The Shawshank Redemption and the Total Institution [excerpt]

Tags: goffman, theory, identity, institutionalization, resocialization, total institution, 00 to 05 mins 
Year: 1994
Length: 3:00
Access: YouTube

Summary: In this clip is from Frank Darabont's "The Shawshank Redemption" Brooks Hatlen, the prison librarian and one of the oldest inmates at Shawshank, reacts violently upon learning that he has been approved for release by the parole board.  Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding subsequently engages in a discussion of what it means to be institutionalized. Drawing from this clip, students can be asked to discuss the characteristics of total institutions and how this leads to the concept of institutionalization as a dysfunction. Note that this clip can be successfully used in tandem with two additional clips. The first short clip, which is from "Full Metal Jacket" (here), depicts Marine recruits getting their heads shaved as a symbolic act meant to strip them of their former identities. In the second clip, also from "Full Metal Jacket" (here), the recruits' drill sergeant debases the recruits thereby further stripping them of their former identities.

Submitted By: James Noon

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