Shawshank Redemption Themes Essay Example
Rehabilitation vs institutionalisation
The film The Shawshank Redemption addresses the process and consequences of institutionalization. Released in 1994 and directed by Frank Darabont, it is based on a novella by Stephen King titled Rita Hayworth and The
Shawshank Redemption. Both works trace the lives of long-term prisoners in
Shawshank Prison. The fictional penitentiary, located in Maine, is run by the corrupt Warden Norton and guard captain Byron Hadley, the former involved in money laundering and bribery, while the latter verbally and physically abuses inmates. The story is narrated by the character Ellis Redding (or ‘Red’) and is about his friend, Andy Dufresne. Andy, a successful banker, has been falsely convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover and is serving two life sentences in Shawshank prison. The film follows Andy’s struggle for survival in prison, facing violence, rape, betrayal and exploitation, until his eventual escape back to the outside world.
One of the most striking scenes in the film is when Brooks, a 70-yearold inmate who has spent his last 50 years imprisoned, holds a knife to his friend
Heywood’s throat. Brooks cries tearfully, “It’s the only way they’d let me stay [in
Shawshank].” Brooks has been paroled but he has become so used to prison life that he fears the world outside and refers to Shawshank as his home. Eventually,
Brooks kills himself in a boarding house, after finding life on the outside threatening, lonely and meaningless. At the other extreme, Andy is described by
Red as “[having] on an invisible coat that would shield him from [Shawshank],” as if he were immune to and independent of the institution. Andy plans his escape from Shawshank Prison for twenty years, meticulously and determinedly digging through his cell wall with a tiny rock hammer. While Brooks is driven to threatening a friend in order to stay in prison, by contrast Andy is willing to dig through his cell wall and crawl
The film The Shawshank Redemption addresses the process and consequences of institutionalization. Released in 1994 and directed by Frank Darabont, it is based on a novella by Stephen King titled Rita Hayworth and The
Shawshank Redemption. Both works trace the lives of long-term prisoners in
Shawshank Prison. The fictional penitentiary, located in Maine, is run by the corrupt Warden Norton and guard captain Byron Hadley, the former involved in money laundering and bribery, while the latter verbally and physically abuses inmates. The story is narrated by the character Ellis Redding (or ‘Red’) and is about his friend, Andy Dufresne. Andy, a successful banker, has been falsely convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover and is serving two life sentences in Shawshank prison. The film follows Andy’s struggle for survival in prison, facing violence, rape, betrayal and exploitation, until his eventual escape back to the outside world.
One of the most striking scenes in the film is when Brooks, a 70-yearold inmate who has spent his last 50 years imprisoned, holds a knife to his friend
Heywood’s throat. Brooks cries tearfully, “It’s the only way they’d let me stay [in
Shawshank].” Brooks has been paroled but he has become so used to prison life that he fears the world outside and refers to Shawshank as his home. Eventually,
Brooks kills himself in a boarding house, after finding life on the outside threatening, lonely and meaningless. At the other extreme, Andy is described by
Red as “[having] on an invisible coat that would shield him from [Shawshank],” as if he were immune to and independent of the institution. Andy plans his escape from Shawshank Prison for twenty years, meticulously and determinedly digging through his cell wall with a tiny rock hammer. While Brooks is driven to threatening a friend in order to stay in prison, by contrast Andy is willing to dig through his cell wall and crawl