Persuasive Essay:The Shawshank Redemtion

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Persuasive Essay
On
The Shawshank Redemption
ENGL 1301
Spring 2014

“Keep hope alive!” “Yes! We can.” All of these are slogans of inspiration that define the human spirit. Without hope life would be dull with nothing to work toward in a positive fashion. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption (1994), the director, Frank Darabot, uses time and space to slowly unfold author, Stephen King’s, short story entitled, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Time serves as a dual reference of torture as well as the locale for the slow, eventual achievement of Andy’s escape, his seemingly impossible goal for nearly twenty-eight years. Shawshank redefines the lapse of time for the inmates, especially for the “lifers” like Andy and Red, who can only look forward to death. The implementation of hours can seem like an eternity, and every day seems fuzzy from the next, adding to the seclusion and affliction of imprisonment. Ironically, however, time also verifies the means of Andy’s escape and redemption and gives him optimism throughout his quarter-century in Shawshank.
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.”
Through events in a prison that occur over...

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...ng the underlying theme that drives the story and the movie, propels the reader and viewer to rekindle the desire to hope above all else because hope is all one has in devastating as well as dire needs. Hope overcomes despair, permits others to see your “inner light” to develop integrity which connects with honesty and trust. Hope is the inspiration to continue to live regardless of the circumstances. Red may have narrated; “Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” But, Andy Dufresne states it best: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

Work Cited

Darabot, Frank and Stephen King (1993) Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption: Screenplay. Netflix.com Viewed 4/7/14

King, Stephen. Different Seasons Mar 22, 2010. “Rita Haywood and the Shawshank Redemption” on amazon.com Viewed 4/1/14.

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