Hope In The Shawshank Redemption

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies, (Andy Defresne).” The Shawshank Redemption (1994) directed by Frank Darabont is a testament to the influence and strength the human spirit can hold with the idea of hope and freedom strong in their minds. Ellis “Red” Redding narrates the story from the 1940s to the 1960’s as Andy - the protagonist – struggles and suffers with the fear of being imprisoned after all his hardship. Darabont communicates the ideas of hope and freedom to the viewers through a number of specific scenes, objects and techniques.
Hope is a theme that is present throughout the movie; the centre point of the movie revolves around it. The prison, Shawshank, is a terrible place to say the least, but what’s worse is what lies within it; the fraudulent warden, often heartless guards and undoubtedly, the prisoners (specifically The Sisters). It is explained to Andy through Red that the sisters “aren’t homosexual, they’d have to be human first.” The walls surrounding them dehumanize those they enclose and the sisters are an extreme example of that. Hope is what civilizes the prisoners and gives them a will to live in contrast to the isolated and apathetic lives they live out. The concept of hope frightens the Shawshank
With great “pressure and time,” hope can set you free even if life has been nothing but unfair to you. Andy Dufresne is unjustly put in prison for a crime he did not commit. However, the unbounded amount of hope he carries around – which wasn’t clear till the end - along with his intellect, willpower and immense persistence he carries on. As Andy climbs through piles of filth and escapes, you feel just as hopeful and free as he feels at that moment. The director, Frank Darabont, showed us that: fighting for freedom is worth it, that “hope is a good thing” and no man should fear