Daily Dialogue — September 17, 2013

ANDY: Red, if you ever get out of here, do me a favor. There’s this big hayfield up near Buxton. You know where Buxton is?
RED: (nods) Lots of hayfields there.
ANDY: One in particular. Got a long rock wall with a big oak at the north end. Like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It’s where I asked my wife to marry me. We’d gone for a picnic. We made love under that tree. I asked and she said yes. (beat) Promise me, Red. If you ever get out, find that spot. In the base of that wall you’ll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. A piece of black volcanic glass. You’ll find something buried under it I want you to have.
RED: What? What’s buried there?
ANDY: You’ll just have to pry up that rock and see.

— The Shawshank Redemption (1994), screenplay by Frank Darabont, short story by Stephen King

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is asking a favor, suggested by rdlln. Today’s suggestion by Despina.

Trivia: Frank Darabont wrote the script in eight weeks.

Dialogue On Dialogue: I always thought there were two levels to the act of Red going out to that field and finding what was “buried” there. First and obviously, it’s about Red obtaining the letter from Andy and the cash to finance his trip to Mexico. But isn’t the line — “You’ll just have to pry up that rock and see” — an oblique reference to Red’s own journey, that in order to avoid Brooks’ path and reunite with Andy, Red would have to dig into his own psyche and discover what is buried there. What is it? Hope. Andy fanned that tiny little flicker of hope in Red all those years, despite the soul-crushing influence of institutionalization. Indeed, Red’s very last words in the movie are, “I hope.”

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