In this blog post, we explore why we must never abandon hope even in despair, using the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ as our lens.
In the film The Shawshank Redemption, “hope” emerges as a crucial theme, serving as the driving force that enables the protagonists to improve their circumstances and overcome adversity. First, the protagonist Andy Dufresne was able to regain his freedom thanks to his desperate hope of escaping Shawshank Prison. Andy was sentenced to two life terms for the murder of his wife and her secret lover, yet he never lost his hope for freedom. This hope helped him overcome the many hardships he endured at Shawshank.
Initially, Andy lived in isolation without friends in prison. He mostly kept to himself, making him an easy target for Boggs, the prison’s thug, and his gang. They subjected Andy to physical and sexual abuse. Additionally, Warden Norton exploited Andy, a former banker, as a tool to increase his own wealth. Norton forced Andy to increase his wealth through illegal means, causing Andy immense mental anguish.
Despite these difficult circumstances, Andy never gave up his hope for freedom and asked Red to bring him a rock hammer. This hammer was the tool Andy used to escape from prison, and his hope for freedom became the driving force that allowed him to keep digging the escape tunnel with it. If Andy had lost hope for freedom and despaired over his life sentence, he would have died in prison. But he was able to overcome the hardship because he held onto the hope of living happily in Zihuatanejo, fulfilling his dream.
Andy’s hope also sustained him through the harsh time spent in solitary confinement. After the library at Shawshank was expanded, Andy discovered a record player donated to the library and connected it to the prison’s speakers, allowing all the inmates to hear music. Though brief, the music allowed the inmates to feel a moment of freedom, which enraged the warden. As a result, Andy was confined to solitary confinement for two weeks. After his release, when friends asked, “How did you endure it?” Andy replied, “I had hope in my heart, and that was something the guards couldn’t take away from me.”
Andy also harbored a desire to elevate the educational level of the prison inmates. Believing the library was the place to realize this dream, he sent weekly letters to the state senate requesting library expansion. Eventually, by sending two letters per week, he transformed the prison library into a top-tier facility. Andy held the hope of educating the inmates and worked tirelessly to create an environment conducive to learning. As a result, Tommy, who initially struggled to read even simple words, passed his exams and earned his high school diploma. Many other inmates also gained wisdom and knowledge through the library’s books. Andy’s hope for education improved conditions within Shawshank, enabling twelve inmates to earn their high school diplomas.
Red, the film’s narrator, also found hope for life outside prison and overcame suicidal impulses thanks to his desire to keep his promise to Andy. After spending 40 years in prison, Red was paroled, but having grown accustomed to prison life, he feared life on the outside. Another paroled inmate, Brooks, who had also adapted to prison, chose suicide because he couldn’t adjust to society. Red, too, felt the same fear and contemplated suicide or committing another crime to return to prison. But Red postponed suicide because he had the desire to keep his promise to find what Andy had left under the big oak tree in Burkstown Pasture. The gift Andy left was a letter containing the message: “Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.” This letter reminded Red that hope could exist even beyond prison walls.
Red embraced the hope of crossing the border to meet his friend Andy, dreaming of spending his remaining years with him in Zihuatanejo, gazing at the Pacific Ocean. He gradually adapted to life outside prison.
Hope was a crucial element not only for the characters in the film but also for the audience outside it. When the film first premiered, the ending concluded with Red setting off to meet Andy. Audiences, wanting a definitive answer on whether Red met Andy, craved a closed ending. The director responded to this demand by adding a scene where the two meet in Zihuatanejo. This allowed audiences to experience the film’s catharsis and receive a positive message that their own hopes could also be fulfilled.
Just as hope was a crucial element for both the protagonists and the audience in the film, hope holds significant meaning for me too. Because the hopes I held in the past shaped who I am today. Last year, I had the hope of becoming a writer, and thanks to that hope, I gave my all in every moment. Whenever I struggled with writing, I would silently shout, “I want to be a writer!” and reaffirm my hope. Thanks to this earnest desire, I am now a blog writer. Just as the hopes I held in the past shaped who I am today, the hopes I hold now will shape who I become in the future. I now hope that all 7 billion people worldwide will visit my blog.
