What Does Andy Dufrese Have To Do With Respect To Exile

Adjustments in life are rather harder than expected, especially for convicted prisoners. Having majority of your rights and freedoms being taken away is a huge punishment in which none us want. Prior to jail, Andy Dufrense was a successful banker, who was able to do anything he truly wanted. He was rich, successful, and he had the rest of his life planned out. But due to a wrong conviction, Andy is now facing two life year sentences in maximum prison. The adjustment from society to incarnation is tough from being able to do anything you want, to listening to the new rules that one must abide too or precautions can ensue. An individual must be able to hold their own ground, even though they might be against it but it is the sake of survival.

An example of a scene in the movie is when Andy first walks out of the bus by having his wrists, and ankle chained together.

While walking toward the penitentiary Andy is welcomed with insults and threats done by the other inmates. The threats are done by the inmates to see how tough the new inmate or the fish. Fish is another word of a new inmate. There are two possible scenarios: A) The fish can be responsive to show the other inmates that he/she is tough and not to be messed with. B) If the fish is unresponsive or seems intimidated it can show the other inmates how the fish is weak and vulnerable. In this case Andy fitted with scenario b because he was unresponsive, and also that he seemed intimidated. Being intimidated can be the worst possible aspect that Andy could had done because now other inmates have an mindset that Andy can be manipulated and used for an individual’s own

needs.
From living a normal life to living in a tall caged building it can drastically change an individual’s mindset in a negative aspect. During the arrival at the penitentiary, Andy seemed like he was in destress and in disbelief that he was going to spend the rest of his life incarnated. The moment when Andy was being shackled he knew at that moment that he lost all of his freedoms. When he was in society he was deemed with freedoms such as expression, liberty, speech etc. but now they are taken away. An example of a scene would be when Andy and the other new inmates were forced to listen to the guards and do what they are told. In this particular scene we see the new inmates being stripped down of their old clothes and being hosed down. If you do not condone to the command you will either be hit by the guards or be punished. It is illegal for a correctional officer to hit an inmate if there is no reasoning behind it, but at the end of the day who has more control, the guards or the prisoner? If you are new inmate, there are a few situations that you will face when first heading towards prison. Goffman lists the steps as according: A) Obtaining an audience of significant others, B) Attempting to gain acceptance and status in the group, C) There is a need for a perspective on deviance, D) Learning one's role in the group, E) Deducing how significant others see one in his role, F) Conception of the self becomes congruent with the group's expectations, and G) Sustaining self-congruent to groups expectations by making the signs and symbols of the group their own (Goffman, 1961). Goffman explains how these particular stages is the reason of why individuals’ rights and freedoms are degraded due to the deviant matters behind it. No matter what you have to listen to authority regardless of what they say until you are finished your sentence. The whole list corresponding how the individual is accepting prison-life and joining the prison norms. Prison is another way to show deterrence for the crime to not occur again. It is a deterrence not to only the accused but for the general public (also known as general deterrence). In this particular case there is a specific deterrence situation because Andy’s ‘alleged’ punishment was appropriate for the crime that he had ‘allegedly’ had done. It was to show Andy that whatever he did was wrong, and there was no other alternatives punishments that would had suited for him. What Goffman was explaining what are the norms in prison were, and what you would normally expect. Even though you have limited rights, you still have to fight it out and still survive in there. There was a study done by the United States Department of Justice in which they discovered that in the year of 2012 that violence in jail is slowly increasing and is expected to increase over the years (Noonan, 2014). An answer to the question why is violence is increasing in American prisons, is due to the overpopulation of the prisons itself. In the year of 2010, the United States had its first decline in its prison population in nearly four decades but the problem was with heavy populated states such as Virginia, prison population will still rise (Williams, 2010). Even though the prisons are overcrowded it is not the governments fault because they had a list of rules and regulations in which every citizen should follow. If you do not obey the law consequences can occur and an example of that is that incarnation. Even though prison is not the best option, it shows a general deterrence to the general public to show that if you commit a particular crime there are a list of specific punishments for each fault. Regardless in prison you have to toughen up or you will be picked on and taken advantage of.
There is a whole new different culture when compared both to society and prison.

Society is normally set of different individuals such as different ethnic backgrounds, religions, physical attributes, mental attributes etc. When looking at prison you just see walls, darkness, despair, the similar sex, and loneliness. Imagine you are taken away from your home and your normal life and sent to a building in which you dwell in a 6x8 jail cell for a long period of time. Goffman explains three areas that fundamental official socialization, role-dispossession, de-individuation, and mortification of the self (Goffman, 1961). The role-dispossession emphasis the separation of the individual from the outside world (society) that made who we are (Goffman, 1961). Whatever we have learned is through others who dwell in society. The new discoveries we made, or the ways of us being taught are a couple examples on how we learn in society. Now with the separation of society, there is our own self-evaluation to reveal what is our actual identity (Goffman, 1961). Prior of heading to jail Andy was the Vice-President of a big bank, was married, had responsibilities but now heading to prison, what does he live for? The sense of social worth is gone because Andy is sentenced to two life times in prison in which he will not live his normal life. The concept of de-individuation involves stripping away the individual’s sense of personal identity. This is furthered, by treating the person as one of a

mass (Goffman, 1961). It does not matter who you are prison, you will be treated the same. All the prisoners are distinguished by the same colored uniform, short hair, and identification numbers. The individual lost their freedom of expression, in which they are not allowed to wear anything they want but whatever the codebook, and the guards say. The third effect describe by Goffman refers to mortification of the self. It is described as the destruction of self-concepts through mortification processes result from a series of attacks done by members of the institution (Goffman, 1961). From having to follow all the rules, and being ridiculed can drastically affect an individual’s self-esteem. An example of a scene from the movie when ‘The Sisters’ group assaulted Andy in which he was humiliated and beaten. Throughout Andy’s sentence, he was being called names such as ‘fatass’ in the early parts of the movie which negatively affects Andy self-beings. Being stripped of your self-esteem and essentially of who you are is a horrible aspect to condone because you are the same as from the past. Regardless what has happen in the past can still affect someone’s future for the rest of their lives. Goffman explains that the stripped of prior roles, de-individuated, and stripped of identity possessions results in the individual being particularly vulnerable to their new social setting. Dispossession of prior roles undertakes any joy one had with their self-esteem, by reducing the individuals’ personal identity and shattering the individual’s self-esteem. (Goffman, 1961). An example of a scene is when Andy is getting ridiculed in which we can see him being depressed, lonely, he is not communicating with other inmates. Andy is just to himself, in which he just does not care anymore.

In prison there are rules and regulations that inmates keep to themselves. When in prison, you have to learn these particular rules quick or conflict may arise. This is what we call an inmate code. Even though the inmate code was mentioned in the movie, there is a universal codebook that actually exists. Based on the inmate code in Ontario penitentiaries there are five primary rules that prisoners should normally follow: (1) ‘never rat on a con’ and don't get friendly with the staff; (2) be dependable (not loyal); (3) follow daily behavior rules or else; (4) I won't see you, don't see me, and shut up already; and (5) be fearless or at least act tough (Ricciardelli, 2014). Each rule is widely accepted in prison due to the inmate code. This is not a legalized code but this is a code that inmates all over the world have learned. If you break one these codes it will be spread out through the whole jail what had happen. Your reputation will crash, which resulting you to be a valuable target. Andy followed mostly every rule in which he ‘never ratted on a con’ in where he did not tell anyone that was assaulted by ‘the Sisters’ but he did not mention it to anyone. He was dependable, he followed rules, and he kept to himself. The only two big codes that Andy broke was being friendly with the guards and not by acting fearless or acting tough. That was a problem because Andy helped the guards with their taxes in return to protect him from ‘the Sisters’ and to make a friend. Also with Andy not acting tough, or being fearless makes him more of a target because of how vulnerable he is. It is easy to manipulate someone when they are vulnerable which can result of that individual being fully taken advantaged off.