The shawshank redemption movie study

Shawshank Redemption The point of view held in the movie is that hope is the most important thing in someone’s life. It should be the last thing one should lose as without it life loses a purpose. Without hope, one is as good as dead as there is nothing to give him/her a reason to live. Hope can make one withstand many difficult and hard times. It can shield one from breaking down due to difficult situations. It is hope that keeps the reader going in Shaw shank Prison. He keeps applying for parole even though his application is rejected repeatedly. He still has hope that someday he will be granted parole. Even when he is about to give up on ever getting the freedom he desires, Andy comes in and reignites that hope. He eventually gets his application granted.
The importance of hope in one’s life is shown in the movie through various scenes that show the effects of hope on the lives of the prisoners. In his first night in prison, it is hope that comforts Andy. Although he is serving a life sentence, he still has hope that he will taste freedom again. It makes him calm and able to think and reflect on things thus coming up with great ideas in the process. When writing to the state senate to ask for funds to expand the prison library, hope pushes him to keep writing even when he gets no reply until finally he gets a response. The news that Tommy once met the man that killed his wife and her lover pumps new energy into Andy. His hope of getting out rises as he sees an opportunity to appeal his sentence. In addition, it is the hope of getting out someday that keeps him drilling a tunnel through the prison wall using a rock hummer for several years until he achieves his aim. Hope is also used to bring out the determination of Red to get parole despite his application being rejected repeatedly. It is hope that makes him keep applying for parole without giving up. When Brooks is released from prison, he is lost in a world he is not familiar with. He finds life hard outside prison, as he cannot adjust well. Due to a lack of hope in life, he decides to end his life by hanging himself.
The verse that the warden told Andy when he first visited him in his cell was John 8: 12. This verse says, “ I am the Light of the world. He who follows me should not walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life.” This is the use of allusion as the warden alludes to the Bible verse to talk about his importance in the prison. He is indirectly referring to himself as the light within the prison and that whoever associates with him will get an easier time there. Throughout the movie, Andy’s association with the warden benefits him in many ways. He has an easier life than most inmates have and is moved to work in the Library and closer to the warden. Even when he is attacked, his attackers are severely punished by Captain Hadley and his Guards.
One major theme that is brought out in the movie is revenge. From the start of the movie, we are told that Andy killed his wife and her lover as an act of revenge though it later comes out that he actually never shot them. While in prison, he rarely confronts those that hurt him but rather choses to strategically befriend those he feels will help him achieve his goal. When the warden refuses to let him appeal his sentence and mistreats him by locking him in the dark cell alone for some months, he hatches a plan to punish the warden. His escape starts a chain of events that lead to the arrest of Captain Hadley and the warden shooting himself. This can be attributed to revenge.
The main conflict in the movie was between Andy and those around him. Andy wished to attain freedom from the prison but those around him did not seem to agree with him. His fellow inmates thought it was unwise to get out of prison and into the free world after spending so long in prison. The prison warden was even more opposed to the idea of letting Andy get a chance to freedom. He wished to hold him within the prison for his selfish, greedy and corrupt reasons. He wanted Andy to keep helping him forge documents and cut corrupt deals that would make him richer. However, Andy finally broke out of prison and attained the freedom he yearned for and managed to disappear with all the money he had helped the warden accumulate.
Work Cited
Darabont, Frank. Shawshank Redemption. Castle Rock Entertainment, 1994.