Shawshank redemption- the movie and the journey of our life.
Salvation lies within-The bible.
Last night I just finished seeing the movie “The Shawshank redemption”.The story of a man named Andy Dufresne — an educated banker who was wrongly convicted of committing two murders one of his unfaithful wife and his lover and almost two decades of his life in the Shawshank prison.The movie was recounted as one of the greatest movies of all time despite a luke lukewarm initial response at the box office in 1994 and also lost many of its final awards winning titles to “Forrest Gump” a Tom Hanks starrer movie a heart warming account of a retard and his rise to the zenith of attainments despite all of his limitations. Shawshank despite its initial debacle at the box office passed the taste of time in becoming a cult movie of all time.
However this article is not written with the intent of serving as the critical appreciation of the movie. While watching the movie I realized the intrinsic connection of the movie with our own lives and thereby understood the significance of the movie. The subsequent points are discussed hereby.
The Shawshank prison:- The prison itself is a symbol of obstacles, hindrances that we regularly encounter in or daily lives. The setbacks we receive , the difficulties we face, the illnesses we fear , the losses we suffer are the shackles seen in the prison. The protagonist Andy in the movie was first wrongly convicted to serve two life sentences. He was repeatedly raped by a homosexual gang, beaten fiercely by the guards, often sent in the so called infirmary to lead a hellish life. His repeated attempt to improve the conditions of the prison build an exclusive prison library was met with consistent setbacks. But despite all these languishments he never for a single moment lost hope.
Ray of humanity:- Prison is the seat of confinement and disorder . The life is not only unruly and rough but it is so mundane and torturing that it even breaks the spirit of the strongest of men. Thus the horrific nature of prison life is in allegory to the most hopeless situations we encounter in our lives may be in form of a crippling disease or a crumbling poverty and repeated failures to attain certain objectives.Like greatest of human reformers Andy despite his own personal derogations started improving the lives of prison inmates by building a comprehensive library with prison funds. He even started assisting prisoners to pass their general education development programs. All these efforts not only helped the people around him but also helped him attain an important position in the prison winning the trust of his inmates. As his previous background was of abanker, he started managing tax plans for the entire guard crews and finally of the warden.It can be said that with his humanitarian efforts he not only did good to the prisoners but his integrity salvaged his own pride and garnered a position of trust among all the prisoners and importance among the prison guards and officials.
Patience and diligence:-Along the course of the movie it is seen that in order to augment funds for setting up the improved prison library Andy writes repeated letters to the United States Government with a monotonous regularity. As the money supplied to the prison comes from the money of tax payers the budget is always tight and if generous then it is only for one soul purpose , to improve the surveillance system of the prison. The warden of the prison told him repeatedly that liquidation of such funds from the government is an entire impossibility. Yet Andy went on writing letters each week for a consecutive six years time span.Six years!! — yet in the entire period he never missed one single week to unsettle the government.This singular devotion is no doubt a little mythical yet incorporation of even a part of this entire diligence to achieve any goal in our respective lives are bound to bring results , however lofty the goal might seem. Andy with his iconic determination really shook up the government who sent a generous grant along with an entire shipment of books-a case unprecedented in US prison history.Really diligence pays.
Integrity-:In the prison each day all the prisoners had to experience at least a single assault either physical and mental . Andy with his boyish looks was subjected to even more sodomised assaults by powerful gay men. For every trifling issues of misconduct the prisoners got regular and repeated brutal punishments , either physical violence or the deadly isolation of an apocalyptic solitary prison cell. Yet unlike other prisoners, Dufresne never resorted to violent acts and unfair means to counter. He neither succumbed to repeated assaults but kept his reserve and cold blooded slyness to trap his oppressors and gradually used his financial skills to bend his obstacles to his favour and eventually freeing himself from prison hostilities. In real life in a lot more simple but trying situations we lose our self worth.Preserving self worth is not only a spiritual or renunciative nobility but it reaps even great materialistic fruits. Hence Andy becomes the eternal emblem of self worth and self belief in the movie.
Motivation and focus:-This part is the most enticing and awe inspiring part of the film.From the very moment he was imprisoned he started thinking of his escape. Although he was devastated by the sentence he received for crimes he did not commit. He was not petrified by it and started planning for his escape . The preparation was entirely secret and there was a cold intricate cold determination and motivation behind the escape.What is more baffling is retaining the drive and desire for freedom in the most inhospitable and hostile situations concceivable.To plan meticulously about any operation for a period of a year two is difficult but probable but the entire preparation for a period of almost two decades is unrealistic. To retain the focus for overcoming difficulty for such a long period is an instance which we all can emulate in overcoming any hindrance in our path. The movie being made around lives of very common people actually creates a conviction that any ordinary person can hold an enthusiasm like this.
Never giving up dreaming:- All along his tenure in jail Andy was always dreaming to again move towards a positive normal life.He dreamt continually of going to the magical land in Mexico Zihuatanejo a place without any memory where he can start life as afresh. Even amidst terrible adversities he did not give up his dreams though he was warned by Red to give up hope of normal life after sentence.
Hope:- When terrible darkness looms behind our back,when after remaining sick or in poverty we think that life will just proceed in this way dark and depressing the only thing that keeps us going is the light of hope. It is the oxygen that we breath day in and day out when obnoxious gases of despair fill our lungs. Andy never gave up hope and faith over humanity, over life , over the undaunted spirit of struggle against all odds. The humane spirits funneled his determination to keep himself motivated . This motivation bolstered the spirit of hope in his mind.
The beauty at the end:- As the end approaches we are riveted by the beauty of the story.With the beginning of a new journey after loss,suffering, pain, languishments has almost an artistic beauty, a craft of jollity and an eternal touch of lasting human aspirations. It almost completes the spiritual journey of a man from inception of self discovery to salvation at the end. Thus it transcends from a film to an unending chronicle of a man who can be in any bizarre , hopeless situations, deepest despair only to emerge victorious in the end irrespective of class, creed, nationality , economic status.
