Freedom In The Shawshank Redemption

In The Shawshank Redemption, Brooks spent 49 years of his 72-year life behind bars. He was imprisoned when he was only 23 before he got to experience the real world. When Brooks was finally released, everything he knew had changed. There were cars and “everyone got themselves in a hurry”. The consequence of his overwhelming freedom was, in fact, negative. He struggled to adjust to the changed times and spent his last days considering ways of finding his way home; behind bars. Brooks instead chooses to end his life. He was unable to find his way in the new world with his newfound freedom because he never had the chance to experience it before, leaving him feeling vulnerable and out of place.

In The Dark Horse, Genesis is institutionalised due to his severe bipolar disorder. The aim of this was to control his disease. However, it was
In this case, the consequence of his freedom is positive. When Genesis was released it gave him the opportunity to discover and lead the Eastern Knights. It was there that he was able to focus his energy and attention, and somewhat distract himself from his illness. It gave him the ability to live and forget.

In The Shawshank Redemption and The Dark Horse, we can clearly see that the impact of freedom is different for everyone. For Brooks the consequence of his freedom is death but for Genesis, his freedom brings him life. This shows us that the consequences of freedom are dependent on the both the individual and the situation they are in. Both of these characters show us this by how they react to their freedom. Brooks finds it drastically overwhelming, while for Genesis it is nothing but beneficial. Since both Darabont and Napier Robertson used physical confinement as an example of restricted freedom it is easy to compare Genesis’ and Brooks’ reactions. The contrast between how these two characters dealt with their freedom