Chapter 18: "If She Comes Up It's Baptism"

Baptism? Wait, we are not in church! No, absolutely not, but baptism is present in literature. It doesn't always mean going to church, but there is a renewal of life that takes place through the character in stories. A baptism scene is clearly present in the novel The Shawshank Redemption by Stephan King. The main character, Andy Dufrane, is convicted of the crime of murdering his wife and her lover, and is then sentenced to a life conviction at Shawshank Prison. While in Shawshank Prison, Andy befriends an honest man name "Red" (or should I say, nicknamed Red) who teaches Andy that hope is a good thing when it is the only thing that keeps you going. Twenty years pass, Andy is at the end of his rope when it comes to prison life and he has a plan to get out. For his past years in prison, he has been creating a tunnel to get him out of Shawshank. He finally tunnels out of Shawshank (and 500 yards of sewage) to become free. When he comes out of the tunnel, Andy Dufrane is welcomed by a refreshing rain storm. This may not look like the traditional baptism we've come to know, but it is. Andy Dufrane is greeted by a rainfall as he leaves his life at Shawshank, this is a sign of baptism. The rainfall cleanses all of his past sins; the life spent in prison, the fact that he didn't commit the crime, the tortures he had to endure inside the prison, and comes out clean on the other side. The rainfall brings him a new life, a life of freedom which makes him a free man and different after the whole experience.