The Shawshank Redemption

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Recommended: Relevance of prison education

In this paper the movie The Shawshank Redemption will be discussed which

is a story of convict Andy Dufresnes, life in prison. In this paper I will be focusing more on the

theme hope. The importance of characters and their behavior in prison will be discussed as

well as the importance of education in prison will also be discussed. The movie is about the life

in incarcenation and the corruption under the boundaries of Shawshank prison.

The Shawshank Redemption. In this movie a banker named Andy Dufresne is

convicted of his girlfriend and her secret lover. He is sentenced to a life term at The Shawshank

State Prison. In prison Andy become friends with Red who is able to smuggle things from

outside. Andy very soon became familiar with the ugly realities of prison life. A corrupt

warden, cruel guards led by Capt. Byron Hadley and inmates who use rape or beatings to show

their existence. After all this Andy has the true hope of innocent, he never cracks. Andy uses his

banking skill to get favors from Warden and the guards. Andy has to do the books for Norton’s

illegal business schemes. In exchange he was improving the prison library and the life of most

of the inmates including Red.

In the article “What a simple library can really mean,” Jeff Little argues that the library in

The Shawshank Redemption is a symbol of hope because library made the

prisoners feel independent. The library gave the prisoners hope of getting educated. Being

educated tells what are you capable off. I agree with Little’s argument but believe that the

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Works Cited

Darabont, Frank. “The Shawshank Redemption.” Release date: September 23, 1994. Rev.

Young, Stephen Dine. “Movies as Equipment for living: A developmental Analysis of the

Importance of Film in Everyday Life.” Critical Studies in Media

Communication. Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2000, pp.447-468. Print.

Little, Jeff. “what a Simple Library Can Really Mean.” Journal of

correctional education. Vol. 49, Issue 1, March 1998. Print.

Kerman, Piper. “Orange Is the New Black: my year in a women’s prison.” Random

House. Issue 2011. Print.

Campbell, Kathryn and Denov, Myriam. “The Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful

Imprisonment.” Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal

Justice. Issue January 2004. Rev.

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