Midway through “The Shawshank Redemption” Red, speaking to fellow cons on the yard about the meltdown of longtime inmate Brooks, who had received parole after 50 years inside the prison.
“Brooks ain’t no bug. He’s just… he’s just institutionalized.”
“The man’s been in here fifty years, Haywood. Fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he’s an important man. He’s an educated man. Outside, he’s nothin’. Just a used up con with arthritis in both hands. He probably can’t even get a Library Card if he tried. You know what I’m trying to say.”
“I’m telling ya, these walls are funny. First, ya hate ‘em. Then ya get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, ya get so you depend on ‘em. That’s institutionalized.”
The fact that Brooks probably couldn’t get a Library Card is ironic, since he had been the Prison Librarian since 1912.


Bob Cleveland
on Jul 25th, 2008
@ 12:33 pm:
Sorry, but the temptation is just too great: I wonder is this analogous to folks that have been churchmembers, baptists, whatever, for that long?
Yup. I’m guessing it is.
Bob Clevelands last blog post..Confessions of (Another) Baptist Charismatic
art rogers
on Jul 25th, 2008
@ 2:36 pm:
You think so?
I wonder what you will think of the next quote, also from Shawshank.
Debbie Kaufman
on Jul 25th, 2008
@ 4:48 pm:
I thought it when I heard this in the movie and I think it now. There is more truth in that statement than most realize. Good quote from one of my favorite movies.
Debbie Kaufmans last blog post..Tonight Dateline Features International Justice Mission
Jim Barnes
on Jul 26th, 2008
@ 4:41 pm:
WOW Art that is one of my favorite movies. I dvr’d it last year and when I read your current blog I had to watch it again last night. But you are right some people EVEN within the church are so institutionalized that they will never change. I always think of the movie Fiddler on the Roof and that one song that could be many churches theme song TRADTION!!
Jim Barnes
on Jul 26th, 2008
@ 9:41 pm:
oopps TRADITION