Social Support In Stephen King's Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption

Social support is defined as “a process through which help is provided to or exchanged with others in an attempt to facilitate one or more goals” (Dobler 1). In one’s life it is apparent that the amount of support received has a significant impact on the way an individual makes decisions. Therefore saying social support provides a source of inspiration for people.

In Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, social support helps develop trust and feeling or normality a prisoner by the name of Andy Dufrense has developed with the warden of Shawshank and the other inmates, along with his craving of freedom due to his wrongful incarceration. Andy’s first ally is Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, Red was the first person Andy talked to

Thus beginning the friendship of these two inmates. Once a bond between Andy and Red was established, Red ‘pulled some strings’ getting Andy, himself and the rest of his allies a bit of outside work re-tarring the roof of the license plate factory. Andy uses his higher education to help Captain Hadley financially, getting Andy a favor. Which he used to get the group of guys beers; even though Andy Dufresne didn’t accept a beer he took the experience as an opportunity to feel normal and get commodity from the outside world. Andy becomes a valuable financial resource to those who run the prison. Andy did the guards taxes “he became a valuable commodity, a murderer who did taxes better than H & R Block” (King 96). Warden Norton gets word of Andy’s financial intelligence, therefore Andy gained immunity. When Andy got raped and abused by the prison gang ‘The Sisters’, the guards and the warden protect Andy, and Red got him a poster of Rita Hayworth “So he came to me and asked if I could get him a Rita Hayworth poster. Not a little one but a big one.” Once Red found out that Andy was attacked, it was given to Andy free of charge, for being Red’s friend. For all of the work the guards and the warden made Andy do he was rewarded with becoming the prison librarian, he

Metal vocalist Mitch Lucker had always been involved in music and loved the thought of helping people and having the support from everyone surrounding him. (Memorial Show). Mitch was always writing music, whether it was to just express how he felt at the given time or because he knew a fan out there somewhere would benefit from the song. A song Mitch wrote called “Slaves to Substance” has direct lines pointing out that having no social support and falling onto a path of a depressant will lead you numb where Mitch himself fell, he was an alcoholic (Candlelight Vigil), “It’s your dependence robbing innocence, is this really who you wanted to be?” (AZlyrics). While other lines in the song point out that an the individual needs social support because they’ve reached a point of no return, “You see you’ve hit rock bottom, you see everything is wrong.”, “You see that you’ve hit rock bottom, right now your mind is gone” (AZlyrics). Before Mitch’s passing he auctioned his shirt off from his music video, “You Only Live Once” and it sold for eight hundred dollars he proceeded to buy toys and supplies the children of The Variety Boys and Girls Club and Pueblo del sol may need (Speaking on Charity). There was another charity event that was organized, Suicide Silence was going to hold a show close to Christmas and with a worthy toy