The Shawshank Redemption, Personal Power Essay and Short Story
Advanced English
Mary Gordon-Thomson
1) Explain how The Shawshank Redemption represents the personal power 2) Compare The Shawshank Redemption with another text in relation to the power of one 3) Do you agree with how The Shawshank Redemption represents organisational power 4) Compose your own text representing personal power
1. The Shawshank Redemption representing personal power
The entire plot of this film relies on how personal power is striped from the prisoners and the effect that this has on them. With out this aspect the film would have very little or no effect in displaying Andy’s escape. Personal power is represented through out the film in a multiple of ways including scenes such as “institutionalised” and the music scene where Andy finds the record and plays it over the P.A system.
Personal power is taken by a number of ways through out the film but mostly it is by isolation and imprisonment (both metaphorical and literal). The prisoners are living in a world of multiple layers of isolations. Starting from the large enclosed recreation yard to the smaller work crews down to the cellblock, cells, and leading to solitary confinement.
Each of these layers are represented both physically and visually as well as through out the spoken thoughts of Red and significant lines by Andy.
Imprisonment both mentally and physically also takes the personal power of choice away from the inmates. It seems at stages the only kind of power Andy or any of the other inmates hold is the freedom of thought and hope. Andy is shown to have much more hope then the other prisoners which is displayed by his “inner light” as Red calls it.
“All I know for sure is that Andy Dufresne wasn’t much like me or anyone else I ever knew. . . . It was a kind of inner light he carried around with him.” This was spoken by Red after Andy traded tax advice with Bryon Hadley for beer for his workmates. It is Andys sense of self-worth that gives him the confidence
Mary Gordon-Thomson
1) Explain how The Shawshank Redemption represents the personal power 2) Compare The Shawshank Redemption with another text in relation to the power of one 3) Do you agree with how The Shawshank Redemption represents organisational power 4) Compose your own text representing personal power
1. The Shawshank Redemption representing personal power
The entire plot of this film relies on how personal power is striped from the prisoners and the effect that this has on them. With out this aspect the film would have very little or no effect in displaying Andy’s escape. Personal power is represented through out the film in a multiple of ways including scenes such as “institutionalised” and the music scene where Andy finds the record and plays it over the P.A system.
Personal power is taken by a number of ways through out the film but mostly it is by isolation and imprisonment (both metaphorical and literal). The prisoners are living in a world of multiple layers of isolations. Starting from the large enclosed recreation yard to the smaller work crews down to the cellblock, cells, and leading to solitary confinement.
Each of these layers are represented both physically and visually as well as through out the spoken thoughts of Red and significant lines by Andy.
Imprisonment both mentally and physically also takes the personal power of choice away from the inmates. It seems at stages the only kind of power Andy or any of the other inmates hold is the freedom of thought and hope. Andy is shown to have much more hope then the other prisoners which is displayed by his “inner light” as Red calls it.
“All I know for sure is that Andy Dufresne wasn’t much like me or anyone else I ever knew. . . . It was a kind of inner light he carried around with him.” This was spoken by Red after Andy traded tax advice with Bryon Hadley for beer for his workmates. It is Andys sense of self-worth that gives him the confidence