Brooks Hatlen
E207083
Brooks Hatlen is an elderly prison librarian in "The Shawshank Redemption" whose tragic struggle to adapt to life outside prison highlights the film’s themes of institutionalization and hopelessness.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Brooks Hatlen canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1714962 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Brooks Hatlen Context triple: [The Shawshank Redemption, mainCharacter, Brooks Hatlen]
-
A.
Ian Hendrickson-Smith
Ian Hendrickson-Smith is an American jazz saxophonist and flutist known for his work as a versatile session musician and performer with various prominent bands and artists.
-
B.
Gregory Widen
Gregory Widen is an American screenwriter and director best known for creating the film "Highlander" and writing the screenplay for the firefighter drama "Backdraft."
-
C.
Brennan Chapman
Brennan Chapman is a cinematographer known for his work on the animated feature film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
-
D.
Julanne Johnston
Julanne Johnston was an American silent film actress best known for her role opposite Douglas Fairbanks in the classic 1924 fantasy film "The Thief of Bagdad."
-
E.
Kevin Hageman
Kevin Hageman is an American screenwriter and producer known for his work on animated and family films and television series, including contributions to The Lego Movie franchise.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Brooks Hatlen Target entity description: Brooks Hatlen is an elderly prison librarian in "The Shawshank Redemption" whose tragic struggle to adapt to life outside prison highlights the film’s themes of institutionalization and hopelessness.
-
A.
Ian Hendrickson-Smith
Ian Hendrickson-Smith is an American jazz saxophonist and flutist known for his work as a versatile session musician and performer with various prominent bands and artists.
-
B.
Gregory Widen
Gregory Widen is an American screenwriter and director best known for creating the film "Highlander" and writing the screenplay for the firefighter drama "Backdraft."
-
C.
Brennan Chapman
Brennan Chapman is a cinematographer known for his work on the animated feature film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
-
D.
Julanne Johnston
Julanne Johnston was an American silent film actress best known for her role opposite Douglas Fairbanks in the classic 1924 fantasy film "The Thief of Bagdad."
-
E.
Kevin Hageman
Kevin Hageman is an American screenwriter and producer known for his work on animated and family films and television series, including contributions to The Lego Movie franchise.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
film character ⓘ |
| adaptedBy | Frank Darabont ⓘ |
| affiliation | Shawshank State Penitentiary ⓘ |
| ageCharacteristic | elderly ⓘ |
| appearsIn |
The Shawshank Redemption (1994 film)
ⓘ
surface form:
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption (1994 film) ⓘ
surface form:
The Shawshank Redemption
|
| basedOnWorkBy | Stephen King ⓘ |
| characterArc | from institutional security to despair in freedom ⓘ |
| closeTo |
Andy Dufresne
ⓘ
Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding ⓘ |
| countryOfOriginOfWork |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| createdBy | Stephen King ⓘ |
| famousLineContext | "Brooks was here" inscription ⓘ |
| filmReleaseYear | 1994 ⓘ |
| firstAppearance |
The Shawshank Redemption (1994 film)
ⓘ
surface form:
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
|
| firstAppearanceInFilm |
The Shawshank Redemption (1994 film)
ⓘ
surface form:
The Shawshank Redemption
|
| gender | male ⓘ |
| genreOfSourceWork | novella ⓘ |
| genreOfWork | prison drama ⓘ |
| incarceratedAt | Shawshank State Penitentiary ⓘ |
| legacy | cultural shorthand for institutionalization ⓘ |
| medium |
film
ⓘ
novella ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction |
illustrates hopelessness
ⓘ
illustrates institutionalization ⓘ |
| narrativeRole | supporting character ⓘ |
| narrativeTheme | difficulty of adapting to life after prison ⓘ |
| occupation | prison librarian ⓘ |
| personalityTrait |
bookish
ⓘ
gentle ⓘ quiet ⓘ |
| plotEvent |
commits suicide after release
ⓘ
paroled after many years in prison ⓘ struggles to adjust to life outside prison ⓘ |
| portrayedBy | James Whitmore ⓘ |
| roleInPrison | caretaker of the prison library ⓘ |
| screenTimeImportance | pivotal to emotional impact of the film ⓘ |
| setting | Maine ⓘ |
| sourceNovellaCollection | Different Seasons ⓘ |
| sourcePublication | Different Seasons ⓘ |
| storyThemeConnection |
freedom and confinement
ⓘ
hope versus despair ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
fear of freedom after institutionalization
ⓘ
the crushing effects of long-term incarceration ⓘ |
| timeInPrison | decades ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Brooks Hatlen Description of subject: Brooks Hatlen is an elderly prison librarian in "The Shawshank Redemption" whose tragic struggle to adapt to life outside prison highlights the film’s themes of institutionalization and hopelessness.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
The Shawshank Redemption