Shawshank Redemption 2 Essay, Research Paper

Shawshank Redemption

The main character, Andy, is an accountant who was convicted of murdering his own wife. He is taken out of a life in which he is comfortable and placed in an environment that is completely foreign to him. The of other prisoners’ lifestyles are not similar to his own. Andy is educated and probably has never had any other crimes other than parking violations. The challenges that Andy faces throughout the course of this movie will forever transform his life. The first challenge Andy faces is attempting to identify a group in which he can identify with. When he first reaches the prison, as with all new inmates, he is sexually assaulted. He constantly resists sexually advances by other inmates. While facing other ordeals he hopes to find a group of people he can identify with. Andy uses his vast financial knowledge to help a prison guard keep a tax free $35,000 left to him by his brother. His only request is that the prison guard gives all the prisoners three beers each. Andy then makes his friends for the duration of his stay at Shawshank Prison.

The next challenge that Andy faces is keeping the one thing that he holds dear, hope. The hope that he would one day live as free man once again. Andy’s best friend is a man named Red. Red was convicted of murder during a robbery at an age of 18 and was sentenced to life. He has had multiple parole board hearings and each of them were denied. Red has lost all hope of living one day as a free man again.

Andy keeps himself busy by transforming the prison into a more comfortable environment but he is never completely assimilated into prison life. Andy has a hobby of playing chess in which he carves the pieces with random rocks found in the courtyard.

In addition, Andy has gained the attention of the warden by helping the prison guard keep a tax free $35,000. The Warden needs Andy’s help to launder money that he is earning from work projects. Andy does not loose sight of his true goal, freedom.

Andy is placed in a position in which he can help the other prisoners. He convinced the warden to have the library expanded and also started a literacy program. At one point in the movie Andy even played music over the prison intercom. Many of the prisoners were never able to hear music something so small that we probably take for granted. Andy was beaten severely for this act but he could not be broken. His disobedience was rewarded by two weeks in solitary confinement. Regardless of the punishment he never forgot who he was or his personal goal.

The climax of the story occurs when he decides he is going to finally escape. At the beginning of the movie Andy purchases a small hammer from Red. Red joked about using the hammer to tunnel out of the prison. Over the course of his stay at the prison he manage to tunnel from his own cell to through fifty feet of solid concrete to the prison pipe system. The only concealment of the hole was a poster of a model. His escape required him to crawl 250 yards through sewage waste were he traveled to a local bank to withdraw the cash he had laundered for the warden. He escaped to Mexico to live the rest of his years as a free man.

I can share my personal experiences with other RA’s so that I can provide encouragement to them. Regardless of the problem you can always accommodate yourself to the specific problem. Although, the character found assimilation detrimental and it was not even an option for him. He would have had to give up his own identity and act as a mindless slave. In addition, I would share with them my own experiences when accommodating in relevant and when assimilation is relevant.