...The Shawshank Redemption Directed by Frank Darabont Hope: In Shawshank most of the inmates are afraid to hope. Red says “hope is a dangerous thing”. Andy is the only prisoner who believes that hope is paramount in a place like Shawshank, “you need it so you don’t forget that there are places that aren’t made of stone”. Andy tries to give hope to others through education, willingness to provide a better way of life inside the prison and by talking to Red about the future. It is Red who Andy instils hope into at the end “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things”. By journeying to Mexico Red chooses hope over despair. The idea Darabont is trying to show the audience is that hope is the saving grace in the prison. Those who have the ability to hope are those, in the end, who will be redeemed. It is strongly contrasted with the idea of despair which so many of the prisoners face. Andy, initially, is the only one with the ability to hope and he tries to teach the others how to do this. Only hope has the power to redeem the human spirit. Tagline: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free. Symbols of hope: harmonica, music, bright light Institutionalism: Red defines being institutionalised “These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes you get to depend on them. That’s institutionalised”. His analysis of Brooks foreshadows the man he may become by the end of the film. Red must choose whether or not he...
Words: 488 - Pages: 2
...Shawshank Redemption Paper In society, one of the most popular forms of punishment for deviant individuals who commit criminal acts is to send them to a correctional facility. Although the rest of society has rejected this person as a result of this behavior - in a restricted setting like prison - people begin to adapt to their surroundings. Inevitably, the longer one stays in this setting, the more institutionalized people become. Criminals will soon readily accept their status as a prisoner as well as establish a new identity within this community. In the film Shawshank Redemption, this is further explored as it follows several characters who spend a significant amount of time being incarcerated. Through their time in jail, they learn to adapt to to their surroundings and essentially create a society in which they are functioning and important members. However, as the incarcerated band together, those who are in charge of them may abuse their power in an attempt to further demoralize the prisoners and increase their own personal and economic gain. By attempting to understand sociological theories such as Functionalism, one can better understand the rationale for some of the behaviors shown by the characters as portrayed in Shawshank Redemption. The ability to feel like an active member of a society offers fulfillment not only to the person initiating their role in society, but also to others around them. Without the ability to feel like a productive member of society...
Words: 1323 - Pages: 6
...Tatiana Bartosic English 101 – 4006 Assignment Sheet Evaluation 15 November 2012 Redemption Within Walls There is something that needs to be said about slavery; no, not the physical manacles that were bounded around ankles and wrists but the imaginative ones given to us by those of higher authority – as William Blake once decried “mind-forged manacles.” Andy Dufresne’s character in Shawshank Redemption offers a brilliant message to any audience – old or young – about the power of resilience under imprisonment. There is more to life than what is inside the walls that surround you; in such, “imprisonment” was merely an imaginative force that is constructed by the mental realms. At least, that was Shawshank Redemption’s attempted conveyance; Dufresne’s character, conceptualized and manifested by the director Frank Darabont, both humanizes as well as critiques the imprisoned and the idea of imprisonment. Set in the 1940s, when Rita Hayworth, an over-the-top sex symbol in the American film industry, was alive and flourishing, Shawshank Redemption takes the ordinary lives of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Morgan Freemand), Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), the hotshot Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows), and Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), and coalesces them altogether to set the stage for one of the greatest stories ever set in the dusty grounds of Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine. Everything from Andy’s imprisonment to his eventual escape was integral events...
Words: 1660 - Pages: 7
...Analyzing Shawshank Redemption Crystal Gayle Frapp January 31, 2014 Analyzing Shawshank Redemption The film that will be analyzed and discussed is the Shawshank Redemption, which was Director by Frank Darabont and is a Story by Stephen King. It is based in 1946, a man named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of killing his wife and her lover, and him going to prison and dealing with the struggles of prison life as a truly innocent man. . “He's sentenced to a life term at the Shawshank State Prison in Maine, where another lifer, Ellis Red Redding (Morgan Freeman), picks him as the new recruit most likely to crack under the pressure. The ugly realities of prison life are quickly introduced to Andy: a corrupt warden (Bob Gunton), sadistic guards led by Capt. Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), and inmates who are little better than animals, willing to use rape or beatings to insure their dominance. But Andy does not crack: he has the hope of the truly innocent, which (together with his smarts) allow him to prevail behind bars. He uses his banking skills to win favor with the warden and the guards, doing the books for Norton's illegal business schemes and keeping an eye on the investments of most of the prison staff. In exchange, he is able to improve the prison library and bring some dignity and respect back to many of the inmates, including Red.” After many years and a pick axe Andy manages to escape from prison threw slowly chipping away at the hole in his cell wall where...
Words: 3132 - Pages: 13
...English 3 Mrs. 1 June 2015 Hope in the Shawshank Redemption As strange as it might sound, Emily Dickinson and the Shawshank Redemption is a story about hope. The Shawshank Redemption expresses the story of Frank Darabont, a gentleman who has remained wrongly sentenced of murder and must tolerate life in the harsh and corrupt Shawshank prison, but regardless of this he never loses hope of finding freedom. The storyteller of this story is a man named Red; he had a very different understanding than Andy held about hope. Red continuously spoke about the dynamics of prison and the process of being established. And in Emily Dickinson’s poem is by means of metaphor of a small bird to carry her\him theme that hope stays alive inside us in spite of all of our difficulties. Frank Darabont uses methods such as lighting, tune and camera shots in his film “The Shawshank Redemption” to effectually provoke a state of mind inside the viewers. Brooks is a significant character as he helps us to comprehend the central theme of hope. Brooks understands that the freestanding world is distant to him, in addition has no hope for life on the outside. Darabont customs lighting to show in what way Brooks has nowhere to be found hope and how prison life has taken its toll on him. Brooks is frequently seen in areas of darkness and shadow, on behalf of how he has no hope left whatsoever. For instance when he releases Jake the crow, he is more or less in complete darkness. In this poem, Emily Dickinson...
Words: 737 - Pages: 3
...Anthony Soluren SOC 440 Ken Morris Shawshank Redemption Red (Morgan Freeman) recounts how he planned and carried out his wife’s murder and accidentally killing a neighbor and child as well and earned him a life sentence at Shawshank Prison. Red also remembers the arrival of an inmate named Andy Dufresne, whose tenure at Shawshank affected the lives of everyone at the prison. Andy was sent to Shawshank for life for the cold-blooded murder of his wife and her lover, a pro tennis player. Despite the damning evidence placing him at the scene of the crime on the night of the murders, Andy has always maintained his innocence, which Red eventually comes to believe in as well. Andy has some initial difficulty adjusting to prison life, especially because many of the other prisoners think he’s a snob. A gang of men known as the Sisters frequently attack and rape him in the laundry room while the guards look the other way. Andy fights the Sisters, even though it always lands him in the infirmary and sometimes solitary confinement. Despite these hardships, Andy never complains or loses his confidence. Soon after arriving at Shawshank, Andy approaches Red and asks him to get a rock hammer because he’s interested in rock collecting and carving. After a while, he also pays Red to smuggle in a large poster of pinup Rita Hayworth. A new inmate arrives at Shawshank and tells Andy that he served time in another prison with a man who privately admitted to killing a pro tennis player and his mistress...
Words: 1091 - Pages: 5
...This film is about when Andy Dufresne an innocent banker, is sent to prison for a double life sentence. He makes friends while inside, his closest friend becoming Ellis Boyd Redding or ‘Red’ as his friends call him. Andy suffers with quiet dignity. To keep this under control, he continues with his favorite hobby, which just so happens to be geology. After 20 years of his sentence, he becomes the first prisoner to ever escape from Shawshank. Also he manages to have the Warden found out for all of his crimes. There are three main characters in this film. The first is Andy Dufresne. He starts off as being the newbie who is thought to be the weakest of the bunch but turns out actually to be one of, if not the strongest characters in the film. Andy adds tension because the audience expects him to act like the new guy. When it turns out he didn’t it, a whole new impact is put on the film. The second is Red. Not only is he the narrator of the film but he is the leader of the group. He appears as clever because he is the person who can ‘get stuff’ from the outside. Red adds tension because when the audience is looking from the narrator’s point of view, they are also looking from the view of Red, Andy’s friend. When Red is worried, scared, or upset, so is the audience The narration is spoke by Red. He has been in prison for a lot longer than Andy; therefore he presumes that he knows what will happen because he has seen it all before. His predictions conflict with what happens. Again...
Words: 747 - Pages: 3
...In the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ by Frank Darabont, it informs us about the hardships in the prison of Shawshank and hopes to achieve freedom. The characters in Shawshank Redemption present a variety of social issues. Throughout Andy and Red’s sentence in prison, issues of identity, motivation, and anxiety are brought about within the film. Darabont shows us the affects of prison life during and after a prisoner’s sentence in prison. Shawshank Redemption portrays these social issues through the movies’s theme of finding freedom. The idea freedom is presented in the scene earlier in the film, when one of the prisoners ask Andy at the cafeteria ‘are you gonna eat that?’Andy didn’t want the food and handed it over which was fed to the tiny bird in the other mans pocket. The bird symbolizes freedom because when it had fully grown and was able to fly, it was set free by the man who took care of it. Freedom is shown by the production technique, lighting. The event that takes place in a dark jail cell, light shines through the bars of a little window where the bird is set free. We understand the idea freedom when the bird flies out towards the light and freedom and is no longer confined inside the pocket of the man also kept in jail. During the 1940’s, a young banker named Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank prison in Portland after being falsely accused of murdering his wife and her lover. In this high security prison Andy experiences isolation and harsh treatment by both inmates...
Words: 1175 - Pages: 5
...Analyse how symbolism was used to highlight the purpose of the visual or oral text(s). In the film The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont, symbolism was used to highlight the importance of holding onto hope. Darabont's use of different symbols at different points in the film educates the viewer in the importance of holding onto hope. "Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies". Shawshank Prison was represented as a place of hopelessness at the start of the film. However it was through the opera scene, the libary and the symbol of water that that the viewer could get an insight to how "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." Shawshank Prison was represented as a place of hopelessness. The conditions and brutality set about to dehumanise the prisoners and destroy their hope. During Andy's arrival at Shawshank, the symbol of the prison yard is highly symbolic, reflecting how it is imposible to escape, how crushing the system is. The system and forebidding. The prison yard is shown with a helicopter travelling shot revealing the massive Gothic towers and high walls, the immense area of the compound, in comparison with which humans are puny and insignificant. It also gives the reader an insight of the "high security" intimidating nature of the surroundings. This is shown with surrounding stell mesh fencing, grey walls, a bleak sky, ruthless guards, gates guarded, tight security, guards...
Words: 1538 - Pages: 7
...In a lifetime, everyone will experience feelings of guilt, some large and some small. Such as guilt over sneaking out, not doing homework, or telling your parents a little white lie. People find peace of mind through redeeming themselves, in other words, we do something that makes up for the cause of guilt. Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner revolves around betrayal and redemption. Redemption is the act of saying or being saved from sin, error or evil, which the main character Amir seems to need the most. Amir lives with the guilt he has built up over the years because of one incident from his childhood. Amir's fathers words still echo through his head "A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything." –pg. 24 Although Amir destroyed the lives of many people, and he has had more than one opportunity to redeem himself of his guilt, he is not the selfish little boy he once was. How often does one stop and think, "How will this affect everyone else in my life?" Amir had a chance in the alley, to put Hassan first and change the path of both their lives, but he made the decision to turn around and run because it was what he thought was best for him: "I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran. I ran because...
Words: 1155 - Pages: 5
...Robert Jewett works to discuss the different ways images of Jesus are depicted in film, describing very literal, as well as some figurative, elements that are often used, including crucifixes and leadership (Jewett 65;69). In a different vein, Peter Malone’s article outlines the way in which shame is triumphed by hope in Shawshank Redemption, and relates this to Paul’s description of how affliction can shape those who have been shamed and their relationship with God (Malone 169). Malone argues that in the face of affliction, perseverance, character, and subsequently, hope arise (169-174). It seems that Andy embodies these different aspects, coming together, through his evolution in the face of affliction, to be a Christ-figure. Andy begins...
Words: 453 - Pages: 2
...This article is aimed at reviewing the movie titled The Shawshank Redemption; we will analyze thepower of hope and optimism of both inmates and warden of Shawshank Prison. The main thing that gives inmates of Shawshank Prison the will to live is Hope. Hope is a deep feeling of expectation towards a certain thing and desire for it to happen. It is usually being optimistic of positive outcomes. Andy is one of the prisoners who is full of hope. Other prisoners like his sense of hope and they believe it is what keeps them going. Hope made Andy survive his 28 years in prison with the idea of escaping which he finally did. With his help, prisoners get beer, which they drink and make them have hope of being free and enjoy it as free men. As years...
Words: 728 - Pages: 3
...the heights of nobility. A story about an ordinary person with an extraordinary spirit. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephan King is such a book. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is a novella about two gentlemen incarcerated in the Shawshank Prison in Maine, author Stephen King's home state. It explores the corruption of the prison system, but also the indomitable power of the human spirit and the true meaning of freedom. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption takes place in Maine between the years of 1948 and 1977. It is a first person narrative told by the convict Red describing his relationship and observation of his fellow convict Andrew “Andy” Dufresne. Andy Dufresne was sent to the...
Words: 1372 - Pages: 6
...Close Viewing 91107 The Shawshank Redemption – Norton’s Introduction at the Line-Up The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, is an intriguing film in the ways that Darabont has incorporated visual and verbal techniques to show underlying themes within the film. Numerous techniques are applied in the scene ‘Norton’s Introduction at the Line-Up’ (11.58-14.45), such as lighting, dialogue, cinematography and voice-over. The first techniques the couple together are lighting and dialogue, whilst voice-over and cinematography also combine together effortlessly. Darabont said in an interview that the film “works gorgeously as a metaphor-everybody who sees it can project their own trials and tribulations, and hope for triumph into it.” Darabont employs the technique of lighting and couples dialogue together in this sequence ‘Norton’s Introduction at the Line-Up’. When the prisoners march inside of Shawshank, they line up and face the Warden Norton. Windows behind the prisoners create shadows that stretch across the painted line on the concrete floor, as well as darkening the prisoners’ faces, making it difficult to see their expressions. Also, Darabont manipulates the lighting behind Norton, as it is very dark, however his face is well lit and the audience can clearly see his facial expressions. The additional technique is dialogue, expressed when Norton says, “I believe in two things, discipline and the Bible. Here you’ll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord...
Words: 1192 - Pages: 5
...Mr. Schiavello HRE4M1 April 2, 15 The Shawshank Redemption 1. How does the movie illustrate internal and eternal freedom? In the movie Shawshank redemption, freedom plays a very significant role in the lives of all the inmates; especially Andy Dufresne who is wrongfully convicted to two consecutive life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover. The movie focuses on both the physical (external) and mental (internal) imprisonment of Andy in the maximum-security prison and his journey to overcome the barriers towards freedom make it a story that amazed everyone. When Andy is first locked up in his cell he is separated from society, he looses his physical freedom and is put in a confined space where his every move is watched. He is given a set of rules, which he must follow everyday for the rest of his life, he has to act with due restraint and if he doesn’t he is punished by the officers in charge. He makes efforts to volunteer to paint the rooftops of the prison and also fanaticizes about living by the sea once he gets out the prison. He wants freedom “from” the confinement he is in but his journey for freedom is not just physical he is always seen aspiring to be mentally free. The smallest of things make him the happiest person in the world such as watching his friends drink beer or the peace he gets when he plays music for the whole Shawshank to listen to, at those moments he achieves the spiritual and internal freedom he so desperately longs for....
Words: 287 - Pages: 2
