In The Path of a Tornado
Read The Stranger by Albert Camus? Watched The Shawshank Redemption? Heard Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody? No? Well, this is based on them so Spoilers Ahead . . .
Let me put this out there. The Shawshank Redemption is one of my all-time favorite movies! It’s amazing. I loved The Stranger too when I first read it back in 2017. Back to the matter.
Both are great and have a prison element (the reason why Fitzgerald Afful asked me to write about them) with characters who are caught in the wrong place so to speak. While The Stranger came out in 1942, The Shawshank Redemption, a movie based on Stephen King’s (yes, that Stephen King) Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption hit the cinemas in 1994.
How do I know about Queen? Enter Fitzgerald Afful. He pointed this out to me. I only knew about the movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, which I haven’t watched, and plan not to. This song was released in 1975 and was the most expensive single ever made. After listening to it two or three times, I’m left wondering how it became so popular.
The Stranger
The main character, Monsieur Meursault, loses his mother, starts a relationship with a lady, Marie, the next day after his mother’s burial. Soon after, he makes a friend, Raymond, a neighbor, who has a questionable character. He ends up getting embroiled in Raymond’s squabble. Long story short, he’s attacked by one of those people later and shoots him (yes, in self-defense). Then four shots more.
These circumstances prior to the life-altering moment are turned against him in his trial. He’s sentenced “to be decapitated in the name of the French people.”
The Shawshank Redemption
Andy Dufresne played by Tim Robbins, a banker, is charged with killing his wife and her lover, Glenn Quentin. During the trial, there’s little doubt that he committed the gruesome act: his wife had asked for a divorce after he caught her cheating which he refused to give, being at the crime scene, footprints, tire tracks, bullets strewn on the ground with various fingerprints and a broken bourbon bottle with fingerprints and a missing murder weapon (a gun). He claims to have dumped his gun into a river, after leaving Glenn’s home. Though he insists he’s innocent, the verdict is two life sentences, for the murder of his wife and her lover.
Bohemian Rhapsody
A song about a son who’s shot a man in the head and can’t believe that it really happened. That that is his reality, as he has to pay for his crime. Some people speculate that the Stranger is the song’s inspiration which could be truly listening to the song and remembering the last scenes where Meursault has an epiphany prior to his execution. Others believe the lyrics were only meant to fit with the music. However, Freddie Mercury’s (the lead vocalist of Queen) only explanation of his lyrics was that it was about relationships.
Comparison
Dufresne’s wife and lover were killed with more bullets than necessary; four each. Meursault also shot his assailant multiple times; five. The son like Meursault shoots another man. Unlike Meursault, his mum is alive. All three are young men who’ve just begun life.
In both prisons (Dufresne and Meursault’s) individuals seem to be have been institutionalized; they hate their new surroundings at the beginning, they get used to it and later depend on it. There are long hours where there is so much time and not much to do. Most people have lost hope.
For both Andy and Meursault, they are victims of circumstances; circumstances they had little to no control over. They end up in a prison with little to do and lots of time. While Meursault fills his time trying to remember his room, and accepts death as inevitable, losing hope, Andy fills his helping out at the library. The main difference is Andy grabs an opportunity to be of service to the warden and guards when the opportunity arises.
One may say, well, Andy wasn’t sentenced to be decapitated like Meursault (or the son, who seems destined to be killed too as a result of his crime). Yes, but Andy also regained hope (if he ever lost it).
While Meursault obsesses over a loophole to help him escape his predicament, spending most of his time watching the sky, Andy endears himself to the warden and guards, doing their taxes and other crooked things. It is later revealed Andy is innocent as an inmate is seen confessing to the murder to his cellmate. The warden kills the only witness, damning Andy to life imprisonment. This doesn’t go down well with Andy who escapes through a tunnel, crawling through “500 yards of shit smelling foulness” to his freedom. Almost half a mile. Imagine that. He also retrieves money he had been funneling for the warden and exposes him.
Conclusion
“Hope is a very dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use in the inside (prison). You better get used to that idea.” — Red in response to Andy on holding onto hope.
It seems the son did deserve to be killed. But neither Dufresne nor Meursault deserved to end up in prison in my opinion. Such is life. There are times when you’re hit hard by the challenges in life. You lose your job, the only breadwinner of your family. You end up with numerous un-replied application letters. Or worse. And hope starts to sound crazy.
“That’s all it takes really pressure and time. That and a big goddamn poster.” — Red on Andy’s escape.
However, with a little hope, and time something can be done. With hope and time, Andy dug through a wall with a rock hammer that Red thought would have taken 600 years to tunnel through in less than twenty years. I’d prefer, like Andy, to get busy living than get busy dying like Meursault.
Favorite Quotes
Get busy living, or get busy dying. — Andy Dufresne
One always has exaggerated ideas about what one doesn’t know. — Monsieur Meursault
Ratings
The Stranger 4/5
The Shawshank Redemption 8.5/10
Bohemian Rhapsody 3/10
PS: If you liked this article, it was made possible thanks to a push from Fitzgerald Afful. If you didn’t, I guess his confidence in me was misplaced.
