Symbolism In The Shawshank Redemption

Many prisoners throughout New Zealand come out of prison worse than they were to start with. This is due to prisoners becoming too familiar with this prison lifestyle and becoming institutionalized. The film Shawshank Redemption directed by Frank Darabont is a film about prisoners struggles and perils as they try to remain sane in prison. Darabont uses visual features such as symbols all throughout the film.

Darabont uses the prison walls as a symbol of evil. The walls symbolize the evil of institutionalism and are portrayed as this big dominant thing. When Andy (Main Character) first enters the prison, there is a bird’s eye view shot of all the prisoners compared to these big dominant walls. These massive prison walls make the prisoners look

This library gave some of the prisoners a chance at something. It gave them education it gave them hope to be able to have something on the outside. There is a shot in the film when Andy and his inmates knock down the wall to build the library. You see Andy and his inmates standing in this big hole looking as hopeful as ever. Andy showed persistence and dedication when trying to get this library underway. He used to send a letter away to the prison board every week in an effort to get funding. They then finally got sick of his letters so they gave him funding. This kept Andy busy for the longest of time and prevented him from succumbing to the evil of institutionalism. I also think with Andy building this library a lot of prisoners were kept busy and this would further prevent them from being institutionalized. I think with Darabont having this library in the film he had every intention of it being a symbol. This library was no help for Red though as he had lost hope years ago. When in an argument with Andy he says, “Hope doesn’t exist in here” but Andy knew all along, all he needed was hope. It is almost like this library the hope symbol is in a battle with the evil prison walls the symbol of