Visual Representation for Meeting Challenges

‘Meeting challenges’

My visual representation is based around the theme ‘meeting challenges’ and how this relates to the movie ‘Shawshank Redemption’. Some of the challenges faced by the characters in this movie were isolation, false imprisonment, loneliness, and rejection.
I used black cardboard for my visual representation to show the loneliness and fear the main character, Andy Dufresne, must have endured during his time in Shawshank prison. I also used a gaol cell door to represent the isolation and sadness of his situation.
Andy was a very smart man who was sentenced to prison for a crime he did not commit. I used a picture of a young man covering his eyes with his hands to show the hardship Andy faced whilst in prison this was a big challenge for him to overcome.
Andy kept to himself for a long time when he started at Shawshank, not knowing anyone or having anyone to talk to. Andy must have felt lonely at night being locked up in a small cell. One of the images I used to represent this loneliness was a man curled up by himself in a dark room.
In the movie Andy is a very determined man and he does almost anything to feel like a ‘free man’. For example, Andy took great courage to confront one of the guards, almost getting himself pushed off the edge of a building, in the scene when the prisoners are tarring the roof of the prison. At the end of this scene he is able to feel like a ‘free man’ when he gets to drink a cold beer with the other prisoners as a reward for helping the guards with their tax problems.
It is hope and inner strength that keeps Andy going and helps him meet the challenges he faces. To represent this hope and strength I used the image of a white dove and a young boy praying by candlelight.
Apart from Andy, another character I related to as facing challenges was ‘Red’, the prisoner who became a good friend of Andy’s, who is rejected more than once for parole. The image I used to represent rejection was a young girl asking a boy on a date and the boy saying no. Until Andy came along, Red had given up hope. Andy helped him find a way to face his challenges again.
Another friend of Andy’s within the prison was an old man known as brooks, brooks was granted parole after 50 or so years and fear overwhelmed this man as all his life was spent inside the walls of Shawshank prison. Brooks challenge was becoming a ‘free man’ as all his life he was told what to do. Freedom was too much for brooks and this caused him to commit suicide. brooks met his challenge but didn’t overcome it.
The movie Shawshank Redemption shows how people can be facing more challenges than they can handle but one ray of hope or one person, like Andy, can make all the difference. I feel I have shown this in my visual representation by the use of words and images I have chosen to represent the challenges that were faced.
Written by Abby Wilson