Shawshank Redemption Stereotypes

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In Shawshank Redemption good and evil though personalities were shown as opposite to the stereotypes society holds. We would expect characters like the warden and the guards to be good people yet we are proved different after watching the movie. The same thing is shown with some of the prison inmates. This shows us how society sets norms that portray law enforcers as good and prisoners as evil; Shawshank challenges these stereotypes.

If asked which you would rather leave your children with between a law enforcement officer and a prisoner most people would choose the law enforcer. We consider these people as good and decent people because of the title they have, not knowing if these people are good. The public doesn’t know what mistakes they …show more content…

Prisoners like Red and Andy take the situation they are in and try and make a positive environment for all involved. We see Red as a friend to everyone in the prison. He has respect from the other prisoners and is known as the guy who can get things. Even though he made a mistake in his past, he moved past it to become a better person. Andy on the other hand was wrongly convicted but still tried to be a good person. He gained respect from his fellow inmates by doing nice things for them; he got them beer and played music for everyone to hear even though he knew he would get in trouble for it. Again we are proved the opposite to our previous views on prisoners.

Shawshank Redemption was a movie that really made you think. It made you think about how you judge people in society. We’ve all done bad things in our life, maybe not to the extent as these prisoners but we are given a second chance. It also makes you think twice about trusting people just because everyone else does. Shawshank Redemption does an amazing job at taking stereotypes we are all aware of and challenging them and completely flipping them

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