In the shower scene, where Boggs asks Andy, “Did anyone get to you yet?” -is that scene in the Overall Story throughline or the Impact Character throughline?
Red’s Understanding of Andy’s Response to the offer from Bogg’s is Part of the Influence Character Throughline. His fighting back against the Sisters influences Red to eventually stand up for himself.
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I see. Thank you. May I ask - would the first scene - Andy’s trial and sentencing - also be in the Influence Character Throughline, even though Red doesn’t even KNOW Andy at that point?
No, that has to do with setting up the Overall Story Throughline - innocent man unjustly imprisoned.
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Perhaps I could ask about Shawshanks’ Benchmark of the Past: I’m struggling to understand how the Past is used to measure progress towards Andy’s escape (which I think is the goal, right?) Thanks in advance.
The Goal is Future—the tendency is to always make this specifically about the Protagonist, but if you think of it more as a collective Goal you can see how everyone’s Past acts as a measuring stick in regards to their Concern with Future (whether or not any of them have one).
The more the Past weighs them down, the more concerned they become with not having a Future.
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I see. So in the case of, say, Brooks: he puts a knife to Hayward’s throat, says, “The world went and got itself into a dam hurry” and “I try to keep up (bagging groceries) but my hands hurt” and “I have dreams sometimes like I’m fallin’” and he feeds the birds hoping Jake the crow will show up. Red says on the inside Brooks was a somebody, but out there he was just an old con.
I know you know all this - I’m just trying to wrap my head around how exactly Brooks is using his Past to measure his progress towards being Concerned about his Future. Obviously he feels he HAS no future, that’s why he hangs himself.
But how is his Past being used to measure his progress. Maybe I’m being too literal? I can sort of see the gist of it, but I’m getting hung up on the words “benchmark” and “measure.” Sorry if I’m being dense on something that should be obvious.
No worries. I’m not sure you’ll find instances of every single storypoint in the entire thing as is. You might in the novella, but not necessarily the film.
Remember that the Storyform is the Author’s measure of conflict in the story. So the characters aren’t real people - and they’re not measuring benchmarks because of concerns.
The Author is measuring progress towards or away from the concern in terms of the Benchmark. King/Darabont sometimes use the Past to weigh the characters down as they look towards the Future. You could very easily throw in instances of the Past, during a rewrite, and how how those moments fade or come back, to increase or decrease tension towards the Future.
Throwing in moments in the Present or Progress would not fit as well as the Past.
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AHHHHHH-HA! Now I got it. NOW it makes sense. Thank you SO MUCH.
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