Cultural Context in Room, The Shawshank Redemption and Philadelphia Here I Come
Toxic Masculinity
In all three texts, toxic masculinity is evident as a means of asserting control and dominance.
In Philadelphia Here I Come, Gar’s friends are referred to as ‘The Boys,’ despite the fact that they are twenty-five. However, their behaviour certainly backs up their description, as they are immature, childish and engage in macho behaviour more suited to a fifteen year old.
Ned, the ring-leader of the group, is symbolic of the macho culture among young men in the cultural context of the text. He talks about inflicting violence upon upcoming opponents in a GAA match, saying that he will, “put the fear of God up them bastards,” and his attitude towards women is shocking. He asks the boys, “were any of youse ever on that job?” referring to a girl he had been with, before telling them, “I had her for the fortnight she was home last year and she damned near killed me.” The fact that he is boasting about sexual conquests is bad enough, but when we later find out from Gar that these are all lies, it makes his bahaviour even more pathetic.
Despite this, he is able to control Joe and Tom, who look up to him and believe all his tall tales and this in turn makes them behave in a similar way.Tom complains about the women in another town, who complain when they are grabbed, saying, ‘those women don’t know what they’re for.’ This misogynistic behaviour is rooted in toxic masculinity and seems to be acceptable in the world of the text.
There is a clear comparison between the world of Philadelphia and the world of Room by Emma Donoghue. While it is very hard to argue that the boys have anything in common with the evil, narcissistic Old Nick, who has locked Ma up in a ‘twenty first century dungeon,’ a link can be drawn between the casual misogyny of the boys and Old Nick’s belief that he has the right to do whatever he pleases with Ma. Because the story is told through the eyes of the five year old narrator, Jack, we are shielded from the unimaginable torture that Ma is put through each night. The innocence of Jack ‘counting the creaks of the bed,’ masks the true horror of what Ma is experiencing.
Old Nick is symbolic of what can happen if extreme misogyny is given credence in society. We could draw parallels with the way in which Andrew Tate’s views have been allowed to infiltrate social media, influencing young men in society today.
While the boys in Ballybeg are all talk, Old Nick took his views to the next level. His carefully crafted plan involved creating a room at the rear of his house, which was sound proof and escape proof. He kidnaps Ma and rapes her on a daily basis, believing that it is his right as a man, to do as he pleases. Perversely, he treats her as a nagging wife, as if they are in a normal domestic relationship.
The film, ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ has more in common with Room than with Philadelphia, as we see the devastating effects of toxic masculinity on the weak and vulnerable in Shawshank Prison. Andy Dufresne, on his first night serving a life sentence for a double murder he did not commit, sees first hand the brutality of Hadley, the prison guard. One of the inmates begins to cry and sobs loudly that he doesn’t belong in prison. Hadley takes him out of the cell and beats him to death with his baton, highlighting to the others that he is ‘a real man,’ someone who is not to be messed with.
Andy himself, is the victim of this culture as he is raped repeatedly by ‘The Sisters,’ who sense Andy’s weakness and use it to their advantage. Red, the narrator, played by Morgan Freeman, gives an account of the abuse without much description and like Room, the reader/viewer is left to piece together the horror that both protagonists face. There is a certain paradox in describing ‘The Sisters’ in terms of toxic masculinity, considering that they are engaging in homosexual rape, something that ‘masculine’ men would frown upon. But as Red tells us in the film, that the men aren’t homosexuals as, “You have to be human first. They don’t qualify.” In many ways, ‘The Sisters’ treat their victims as women and assert their dominance through sexual violence, much like Old Nick in Room.
Gender roles in society
In all three texts, there are very clear gender roles and expectations in relation to gender.
It is interesting to note that in The Shawshank Redemption, there are no women in the film, except for Andy’s wife, who is killed at the beginning of the film. Positions of power are filled by men. The prison guards, the judge and the warden are all men.
Interestingly, the only women who appear in the film are in the posters on Andy’s wall in his prison cell. He begins with Rita Hayworth, moves on to Marilyn Monroe and the last woman on the wall is Racquel Welch. All three are posing provocatively and this suggests that women existed for men’s pleasure. The fact that each woman was eventually replaced by a younger model is not just indicative of the passage of time, but also that a woman’s value lay only in her looks. In a striking contrast, there is an image of Einstein on Andy’s wall, who is clearly revered for his intellect and he is not replaced throughout the film, like the women were.
This attitude is echoed in Philadelphia Here I Come when ‘The Boys’ speak about women in an offensive manner, with Ned asking, ‘who was the big red haired thing at mass on Sunday?’ Referring to the young woman by her hair colour and as a thing highlights the attitude of the boys towards women.
Gar’s botched engagement proposal also highlights the strict gender roles that existed in the cultural context of the play. Gar and Kate discuss the possibility of marriage, Kate makes it clear that it is expected that Gar should be able to provide for her. When Gar tells her that he earns £3 and 15 shillings a week, she tells him that it is not enough and they could never live on that amount of money. Before they go see his father, she tells him to lie and say he earns £20 a week and has £5000 in the bank.
However, before Gar can ask Senator Doogan anything, he is told that Dr Francis King has arrived and Senator Doogan is excited about his new job in the pharmacy in Ballybeg, which means he could marry Kate. Here we see Senator Doogan taking a very active role in his daughter’s future and it appears that he has some control over who she marries. She is expected to marry who her parents want and it appears that she decides to marry Francis King at the behest of her father. It is interesting how she responds when Gar asks her about Francis, the night before he leaves and she responds, ‘I hear no complaints.’ This suggests that she may not be in love with him but rather still in love with Gar.
The Gender roles in Room are distorted in the world that Ma finds herself in at the beginning of the text, as Old Nick has created an alternate world, where he controls everything. However, when they escape, we realise that there are clear distinctions between the roles of men and women and in Jack’s case, between boys and girls. Jack is confused by everything that this new world has to offer and one of his biggest obstacles is gender expectations.
Jack has long hair that has never been cut and he is confused as to why everyone is mistaking him for a girl. Boys are not expected to have long hair. When uncle Paul and Deana take Jack to the shopping centre, Jack tells them that he wants the Dora backpack but Paul is hesitant and wants him to pick a blue one instead. Jack cannot understand why he can’t have the pink bag and has no notion of gender roles or expectations. Is Donoghue highlighting the absurdity of our attitudes towards gender by having Jack, who never lived in our world, not being limited by societal expectations?
Religion
Religion is evident in all three texts and is viewed differently in the three worlds.
In The Shawshank Redemption, the director highlights the hypocrisy of those who are overtly religious. Religion is ubiquitous within the confines of the prison walls, with every inmate given a bible when they enter and a lecture from the ‘upstanding’ warden, who quotes from the bible as a means of asserting his authority. ‘I believe in two things. Discipline and the Bible. Here you’ll receive both. Put your faith in the lord, your ass belongs to me.’
Deespite his overt Christian ethos, it is clear that Norton is not a good man and turns a blind eye to the abuse meted out to the inmates by Hadley and his crew. He is also running scams through the prison with the help of Andy, who tells Red, ‘there’s a river of dirty money running through this place.’
It is ironic that the dirty deeds that Norton engages in, is hidden in a vault behind a picture with the words, ‘his judgment cometh and that right soon,’ and again shows how religion is a facade covering the real Norton, much like the picture hides the accounts with the dirty money.
Like The Shawshank Redemption, religion is clearly evident in Philadelphia Here I Come but it is seen in a negative light. Gar public is forced to say the rosary with his father on a nightly basis but Gar Private’s bahaviour during these prayers highlights his attitude towards religion.
Canon Mick O’Byrne, who symbolises the power of the Catholic Church in this era is seen as a man who asserts his dominance, but does little to help his parishioners with spiritual matters. He is engaged in an ongoing feud with the local master, and it is clear that he wants to sack him from his post.
Gar also shows that the Canon is more interested in money than spirituality. Gar tells us, rather sarcastically that the canon is fond of the high life. “Money! Agh, sure, Canon, what interest have you in money? Sure as long as you get to Tenerife for five weeks every winter, what interest have you in money?”
The reason that Gar is so negative about the canon is because he thinks that he is the one person who could help him connect with his father. He comes to their house every night and he ignores the fact that the men don’t seem able to communicate and ignores the fact that Gar is leaving forever. Gar says that the canon is the only person who could possible ‘translate all this loneliness, this groping, this dreadful bloody buffoonery into Christian terms that will make life bearable for us all.”
Here we see how desperate Gar is to connect with his father but is unable to, as he does not know how. He is angry with the Canon, as it is job and he sees the relationship that the two of them have, but he does not intervene.
Unlike the other two texts, religion is viewed in a positive way in Room. Ma sees religion as a form of hope that keeps her alive in her darkest days in Room. The sun is described as ‘God’s Face,’ highlighting the light, which was a symbol of hope that broke through the skylight, their only outlet to the outside world. Baby Jesus is referenced throughout the book as Ma teaches Jack about the world.
Power
Power is asserted in all three texts but it is done in different ways. In Room and The Shawshank Redemption, power is controlled via violence and fear, while in Philadelphia Here I Come, social class is used to assert control and dominance.
In Room, Old Nick clearly has all the power in the text. Jack tells Ma that he wishes Old Nick never came back and Ma has to remind him that if he doesn’t come back, they will die. This shows the real power that he has in this text. Whenever his control and dominance is threatened, he uses violence to reassert his control. For example, Ma explains that her bad wrist was the result of an attempted escape, which went wrong and Old Nick broke her wrist to teach her a lesson.
When Jack’s remote control car hits Old Nick while he is sleeping, he assumes that it was some type of escape plan and he punishes Ma and Jack by cutting off the power, which results in their food thawing in the freezing and no heat in the room. This reminds Ma of his dominance and not to mess with him.
The same type of behaviour can be seen in The Shawshank Redemption when Hadley’s authority is questioned by the inmate who won’t stop crying. Hadley beats him to death and announces to the onlooking inmates, ‘If I hear so much as a mouse fart in here for the rest of the night….you’ll all visit the infirmary.’
The same type of arrogance and evil is seen when Tommy tells the warden that he would be willing to testify to prove Andy’s innocence. He asks the boy innocently if he would testify and when he says that he would, he stamps out a cigarette and signals to one of the officers to murder Tommy. He uses this murder as a warning shot to Andy that if he ever crosses the warden, he would meet the same end.
Control in Philadelphia Here I Come is not based on violence but instead by a strict adherence to social class. It is clear that Gar is not good enough for Kate Doogan, who asks him to lie to her father about how much money he earns in order to impress her dad. It is no coincidence that Friel gave the two fathers political titles, with S.B. O’Donnell being the local county councillor, while Kate’s father was a senator. There was a very clear distinction in terms of political hierarchy in Ireland at that time. A Councillor would not have been viewed in the same way as a Senator who would have had to travel to Dublin to represent the constituency. Senator Doogan is also a lawyer, while Gar’s father owns a small shop.
Power is also held by the Catholic Church and this is seen in Gar and Kate’s eagerness to get married. Gar continually says that he can’t wait any longer or he will bust. This is a reference to the fact that people in Ireland were bound by the strict rules of the church regarding sex before marriage. Gar, showing his immaturity, wants to get married so he can have sex. Also, he talks of having fourteen children, which may have been a reference to how contraception was illegal in Ireland at that time. This was another law that was influenced by the church authorities, who believed that using contraception was a sin.