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Bogs Diamond
Byron Hadley, a guard at Shawshank prison, is tall with “thinning red hair,” a loud voice, and a tendency to sunburn. He frequently clubs prisoners who displease him and takes a pessimistic view toward everything, unable to appreciate how much better his life is than those of men incarcerated in Shawshank. In 1950, he receives a $35,000 inheritance from his estranged, recently deceased brother. When Andy Dufresne, while tarring a roof with some other prisoners, overhears Byron complaining about having to pay taxes on the inheritance, Andy explains a legal loophole that Byron can exploit to avoid the taxes. Andy also offers to do the necessary paperwork if Byron will get beers for the prisoners tarring the roof. When Byron agrees, Andy’s legend among Shawshank prisoners grows. This event also leads to Andy becoming an unofficial financial advisor and money-launderer for most of Shawshank’s staff. In 1957, Byron suffers a nonfatal heart attack and retires from Shawshank.
Byron Hadley Quotes in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption quotes below are all either spoken by Byron Hadley or refer to Byron Hadley. 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:
).
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
Quotes
You may also have gotten the idea that I’m describing someone who’s more legend than man, and I would have to agree that there’s some truth to that. To us long-timers who knew Andy over a space of years, there was an element of fantasy to him, a sense, almost, of myth-magic, if you get what I mean. That story I passed on about Andy refusing to give Bogs Diamond a head-job is part of that myth, and how he kept on fighting the sisters is part of it, and how he got the library job is part of it, too.
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Explanation and Analysis:
I have seen some screws that I thought were almost saintly, and I think I know why that happens—they are able to see the difference between their own lives, poor and struggling as they might be, and the lives of the men they are paid by the State to watch over. These guards are able to formulate a comparison concerning pain. Others can’t, or won’t.
So yeah—if you asked me to give you a flat-out answer to the question of whether I’m trying to tell you about a man or a legend that got made up around the man, like a pearl around a little piece of grit—I’d have to say that the answer lies somewhere in between. All I know for sure is that Andy Dufresne wasn’t much like me or anyone else I ever knew since I came inside.
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Byron Hadley Quotes in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption quotes below are all either spoken by Byron Hadley or refer to Byron Hadley. 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:
).
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
Quotes
You may also have gotten the idea that I’m describing someone who’s more legend than man, and I would have to agree that there’s some truth to that. To us long-timers who knew Andy over a space of years, there was an element of fantasy to him, a sense, almost, of myth-magic, if you get what I mean. That story I passed on about Andy refusing to give Bogs Diamond a head-job is part of that myth, and how he kept on fighting the sisters is part of it, and how he got the library job is part of it, too.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I have seen some screws that I thought were almost saintly, and I think I know why that happens—they are able to see the difference between their own lives, poor and struggling as they might be, and the lives of the men they are paid by the State to watch over. These guards are able to formulate a comparison concerning pain. Others can’t, or won’t.
So yeah—if you asked me to give you a flat-out answer to the question of whether I’m trying to tell you about a man or a legend that got made up around the man, like a pearl around a little piece of grit—I’d have to say that the answer lies somewhere in between. All I know for sure is that Andy Dufresne wasn’t much like me or anyone else I ever knew since I came inside.
