One’s ambition, when fueled by hope, can cause them to keep going when put in an adverse situation. When this occurs, it leaves a lasting effect on the individuals around them. In the film Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont, the main character Andy Dufrense experiences many hardships but perseveres through them using hope. Andy is placed in a situation that is out of his control and loses any hope he has at the beginning. Through the situations he faces, such as his encounters with the sisters, gaining funds for the library, and succeeding in his escape plan from the prison, Andy regains that hope which motivates his ambition to be free. In the film Shawshank Redemption, Darabont explores the idea that an individual’s ambition for freedom, …show more content…
One morning when the guards are checking the cells, they discover that Andy is not in his cell. The warden throws rocks out of anger and throws one at the poster of a female Andy had taped on his cell wall. The rock goes straight through once they take down the poster, they see a hole in the wall. Andy had been digging this hole for twenty long years and used it to escape the prison. In the film, there is a scene of Andy in which he stands in the rain with his hands in the air as a free man. He takes in the rain on the other side of the prison and we see the happiness he feels knowing his plan worked. This scene shows us the success and accomplishment he feels knowing that due to his hard work over the years, he is now a free man. Once Andy escapes, he goes to Zihuatanejo, Mexico to start a new life, like he had told Red earlier on in the film. Once Red is granted parole, he is sent to the same hotel as Brooks and works at the same grocery store as well. The difference between Brooks and Red is that Red has a reason to keep going once he is out of the prison. He states “Only one thing stops me. A promise I made to Andy.” (). As he sits in his hotel room. This shows that Andy left a lasting impression on Red and also instilled hope in him to not give up like Brooks had. In the prison, Red was a man who had nothing to look forward to and gave up on ever getting parole but after being exposed to Andy and his beliefs, Red changed his thinking. When Red goes to finally meet Andy in Mexico, 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. “ (). This shows that someone who had said that hope is a dangerous thing now hopes for so many things, all because of Andy and his
Freedom is very important in Stephen King’s Novel, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.” Andy, is a clear example of how the author feels about freedom as well as what freedom means to him. “I asked him once what the posters meant to him, and he gave me a peculiar, surprised sort of look. 'Why, they mean the same thing to me as they do to most cons, I guess,' he said. 'Freedom. You look at those pretty women, and you feel like you could almost ... not quite but almost step right through and be beside them.”(King 1982:32). Posters inspire freedom in Andy, allowing him to feel free in ways of imagination, but also, feel as if he were being portrayed in the posters. Andy also feels the same way in relation to freedom, whilst portraying an attitude as if he were a free man. “Andy Dufresne wasn't much like me or anyone else I ever knew since I came inside. He brought in five hundred dollars jammed up his back porch, but somehow that graymeat son of a bitch managed to bring in something else, as well. A sense...
The creators of this movie used several effective, and often subtle, methods to illustrate the hope found in Andy and his surroundings. Andy was always portrayed as a clean-cut and well-groomed prisoner with his shirt always buttoned and his hair always combed. This self-respect was in great contrast to the other prisoners who were portrayed as dirty, stereotypical prisoners. The common prisoners also had vocabularies and grammar that were far inferior to Andy’s. The distinctions between Andy and the common prisoners showed that Andy was different, those differences were that he had hope.
In the movie this phrase is first said by Andy in the prison yard just before he escaped. At this point in the movie Andy seems to be completely depressed. Throughout the movie, Andy always seemed to have a little smile on his face, but at this point it seemed as all hope was gone from him. He was talking to Red about Zihautanejo, Mexico. This is the place Andy wanted to go to after he got out of Shawshank. He talked about how beautiful it was and how he wanted to go down there and start a hotel
Greed and envy are two of the seven deadly sins in the Christian world that adherents must dispel from their lives. This fact makes it all the more ironic when many Christians during the Salem witch trials display these two offenses in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. One reason explaining the prevalence of sin in a society that thinks of itself as pure is that leaders demonstrate that they care more about actions rather than pureness of thought. For example, clergymen who feature themselves in the play, like Parris and Hale, often measure a person’s connection with the divine through the number of times he or she attends church. In actuality, according to many prominent officials of the Christian Church, that connection can only be achieved
When faced with a problem, humans usually try to find the easiest, fastest, and most convenient way out of the issue. In order to overcome problems, motivation is needed. However, motivation comes from different places within a person based on the individual’s desires. When looking back to 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts the problem during this time period was witchcraft, and "to be accused was to be assumed guilty, to accuse was to avoid punishment" (Jimerson 37). Fear of punishment causes people to accuse the innocent, and the innocent has no redemption for they were automatically guilty. No one was safe at this time as the cycle continued on and on. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren is motivated by fear that transitions from Abigail
Any goal in life is achieved through ambition, fueled by determination, desire and hard work. Ambition maybe a driving force to success or to a pit of failure, the path chosen by an individual determines the end. Remember that any goal to be fulfilled needs desire, desire that strives to do good or greedy desire that is selfish. Also the actions that contribute to our ‘hard work’ need to be morally and ethically right to enjoy the sweet success. However, when the desire and determination is stronger than conscience, many tend to fail often reach or don’t reach what they strived for, leaving them emotionally or even physically dead. The inner lying consequence of ambition is clearly stated by Napoleon, he quotes “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them”. The undesirable consequence of ambition can be observed in the lives of the protagonists of ‘The Great Gatsby and Macbeth. This describes the direction in which ambition is driven could change the end result, it is simply based on the individual itself rather than the dream they seek to achieve. Therefore, the strong drive of ambition helps the seeker attain their goal but greedy desires and wrong paths taken eventually lead to downfall.
This defiance is what makes his character so likable. Red is a good man that did a terrible thing. He gives gifts to Andy and is a good friend to him when he needs him. He is very smart, not ever getting caught while smuggling everything in. He is a likable man because of his sincerity. At the start of the film he can even be considered the archetype of the wise old man. The wise old man of a film “possesses knowledge and often serves as a mentor to the hero” (Seger 392). He becomes Andy’s mentor and takes him under his wing, shows him the ways to do things and teaches him how to survive behind bars. He gets him what he needs from the outside world, like the hammer and the posters, and he gives him valuable advice. The stereotype of the African American is not seen as a respectable man, nor as an individual who bears intelligence and charm, as Red does. Andy Dufresne helps Red grow as a person and to defy the stereotype that he was born by the color of his skin. This sort of African American image can be seen in other movies as
During this scene there is a crane shot of Andy and Captain Hadley to show the situation that Andy is in as Captain Hadley’s holding him at the tip of the roof while yelling in his face with anger which scares Andy remarkably as the witnesses see it as Captain Hadley’s going to push him off the roof. Darabont used the shot to show the audience that the guard: Captain Hadley has a lot of power over Andy at this point, the non- digetic sound in the background during this scene helps to intrigue the audience even more thinking that he’s actually going to be pushed off the roof. In the dialogue “There is going to be an accident here,” stated by Captain Hadley which gives the audience the sense that Andy is going to die and that Captain Hadley is going to tell the others who weren’t there at the time that it was all an accident, it shows us the amount of power and anger the Captain has. Andy makes a deal with the Captain as he links his accounting skills to provide financial advice for the Captain himself. Lastly, in the dialogue “I think a man working outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds. That’s only my opinion” which was reinforced by Andy, who cares about his friends. However, Red thinks that Andy did it just to feel normal again after all the hard times he is facing he’s been through, which relates back to the wider society with when you’re wanting to take risks, but you’ll need to firstly have faith and hopefulness that you’re going to do it and that will help you get through your difficult
The film stars Tim Robbins as Andrew 'Andy' Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding. The film portrays Andy spending nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison, a surreal house of correction in Maine and his friendship with Red, a fellow inmate, which gradually develops over the years. Consequently the three reasons that the director wanted to produce this movie are to reveal hope, despair and integrity. Red describes the reasons eloquently: “All I know for sure is that Andy Dufresne wasn’t much like me or anyone else I ever knew. . . . It was a kind of inner light he carried around with him.”
Imagine a camp where having the chance to see the ones that were significant in life was banned. Imagine a world where on a daily basis ,people got tortured in disturbing, immoral ways right in front of many viewing eyes from young to old. Image a camp where loved one’s life’s got stolen from them for all the wrong reasons. Strength and health was no longer an obstacle that had to be dealt with. The only thing left to do was to stride for something that could keep you going for the long run. What would happen then? Something new begins to grow. Something so powerful that it could possibly outshine strength and health. Hope. Hope is something that could get you farther than strength and health.
When Andy arrives in prison Red is serving a life sentence for a murder he committed when he was a young adult. In the film Red introduces himself as “the guy that can get it for you”, him being able to get certain items into the prison for other people. Because of this ability Red is placed on a certain pedestal of importance when looked at by other prisoners. Red’s only purpose in life and in the prison has become smuggling items into the prison. If he were to be let out into the real world, that purpose would be taken away, and he would have a very hard time finding meaning in his life. In this matter Ellis was institutionalized, just as Brookes had been. A moment when this is supported in the film is when Red tells Andy "These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them, until it gets to you depend on them. That 's institutionalized." Red has grown dependent on his role in the prison for meaning in life, and without it his life has no
For example when he says, ”…Man in prison grey next to me could be worth more money than Warden Norton would make in the rest of his miserable life…” (King pg.49) Andy has a false identity outside of prison and is worth $370,000, If he leaves Shawshank he will have more money than the warden. This makes him have something to look forward to when he escapes. Red thinks he would be more important out there than in Shawshank considering the amount of money he will have on the outside. Moreover he also incorporates point of view to show that one can easily put their feet in his shoes and understand how it feels to have a dream and not getting one’s mind off of it and can overall relate. Another quote is Andy describing what he wants, ”I keep thinking about Zihuatanejo and that small hotel. Thats all I want in life now, Red and I don't think thats to much to want.”(King pg.51) This is to keep an image of the rest of his life to be in Zihuatanejo, and gives him hope that maybe one day he can live out the rest of his life there and be happy. Finally Stephen King assimilates irony to convey that prison isn't supposed to make inmates feel free and yet Andy had the most freedom than all the other inmates. He was allowed in the Wardens office and to work with him. Finally Red narrates, “Andy became something more than a model prisoner. In 1950, he became a valuable commodity, a murderer who did tax returns as well as H & R Block.”(King pg. 64) Red states that Andy wasn't an inmate he was much more. He meant something to Shawshank and he had some sort of self worth by doing tax returns for the guards. He left a legacy in
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is extensively a story of hope. Hope is to wish for something with expectation of its fulfilment and to have confidence; trust. This is shown through the themes, issues and the characters in the novel. Atticus represents hope, he is optimist. He is from the higher class and defends the lower class and still has the anticipation to win. The Finch family has hope as Atticus has taught his children to be accepting and have open-minds. Racism and prejudice, give people the hope for change. For one day there be a world that is fair and equal. Hope comes in many shapes and forms, including the children, Atticus, and themes, akin to racism and prejudice, although hope present throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
that I could relate to ever time I read the book. If we all try very hard at what are hopes and
In Macbeth, Shakespeare confronts audiences with universal and powerful themes of ambition and evil along with its consequences. Shakespeare explores the powerful theme of the human mind’s decent into madness, audiences find this theme most confronting because of its universal relevance. His use of dramatic devices includes soliloquies, animal imagery, clear characterisation and dramatic language. Themes of ambition and mental instability are evident in Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter detailing the prophecies, Macbeth’s hallucinations of Banquo’s ghost and finally in the scene where Lady Macbeth is found sleep walking, tortured by her involvement.