In this blog post, I will talk about why we should never give up hope even in the midst of despair through the movie “The Shawshank Redemption.”
In the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” “hope” appears as an important theme in that it becomes the driving force for the main characters to improve their situation and overcome difficulties. First, the main character, Andy Dufresne, was able to become a free man thanks to his earnest desire to escape from Shawshank prison. Andy was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for murdering his wife and her secret lover, but he never lost his desire for freedom, which helped him overcome the many hardships he experienced in Shawshank.
In the beginning, Andy was lonely in prison with no friends. He mostly traveled alone, making him an easy target for Boggs and his gang of prison thugs. They physically and sexually abused him. In addition, the warden, Norton, used Andy, a former banker, as a tool to increase his wealth. Norton forced him to increase his wealth through illegal means, causing him mental distress.
Even in this difficult situation, Andy did not give up his desire for freedom and asked Red to bring him a rock hammer. This hammer was the tool he used to escape from prison, and his desire for freedom was the driving force that allowed him to continue to dig a hole for his escape with it. If Andy had lost hope for freedom and despaired of serving a life sentence, he would have died in prison. But he was able to overcome his difficulties because he had a desire to live happily in Zihuatanejo, fulfilling his dream.
Andy’s wish helped him endure the difficult time he spent in solitary confinement. After the library in Shawshank was expanded, Andy found a record player that had been donated to the library and connected it to the prison’s speakers so that all the prisoners could listen to music. Although it was only for a short time, the prisoners felt free for a moment while listening to the music, which angered the warden. As a result, Andy was locked up in solitary confinement for two weeks. After he came out of solitary confinement, his friends asked him, “How did you endure it?” Andy replied, “I had a desire in my heart, and that’s what kept me going because even the prison guards couldn’t take that away from me.”
Andy also had a desire to improve the education level of the prisoners in the prison. He thought that the library was the place to make that dream come true, so he wrote weekly letters to the state Senate asking for an expansion of the library. In the end, he wrote two letters a week to make the prison library the best facility of its kind. With a desire to educate the prisoners, Andy worked to create an environment suitable for education. As a result, Tommy, a prisoner who initially had difficulty reading words, passed the test and received a high school diploma, and many other prisoners were able to gain wisdom and knowledge from the books in the library. Andy’s desire for education improved the situation in Shawshank and 12 prisoners were able to receive high school diplomas.
Red, the narrator of the film, was able to find hope for life outside prison and overcome suicidal impulses thanks to his desire to keep his promise to Andy. Red was paroled after 40 years in prison, but he was afraid of life outside of prison because he was used to prison life. Brooks, another paroled prisoner, was also used to prison life and chose suicide because he could not adapt to society. Red also felt the same fear and thought about committing suicide or going back to prison. However, Red put off committing suicide because he wanted to keep his promise to find what Andy had left for him under the big oak tree in the Buckstone meadow. Andy’s gift was a letter with the message, “Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best thing there is. And good things never die.” This letter reminded Red that he could have hope even outside of prison.
Red adjusted to life outside prison, dreaming of crossing the border to see his friend Andy and spending the rest of his life with him in Zihuatanejo, looking out at the Pacific Ocean.
The wish was an important element not only for the characters in the film but also for the audience outside the film. When the film was first released, the ending ended with Red leaving to meet Andy. The audience wanted to know for sure whether Red met Andy or not, and they wanted a closed ending. The director accepted the audience’s request and added a scene in which the two meet in Zihuatanejo. This allowed the audience to feel the catharsis that the film provides and to receive a positive message that their wishes can come true.
As such, just as hope was an important element for both the protagonists and the audience in the movie, hope has an important meaning for me as well. This is because the hope I had in the past has made me who I am today. Last year, I had a desire to become a writer, and thanks to that desire, I did my best every moment. Whenever I had trouble writing, I would say to myself, “I want to be a writer!” and remind myself of my wish. Thanks to this earnest desire, I am now a blog writer. Just as the desires I had in the past have shaped me into who I am today, the desires I have now will shape me into who I will be in the future. I now wish that 7 billion people around the world will visit my blog.
