The Warden takes the Bible from Andy and without opening it says, I m glad to see you re reading this, and he asks Andy if he s got any favorite passages. They spar back and forth a bit more, the Warden trying to see if he can entrust his crooked books with Andy, and Andy s trying to see if there s anything in it for him and his fellow prisoners. After their interaction the Warden and guard exit the cell and the Guard yes, Lock em in and the cell door slams shut the way only prison doors can. The Warden begins to leave then stops and turns, saying Oh, I almost forgot, and reaches through the bars to give Andy back his Bible. Wouldn t want to deprive you of this, he says.
Salvation lies within.
Of course he doesn t realize he s giving Andy back his rock hammer that he ll soon be using to chip through to an early release date. Because we know intuitively that s not the point. The novelist Stephen King dreamed this up from his imagination, but the symbols in art are often more revealing then the most vigorous non-fiction. And what is the symbolism, the person in charge, with all the secular power, reaches through the bars to the weak and oppressed, handing him a Bible that contains his means of liberation. Now for those of us who would like to pursue that notion a bit further, we re left wondering how to use its stories for our own personal and collective liberation.