Shawshank Redemption Sociological Analysis

Few remember that not just the indicted are changed in the prison system-the authority figures become different, too. Thousands of people go to detention facilities and stay there from minutes to decades, but the authority figures stay there with every influx of new prisoners. The wardens, in particular, are a monumental part of the system. They regulate the prisoners causing them to adapt to situations, whether positive or negative. Samuel Norton, the warden in the adaptation of Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption, is embodied by the atmosphere of the prison. He is an apathetic, selfish man who knows how to take advantage of those around him. In the acclaimed motion picture Shawshank Redemption, Warden Norton displays religion as an agent of socialization; stage-two of Kohlberg’s morality development; and resocialization of the prison system. From the very moment the Warden is shown interacting with Andy Dufresne, religion was prominent in the way he acted. Religion is an agent of socialization--the people and

Warden Norton was a prime example of how authority figures can become power-hungry when put in an environment such as a prison. They become domineering and disassociated with the outside world because, in prison, they are at the top. The vulnerability of inmates allows prison authority figures to be even more ruthless; their criminal status does not give them the opportunity to expose the wrongs of prison. Once people, like Norton, become resocialized into a megalomaniac, they lose who they were before. Their sense of self is demolished, so they contradict their prior beliefs and motivations. This not only happens in detention institutes, this happens every day in families, schools, etc., and in different ways. People change who they are, who they plan to be because circumstances shift constantly, for better or