Essay On The Shawshank Redemption

In the intriguing film The Shawshank Redemption directed by Frank Darabont, two characters who have served long sentences in Shawshank Prison face a drastic change in their lives by being released on parole and freed to enter the real world again. Darabont uses the characters “Red” Redding and Brooks Hatlen to present the theme of hope and how it can change their fate when living in such an unfamiliar world.

Red Redding and Brooks Hatlen are very similar in the story they take throughout the prison. They both experience over 40 years of a jail sentence which led them to being institutionalised, which is where they feel as the prison has become a home to them. At the time of leaving the prison each character was symbolised to be very nervous about returning …show more content…
Red was a guy who knew how to get things in prison such as cigarettes or playing cards where Brooks become the prison librarian due to having a university degree in his name before entering Shawshank. Brooks was seen to be a smart man but after living inside of the prison for so many years he became scared of the immense change that had happened over the 50 years that he had spent in prison. Red was in prison for less time to Brooks due to losing faith in having the same excuse that kept him in prison due to all of his close friends leaving. This situation led to him not sharing the same fate as Brooks. He may have been scared of the outside world but was able to adapt due to his will to survive as he had a job to find something of Andy’s which was under an old chestnut tree next to a rock wall. By Brooks not having a will to survive this led to his suicide by the fear that he was not living in being too strong where Red received the note from Andy and moved onto going to find the one friend who had saved him from the stressful