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Andy Dufresne
Samuel Norton is one of Shawshank prison’s wardens while Red and Andy Dufresne are incarcerated there. A devout Baptist who forces a New Testament on every man who enters Shawshank, Norton is also (according to Red) the “foulest hypocrite” among all the prison’s corrupt administrators. After he founds an “Inside-Out” extramural prison-labor program at Shawshank, he uses it to embezzle money and extort business owners without access to free prison labor. Andy launders money for Norton in order to protect himself and avoid a cellmate, as he has laundered money for previous wardens. In 1963, a newer prisoner named Tommy Williams tells Andy that his cellmate at a previous prison, Elwood Blatch, claimed to have murdered Glenn Quentin and Linda Collins Dufresne, the crime for which Andy is incarcerated, during a burglary. When Andy brings this story to Norton, Norton refuses to believe it, puts Andy in solitary confinement, and ensures Tommy’s silence by bribing him with a transfer to a lower-security prison. This malicious behavior seems motivated partly by fear that Andy, if free, could inform the police of Norton’s financial crimes and partly by a desire to break Andy’s proud, dignified spirit. Norton exemplifies both the corruption within the prison system and the failures of the U.S. criminal justice and correctional systems more generally to provide justice or rehabilitation. When Andy escapes Shawshank in 1975, Norton breaks down in anger. After Norton realizes that Andy won’t be caught, he quits his job.
Samuel Norton Quotes in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption quotes below are all either spoken by Samuel Norton or refer to Samuel Norton. 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
He said it was as if Tommy had produced a key which fit a cage in the back of his mind, a cage like his own cell. Only instead of holding a man, that cage held a tiger, and that tiger’s name was Hope. Williams had produced the key that unlocked the cage and the tiger was out, willy-nilly, to roam his brain.
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I’ve still got them, and I take them down every so often and think about what a man can do, if he has time enough and the will to use it, a drop at a time.
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Well, friends and neighbors, I was the one who went. Straight down to solitary, and there I stayed for fifteen days. A long shot. But every now and then I’d think about poor old not-too-bright Rory Tremont bellowing oh shit it’s shit, and then I’d think about Andy Dufresne heading south in his own car, dressed in a nice suit, and I’d just have to laugh. I did that fifteen days in solitary practically standing on my head. Maybe because half of me was with Andy Dufresne, Andy Dufresne who had waded in shit and came out clean on the other side, Andy Dufresne, headed for the Pacific.
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Samuel Norton Quotes in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption quotes below are all either spoken by Samuel Norton or refer to Samuel Norton. 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
He said it was as if Tommy had produced a key which fit a cage in the back of his mind, a cage like his own cell. Only instead of holding a man, that cage held a tiger, and that tiger’s name was Hope. Williams had produced the key that unlocked the cage and the tiger was out, willy-nilly, to roam his brain.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I’ve still got them, and I take them down every so often and think about what a man can do, if he has time enough and the will to use it, a drop at a time.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Well, friends and neighbors, I was the one who went. Straight down to solitary, and there I stayed for fifteen days. A long shot. But every now and then I’d think about poor old not-too-bright Rory Tremont bellowing oh shit it’s shit, and then I’d think about Andy Dufresne heading south in his own car, dressed in a nice suit, and I’d just have to laugh. I did that fifteen days in solitary practically standing on my head. Maybe because half of me was with Andy Dufresne, Andy Dufresne who had waded in shit and came out clean on the other side, Andy Dufresne, headed for the Pacific.
