Shawshank redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a film displaying the impact of being institutionalized and hope and how powerful it is. The film is revolved around two main characters Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) who has been sent to Shawshank prison for the murder of his wife and her lover and Red (Morgan Freeman) who also was sent to Shawshank for murder has been in Shawshank a lot longer than Andy he is referred to as ” the man who can get things.” The effects of being Institutionalized in this film is in both brooks and Red but more Brooks as he is released on parole. We are first shown the effects of being institutionalized as Brooks holds a knife to Heywood’s throat in an attempt to break his parole. He is scared of the outside world as he has been in prison for most of his life. Then we are shown Brooks in the outside world with Brooks’s voiceover from a letter he wrote to his fellow inmates telling them how hard it is for him to cope on the outside. ” Its hard work and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time”. The letter also says how he wants to go home ” maybe I should get me a gun and rob the food way so they’d send me home, I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus”. Towards the end of the letter we are shown Brooks carving brooks was here on the roof then hanging himself. The use of Brooks to show the effects of being institutionalized creates sadness in this film considering Brooks’ character, a fragile old man that couldn’t hurt anyone, but taking his life due to his fear of the outside world, being institutionalized. But the films main theme of hope is in Andy, considered to be the giver of hope to the prisoners of Shawshank. This is displayed throughout the film. One scene is “ The Rooftop” scene. This scene after Andy overhears Hadley, (captain of the guards at Shawshank) while he is talking about his dilemma of inheritance. Andy being the smart banker offers Hadley a solution solving his problem for a small price, three beers a piece for his co-workers as he called them. Andy says “ a man working outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds. “ The scene after Andy’s brave act is the scene showing the prisoners drinking beer on the rooftop, with Red’s voiceover “ we sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men. “ The camera moving around the prisoners as the sat in the sun drinking beer and the soft music used by the cinematic team gave this scene more meaning to the word hope. Andy, considered to bring hope to the prisoners of Shawshank, brings hope to Red. Red has given up hope, being in Shawshank so long. He has been institutionalized. Red leaves the prison after finally being approved parole only to end up it the same situation as Brooks, with the same job and house. At work Red asks for a restroom break but is told he doesn’t need to ask “ forty years I’ve been asking permission to piss. I can’t squeeze a drop without say so. ” This is a form of institutionalization. We are then lead to believe that Red to is thinking the same things as Brooks had in breaking his parole to be sent back to Shawshank as Red stares into a shop window at guns , knives, compasses and jewelry. “ Terrible thing to live in fear. All I want is to be back where things make sense. Where I won’t have to be afraid all the time.“ “ only one thing stops me. A promise I made to Andy. ” Red journeys to the big oak tree to find what Andy buried under a rock. He found a letter asking him to go to the place they talked about Zihuatanejo the letter then ends with remember Red, hope is a good thing. maybe the best of things. and no good thing ever dies. Red catches a bus on it he says “ I hope I can make it across the border” “ I hope to see my friend and shake his hand” “ I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams” “ I hope” We are convinced Red has been given hope. This is hope given to Red by Andy. shank Redemptio