The Shawshank Redemption – Theme ‘Hope’
• Hope is communicated effectively through dialogue and conflict in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’.
• Dialogue plays a vital part in the communication of the main idea of hope. Red’s conflict becomes more evident when Andy gives him a harmonica, only a short period after Andy’s debate with Red about music freeing the soul and the fact the hope is a good thing.
• Once in the prison, he is seen as a God-like figure who brings hope and the feeling of freedom to the prisoners in isolated Shawshank.
• The Shawshank Redemption is an inspiring story about Andy Dufresne and his efforts to maintain hope in horrible situations. The directors used many effective methods that displayed signs of hope in such a horrible place. Andy maintained hope by distracting his mind and always staying occupied. Andy was also inspired to survive by helping others find hope in life.
• The creators of this movie used several effective, and often subtle, methods to illustrate the hope found in Andy and his surroundings. Andy was always portrayed as a clean-cut and well-groomed prisoner with his shirt always buttoned and his hair always combed. This self-respect was in great contrast to the other prisoners who were portrayed as dirty, stereotypical prisoners. The common prisoners also had vocabularies and grammar that were far inferior to Andy’s. The distinctions between Andy and the common prisoners showed that Andy was different, those differences were that he had hope.
• Many scenes involved ironic contrasts between the tone and the surroundings. On several occasions the background music was cheerful and upbeat while the physical settings and scenery were terribly dark, dreary