Preview

Shawkshank Redemption Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1574 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Shawkshank Redemption Essay Example
2.2 consider an important theme in your text and to what extent is it relevant in our lives today

The film “Shawshank Redemption” directed by Frank Darabont shows the importance of the two contrasting themes institutionalisation and hope. The main character Red Redding shows that theme of institutionalisation whereas Andy Dufresne shows hope. Together their friendship develops throughout the film; Andy helps redeem Red to give him hope. “Shawshank Redemption” shows the importance of institutionalisation and hope which is relevant in our lives today. These two themes help us get through our everyday lives. Without institutionalisation and hope many of us would struggle to continue as we are today.

Red represents institutionalisation in this film. In “Shawshank Redemption” Red is seen as an institutionalised man “I am an institutionalised man now”. He has been in prison for about 40 years; he relies on the day-to-day routine of the prison. Red had become dependent on the prison, and never imagined leaving. But this changes when Andy and him become friends, Andy in “Shawshank Redemption” represents hope in this film. Andy had been innocent when he was convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. When he first enters the prison he shows no hope, but gradually further in the film, as the years go by for Andy, he begins to gain hope and faith. “Get busy living or get busy dying” this means that Andy need to take action himself to get what he wants, which was freedom. Andy throughout the film continuously tries to show the importance of hope to Red and urges Red to have hope, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”. Finally Red gained hope in starting a new life, he redeems himself from the help of Andy. Together they start a new life together in Zihuatanejo “a place with no memory”.

The film “Shawshank Redemption” shows the theme institutionalisation, which is strongly relevant in our lives today. Institutionalisation in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Based on careful review of your notes, and careful thinking about the course, share two key themes (an idea, image, or motif repeated or developed throughout a work) or ideas which seem to be present in different periods of literature. Things that always seem to be present are relationships between people and music.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    2. Describe the best way(s) in which the theme of a story may be stated.…

    • 3632 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Comparasion Wks

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Analyse how a significant event illustrated one or more key theme(s) in the written text.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Institutionalisation is sometimes a deliberate process whereby a person entering the institution is reprogrammed to accept and conform to strict controls that enables the institution to manage a large number of people with a minimum of necessary staff. This is seen throughout the film, with Nurse Ratchet being the toughest rule maker/enforcer. Here, the institutionalisation is very…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scott Monk Raw Analysis

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages

    However the effect of the institutions goes beyond the individual. The institution forces society to stereotype those who reside in them, depriving individuality and is supported through Mr Douglas in Raw, ‘it may have a fancy name, but it is still a jail for criminals,’ and Toby, in Girl Interrupted, ‘them’, ‘they’re eating grapes off the wallpaper’.…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the messages was that pressure was a key part in this novella, and immediately, Red showed us why.“There’s a guy like me in every state and federal prison in america, I guess---I’m the guy who can get it for you”(King 3). Red was the man who could get anything for anybody if the price is right. He had to do all of it though, under pressure. As he said, if he ever gets caught getting something for someone, there will be severe punishments. Red always took the risk and performed under pressure. Red’s character in the “real world” and his actions, really showed the message that prison erodes your brain over time. When he stated “I have to look constantly over at the window and reassure myself that there are no bars on it.” (King 106), it showed that prison shaped Red’s brain so differently that he could not go a day without realizing where he actually was. He always had to reassure himself that there were no bars on windows anymore, and that women are actually people too. This was a tough time for Red, but it really showed the aftereffects of prison. Red was the man that gave Andy his freedom. He may not have know this but if it was not for Red it is unlikely that Andy would have become a free man. This was shown when Red stated “It was about 5 months later that Andy asked if I could get him Rita Hayworth” and later in a conversation about it, Red informed Andy with,“ I can…

    • 1511 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Using the themes in the text, develop interpretative statements about the text that link two or more of these ideas in one sentence. For example:…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    4. How does the conflict help develop the theme you identified? Be specific and use evidence from the text to support your answers.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Darabont and Kesey use messianic imagery to display conflicts between hope and oppression. Darabont portrays Andy as a humble Christ figure who “…had a quiet way about him,” and strolled like he had “an invisible coat that would shield him from this place [Shawshank prison]” suggesting the same modest traits of Jesus. Darabont uses this religious allusion to foreshadow that hope will prevail; Andy’s hope never fades, “…there is something inside that they can’t get to…Hope.” Darabont used a birds-eye-view shot to place the audience in a God-like position when Andy escaped; with his hands outstretched as if to say, ‘thank you God,’ emphasising his hope for success and being ‘reborn’, like Jesus, into freedom. In contrast to Darabont, Kesey uses messianic imagery to convey oppression prevailing. McMurphy states that he is “not a saint or a martyr.” Unlike Darabont’s portrayal of Andy as a sombre and modest Christ figure, Kesey portrays McMurphy as loud and confident but puts on a façade for the sake of others, asking “Do I get a crown of thorns?” when faced with electro-shock therapy and insisting “that it wasn’t hurting him,” telling the others that “all they was doin’ was chargin’ his battery for him.” Kesey portrays him as ‘self-sacrificial’,…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The classic film centers on the predicament of Andy Dufresne who is ultimately found guilty of murdering his wife and receives a life-sentence; all of this occurs with little circumstantial detail given to the viewer of his innocence or guilt initially. Dufresne arrives at the infamous Shawshank correctional facility where he seems to take on a positive and optimistic attitude despite his perceived innocence to the viewer and assumed guilt to the inmates; this is peculiar and admirable to those around him given his dire surroundings, especially so to “Red,” (Morgan Freeman) a fellow inmate, who ultimately becomes Dufresnes closest friend. The latter represents symbolic interactionism: people act toward things based on the meaning those things have for them. And Dufresne, conceivably innocent, approaching things positively. Next, functionalism is conveyed through Dufresnes newfound home in the prison: his new societal surrounding consists of various parts that allow it to function—i.e. the prisoners roles, the guards’ roles, the warden’s, the parole officers’, Dufresne’s role both as a prisoner and avid component of the prison library. Finally, the conflict theory presents itselfs through the prison’s power structure: Dufresne and his peers (the subject class) are at the mercy of the courts, the warden, his guards, and the parole officers (all which make up the ruling class)… Dufresnes story at Shawshank Prison, and his ultimate redemption as a innocent man who gains the eventual freedom he so patiently earned and rightfully deserved, is sure to please any avid…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Shawshank Redemption is an inspiring story about Andy Dufreine and his efforts to maintain hope in horrible situations. The directors used many effective methods that displayed signs of hope in such a horrible place. Andy maintained hope by distracting his mind and always staying occupied. Andy was also inspired to survive by helping others find hope in life.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inside Shawshank State Prison, Red is a very important man who can get things from outside for everyone in the prison. This ability made him special among the prisoners and made him became used to this lifestyle within the walls of the prison. That also presents how Red has become institutionalized. His feelings about the walls were changed from hating them to getting used…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sentenced to death for a crime he may or may not have committed, a young black man named Jefferson now struggles to find the meaning of life. With the help of Grant Wiggins, a man who is unsure of his own worth, perhaps he can succeed in doing so in the story A Lesson Before Dying. It is the exciting tale of two men's quest to find peace in life as well as in death. It is during this journey, however, that an underlying question arises on how man-kind has faith in religion and a god they can not see. It is believed that, because there are so many uncertainties in life, man had to conceive something greater than himself to believe in. It is likely that religion may be this something. These theological ideas were simply a way to suppress the fears that man has in his insignificance in the universe. It seems that society has been inventing explanations for the mysteries of life since the beginning of time.…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shawshank Redemption

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As of today, over thirty, well known critics would consider Shawshank Redemption to be the greatest movie of all time. Although the film has been given this title, director and writer Frank Darabont knows the true genius behind this story is writer, Stephen King. Stephen King is mostly known for his horror, suspense books, but this time he wrote a book about Andy Dufresne, a banker from Maine who is wrongly charged with murdering his cheating wife and her lover. King writes “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” in the first person narrative, in the form of a monologue written by the character, Red. Throughout the whole story Red is presenting us with his recollection of imprisonment and the story of Andy Dufresne. One thing noting about how King placed Red as our narrator is that many of the things Red speaks about comes from rumors he claims he heard around the prison. This goes to show us that King intentionally placed an unreliable narrator to hold our hands through the story.…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays