriously. Brooks is the other thief being crucified, who does not receive Eternal life. The cast are also metaphors for the apostles. Red, Brooks, Billy, Floyd, they are all Peter, John, Simon, even Judas. The clever trick is figuring out which one is which.
There is a theory that when Jesus was dead for three days he went down to Hell. While you are there time is fluid, to quote Clive Barker, so three days could feel like three decades. So the whole story is a metaphor for the time Jesus spent in Hell. So yes, the Warden is Satan. And to quote The Accountant in Drive Angry, Satan is just the warden of a very large prison. Stephen Kings writing works on many levels, especially in these early stories before he spent a lot of his conscious time in Roland's world.
Carrie, Salems Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Christine, Cujo, the short stories that make up Night Shift and the four novellas that make up Different Seasons are all before he started getting really stuck into Dark Tower and all his main stream work started referencing the World Moved On in some way. Fire starter, The Dead Zone, It, are all among those great early books that have all become films.
Shawshank Redemption aka Hope Spring Eternal. Apt Pupil aka Summer Of Corruption. The Body aka Fall From Innocence filmed as Stand By Me. All novellas dealing with the horrors of the real world. Only the last novella, the shortest, The Breathing Method aka A Winters Tale, is a true supernatural story, and a story within a story. Also one of the few King stories never to be filmed.
King publicly stated he is not of any religion, and certainly not Christian. So he can stand back and use these religious stories inside his own fiction. Does Mr King believe in God and Jesus? No, any more than he does Buddha or Vishnu. Then neither does he believe in vampires, telekinesis, haunted cars, reincarnation, aliens, pyro kinesis, telepathy shining, possession, yet his books take normal people and introduce them to these phenomenon.
So just as Carrie discovers her telekinesis and fucks the town, Jack gets possessed and Danny sees ghosts, Johnny comes out of his coma with clairvoyance and Lewis has his dead cat come back all wrong, so can normal men like Andy and Red, with no supernatural happenings during their long stretch, be a metaphor for Jesus and Peter. Or John, or Dismas, depending on what aspect of Red you are focussing on. Or maybe they are all just metaphors for you and me. And if we are all in The Matrix, lying in those pods having this fed to us, it's nice to know we have a way for our minds to interact.
Apt Pupil is the second novella is Different Seasons, Shawshank being the first. the film is amazing. Ian Mc gives a chilling performance. The third novella in Different Seasons is The Body, the film of that is the classic Stand By Me.
Maybe that is what heaven is like, being reunited with those who have gone on and are waiting to welcome us. Maybe that is something we all could hope for. I hope.
John Coffey is another incarnation of Kings version of Christ, he even has the initials JC. The gentle man with the power to heal and bring hope who willingly goes to a death he doesn't deserve. We have some great characters in Chief and Del. the other criminals being executed with him. We have the loathsome characters Wild Bill and Percy who get their come uppance. And we have the guards, led by Paul, played brilliantly by Tom Hanks, who is, of course, Pilate.
It's something that the film leads you to consider. We are made to believe that Andy is going to commit suicide in his cell, that he sees that as his way out. Come morning he is gone and we find the hole behind the poster and here that he escaped. Get busy living or get busy dying. So maybe, yes, Red did die and this is his vision of heaven. Andys letter says One way or another, you're out. But it doesn't matter. He's out and he's free and the Pacific is as blue as it's been in his dreams.
Andy wanted him down there as he wanted his friend with him, that much is stated. But Andy also says he needs a man that knows how to get things, which is what Red did in prison. Where Brooks was an important man in prison, and was nothing outside so died, Red can still be an important man down there with Andy. Andy has giving him a purpose, a reason to be.
The makeup was used in the film to make him age of course. In the last scene it isn't applied and he has a healthy tan, been eating good food and getting sea air. He has literally gained back his youth, all the years that were taken from him, regenerated. It's a marvellous image.
It is open as it is up to you to decide if Red is on the bus dreaming that scene or if it is what literally happens. It is totally up to you. What do you want it to be? What do you Hope?
it is almost never that a film is better than the book, and many people believe Shawshank is that rare example. I can accept that there are people who might say the same about Apt Pupil, and I dare say the same goes for Green Mile. With novellas, as they are so much shorter than a full novel, with a 3 hour film, there is so much that can be translated over and examined in depth.
Red was guilty of killing his wife and her father and fully admits it. Only guilty man in Shawshank. When we see him at the first parole hearing he pretends he has atoned, but he hasn't, so is denied. At the end, he has truly repented, so much that he doesn't care, and gets released. He has his redemption. Unlike Brooke's, who couldn't handle it, he has Andy to go to, and that is his redemption. He did his time and paid his due. He's square with the house, to quote Brutal in Green Mile.
Andy is innocent. He earns his redemption in a different way. The story is told from Reds POV so we see Andy come and go and Red tells us about it. Hope springs eternal.
I would really like to think that they did. The happy ending the Gecko brothers never got in Dusk Til Dawn. Señoritas and Maguritas. I hope those Maguritas taste as good as they did in my dreams. I hope those señoritas taste as good as they did in my dreams. I hope.
Andy brought hope and light to the good men in prison. Prisoners like Red and the others he helped, built the library, made a difference. Evil men like Boggs, well, he put Boggs in a wheelchair, albeit indirectly. no doubt the Sisters never raped any more new inmates after that. Andy made it safe for them
For the decent guards, honest men doing their job, Andy helped them too. The first one he helped set up a fund for his child. The rest he did the taxes for. The evil men he punished. The warden, who was set to be a millionaire by the time he retired, commits suicide, his life over. As for Hadley, he was taken off to be tried and convicted. King has never written a direct story about going to Hell, what it might be like there, but can you imagine what was in store for Hadley when he went back to Shawshank as a convict?
