Shawshank Essay

Shawshank redemption is an extraordinary movie directed by Frank Darabont that is hovered with tension and rises many issues and key messages surrounding the plot. The classical prison drama movie is focused around Andy Dufresne who is wrongfully imprisoned for the homicide of his wife and her lover which he did not commit. Throughout the film Andy is a soul believer in hope and salvation and tries to make peace with himself through his life sentence where others around him perish from the cruel suffering that is Shawshank. The horror of Shawshank is enhanced as prisoners becoming accepting of the way the system is run and become “institutionalised”.

Hope is a central theme that surrounds Shawshank redemption, “a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.”. Many characters throughout the film carry different thoughts and emotions that change the way they view “hope”. In the film Brooks is a character that fully gives up on Hope as he has spent that many years locked away in the cruel environment of Shawshank, When Brooks finally gets released he realises how much the world has changed and wants to go back because prison felt like his home and he became institutionalised “Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Foodway so they’d send me home” at this point he had fully given up on hope and wanted to get out of the current world. Red is another character that carries different levels of hope throughout the film. “hope is a dangerous thing my friend,it can kill a man” is a quote said by Red to Andy in the cafeteria, at this point in time Red fully gives up on the meaning of hope and has this obscured picture that hope will only get you killed if you believe in it, Along Reds prison sentence his belief in hope changes drastically as Andy whos a soul believer in the word arrives and changes the way Red and the prison mates view it. Andy is filled with hope as soon as he enters the prison. ” Hope is a good thing, may be the best of the things. And good thing never dies.” This is a quote said by Andy to Red on a note that Andy left at his marriage spot, this quote meaning hope is something to hold onto and if you believe in hope it will never die. This is exactly what Andy did while spending 19 years in prison, He believed in hope and managed to dig his way out with a small hammer. Even in the rough times of being locked away in “the hole” Andy stuck next to hope and eventually got his redemption. From The Shawshank redemption many teenagers can learn that hope can help them focus on something and stop them from being corrupted and rotting away like the prisoners in Shawshank. I believe that hope is something that everyone should believe in to be successful in life as if you don’t desire something to be your way you may never actually get it like that and it can make you work harder for it.

Shawshank gives viewers a great image of how cruel and horrid prisons can be, In the group Andy arrived in Red and his boys took a bet on who would crack first. On the first night in Shawshank the “fat and chubby guy” cracked and started breaking down crying, one of the officers then dragged him out of his cell and beat him to death just because he wouldn’t be quiet at night. This is an example of inhuman behavior that prison brings as a man beat someone to death because they were scared. Another reason why Prison is a horrible place is that it institutionalises people. An Institutionalised person is someone that has been locked up long enough that they have become used to it and its the “normal for them”. “These walls are funny. First you hate ’em. Then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.” This is a quote said by Red after they have been told that Brooks had hung himself. Brooks couldn’t handle the outside world after spending 50 years in prison he was used to the way the prison ran and it felt like home to him. This is the major problem with prison, people are unable to reintegrate into society because they have been run in the same way for a number of years and get so used to it that they feel like they rely on it. Miscarriages of justice is a huge problem if it happens, when a failure of a court trying to seek justice happens and an innocent person is convicted that person is placed into a cruel environment that they don’t belong in. An example of this is when Andy gets sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife because there was evidence of him having possession of a gun. The court didn’t investigate any other options and just blamed it on Andy because it was the only evidence they had, this is unfair to the innocent person that is convicted as they have to waste years of their life locked up knowing that they had nothing to do with the crime they are sentenced for. Fortunately in today’s world this oftenly doesn’t happen as most crimes are investigated deeply and DNA testings take place which gives a more accurate evidence. I believe that we need a death penalty in today’s society but it needs to be set extremely high, I do believe that the sentences that are set in today’s world are fair as oftenly people can get rehabilitated and feel the guilt of the crime that they commited.

Redemption is one of the major themes the movie is set behind. “the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.” In this case the evil being Shawshank prison as a whole. Andy who is sentenced to life in Shawshank Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence is a prime example of redemption. For Andy the redemption comes from escaping Shawshank. “Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit smelling foulness” this is a quote said by Red while Andy was crawling through the pipe that lead out of the prison and into the world. This is where Andy got his redemption as he had just escaped the place where he didn’t belong. Red also got redemption in a similar way to Andy, “There’s not a day  goes by I don’t feel regret. Not because I’m in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime.” This was said when Red went to plead that he had been rehabilitated, Red didn’t just get redemption by leaving prison but also got redemption for himself and the life lessons he learnt while in prison. The Warden received Redemption in a different way to Andy and Red. The Warden was scamming and causing chaos for the prison mates in Shawshank and ended up getting caught for all of this. In the Wardens final moments he decided to shoot himself saving himself from what the prison mates at shawshank had to go through. Karma, “good or bad luck, viewed as resulting from one’s actions.” is what The Warden experienced, running a scammed prison and getting money off it he thought was working for him until Andy escaped and handed in the reports of the prisons bank statements showing that Shawshank was running an illegal scam. This where the karma kicked in and ended up in the Warden taking his life because of these actions. In the film I feel like the corruption of Hadley the Guard was the greatest, Continuously killing people because they weren’t listening or because they did something wrong. When Hadley finally got his judgement I felt a sense of relief because he was finally caught for the wrong hes done at the prison and is going to get locked away longer than any other prison members. Through hard work and perseverance and never giving up hope Andy & Red were able to get Redemption despite the obstacles covering there paths, This demonstrates the message of never giving up no matter whats in your path. Even though there are obstacles in your path you can overcome them if you have hope, believe in yourself and work hard for it. Personally this theme to me has a good and a bad, the good being Andy and Reds case where they escape and become free and the bad being when the Warden got the easy way out of the scam he was running. Redemption makes me feel best when its a good thing that they are getting redeemed for but makes me feel uneasy as the bad side should be getting more punished for the bad they have done.

In conclusion Shawshank Redemption is a great movie that portrays many messages and key themes that can relate to life. I would highly suggest this movie to someone in year 12, Andy the main character faces many problems similar to someone in year 12 and shows you how you can overcome them. Hope and Redemption are key messages that everyone should live with and in the film are shown why they are so important to take onboard in life.