shawshank redemption essay hope

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Hope as a Driving Force in The Movie "The Shawshank Redemption"

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The Persistence of Hope: The Journey of Andy Dufresne

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The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy pp 1–18 Cite as

The Shawshank Redemption as Philosophy: Freedom and Panopticism

• Alexander E. Hooke 2  
• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 31 January 2021

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Since its release in 1994, The Shawshank Redemption has gradually emerged as a classic work of art according to movie critics and fans. It has been the subject of conferences and books, as well as a tourist attraction in Mansfield, Ohio. Based on a novella by Stephen King, the movie takes place mostly in a prison for serious convicts such as murderers and violent thugs. The conditions are fairly harsh. The warden and guards have few reservations in pummeling the convicts or placing them in solitary confinement. Killing an inmate and burying him anonymously in the prison grounds does happen.

There are several philosophical lessons presented by this movie (and the novella). The drama and cruelties of prison life highlight moments of friendship and hope. They also depict moments of hell and ask whether prison is merely a darker microcosm of everyday society. This chapter addresses these points through two philosophical lenses. One is from existentialism as found in the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre. The second is from genealogy as presented in the work of Michel Foucault.

• Solitary confinement
• Panopticism
• Michel Foucault
• Jean-Paul Sartre

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Bierce, Ambrose. 1911. The Devil’s dictionary . New York: Thomas Crowell.

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Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1992. Fragmentation and redemption . New York: Zone Books.

Camporesi, Piero. 1991. The fear of hell, trans. L. Byatt. The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Dawidziak, Mark. 2019. The Shawshank redemption revealed . Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison , trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Pantheon, 1973.

———. 2000. Power , part of series The essential works of Foucault, 1954–1984. Ed. James D. Faubion, trans. Robert Hurley and others. New York: The New Press.

Gros, Federic. 2015. The philosophy of walking , trans. John Howe. London: Verso.

Kermode, Mark. 2003. The Shawshank redemption . London: British Film Institute.

King, Stephen. 1983. “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” under Hope Springs Eternal. In Different seasons . New York: Signet.

Murton, Tom, and Joe Hyams. 1969. Accomplices to the crime: The Arkansas prison scandal . New York: Grove Press/Black Cat.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1961. Thus Spoke Zarathustra , trans. R. J. Hollingdale. England: Penguin.

———. 1967. On the genealogy of morals , trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1948. No exit, trans. Stuart Gilber. New York: Vintage.

———. 1966. Being and Nothingness , trans. Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Washington Square Press.

———. 1975. Existentialism is a humanism. In Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre , ed. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Meridian.

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Hooke, A.E. (2021). The Shawshank Redemption as Philosophy: Freedom and Panopticism. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97134-6_62-1

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The Shawshank Redemption

By frank darabont, the shawshank redemption themes.

It’s right there in the title, after all. As Andy learns all too well, the system under which he is being punished is not invested in his redemption whatsoever, so he must create the circumstances for it himself. Thus, his "redemption" is a spiritual one, in that he manages to escape from wrongful imprisonment, enact revenge on his enemies, and profit enough to move to his dream home in Mexico. He goes from being trapped in Shawshank for a crime he did not commit, to finding the good life and escaping the oppressive structures that have so hurt him and his friends. Not only that, but he provides redemption and escape for his best friend from prison, Red. Red also undergoes a kind of redemption when he is let out on parole. After telling his judges that he thinks regretfully about his crime everyday, they deem him fit to leave the prison, but the ex-con's real redemption does not come until he gets the note from Andy and sets off to find a new life on the Pacific Ocean. Redemption is thus a major theme in the film, epitomized by the character of Andy and his curiously wise and generous attitude.

Andy is a character who maintains a steady hope throughout his time in prison. His circumstances have not exactly set him up to be a hopeful man—after all, he has been wrongly given two life sentences for a crime he did not commit—but nevertheless he never gives up his sense of determination and hope. While imprisoned, he spreads this hope and good will among his fellow inmates, building up the library and helping them get educations they never received. His dogged pursuit of a better library for the prison represents his hopefulness and his ability to transmit that hope to others. He also possesses a persistent hope of attaining freedom. He hopes to achieve freedom through legal means, but is more than willing to attain freedom on his own terms when the system continues to fail him. Towards the end of the film, just before Andy makes his great escape, Red tells him to give up hope, as it will drive him crazy. Nevertheless, Andy's hope is what drives him out of his imprisonment and leads him to the life he so desires.

Appreciating Freedom

The single most iconic image from The Shawshank Redemption shows Andy, having finally made his way through the tunnel he’s been working on for decades, sliding through the drain pipe into the stream below, running away from the immediate danger, ripping off his shirt and then standing there with arms outstretched and head tilted back looking toward the sky as the rain washes him. He relishes the first taste of unencumbered freedom he has enjoyed in decades and is determined to make the most of it. His response to escaping stands in contrast with the freedom of his fellow inmates such as Brooks and Red who, upon reentering society, become overwhelmed by the prospect of fitting in to a world that left them behind. The film suggests that part of Andy's enlightenment is his ability to savor and embrace his freedom, in spite of all the associations he has made in prison. Even though the prison completely reorients the prisoners' sense of self and purpose, Andy knows that freedom is sweeter than any security prison life might provide.

The depression that many of the men are said to face when they are released from Shawshank has to do with their senses of identity. We see this clearly represented by the character of Brooks. When he is released and sent to live in a halfway house, Brooks struggles to acclimate to society, and a huge part of what makes his reentry difficult is the fact that he does not know who he is in the real world. He is not used to the ubiquitousness of automobiles after 50 years in prison, and he is no longer a big fish in a small pond. In prison, he was the librarian, an educated and wise elder among the men, but in the real world, he becomes an old man bagging groceries, and it is this shift in identity that leaves him so hopeless and afraid. Red suffers the same crisis of identity when he gets out of jail, landing in the same halfway house with the same job, but is saved from his own suicidal impulse by the promise of living in Mexico with Andy.

Meticulousness

Part of what defines Andy's character is his meticulousness. He is a quiet and disciplined man, much more accomplished and educated than many of the other prisoners, and from early on in his time in prison, he sets to work on various projects to keep him occupied. As Red narrates to us, staying occupied is an absolute essential of prison life, and Andy is never in want of a purpose. He carves chess pieces out of stone and builds up the Shawshank library through sheer persistence. Once he accrues the necessary funds to make the library functional, he begins to help the men pursue their educations, and displays a quiet determination to help spread knowledge and learning among the inmates.

Andy's greatest feat of determination and meticulousness is his digging of an escape tunnel. Without anyone ever realizing it, for the whole time he has been there Andy has been digging a tunnel out of Shawshank, using nothing but a small rock hammer. His quiet persistence is typified by this discreet getaway, and we see that one of the defining characteristics of his character is his hard working and meticulous attention to his goals.

Companionship

Within the sociality of prison life, the men pursue deep and significant friendships with one another. While so much of prison life is defined by violence, bullying, and pain, Red creates a community and network of men who look out for one another and help each other achieve great things. In particular, Red and Andy share a significant bond, and help one another through difficult times in the prison. In this way, they become one another's companions, and their shared company serves as the source of comfort and solace for both of them. Their conversations with each other become the most important parts of the film, and represent the ways that even through deep hardship, the prisoners find intimacy and caring. Their friendship endures even after they have parted ways, and Andy’s letter to Red shows the depth of their mutual affection. The film ends with Red casting off his self destructive impulse to travel to Mexico to be with his dear friend. Thus the film represents friendship and companionship as a worthy alternative to existential despair.

Religion & Spirituality

Andy is himself a kind of messianic character, in that he is generous, giving, and unselfish in his approach to his fellow inmates. While it is unclear if he is a god-fearing man, his actions reflect a deeply-felt sense of ethics that is at times sacrificial and Christ-like in nature. His quiet and personal spirituality is contrasted starkly by the pious, fundamentalist, and deeply hypocritical religiosity of the warden, Norton. Norton is the opposite of Andy in that his religiousness is loudly proclaimed but barely lived. He speaks out against blasphemy and is quick to quote the Bible, but his leadership style is punitive, ruthless, and unforgiving. He rules by force, and expects his subjects to cower before him. At one point, he admires the fact that Andy is reading his Bible in his cell, but the two men clearly have starkly different relationships to the text.

The Shawshank Redemption Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Shawshank Redemption is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What item in Andy cell represents his character

Rocks, crystals, and concrete represent Andy Dufresne's persistence, which he uses to survive the prison environment and nspire others.

What caused the whole prison to come back to life in 1967

Andy's escape was in 1966 so I think you might be meaning that.

List three things Red suggests slowed Andy down in breaking through the wall.

I don't recall Red trying to slow Andy down.

Study Guide for The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption study guide contains a biography of Frank Darabont, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Shawshank Redemption
• The Shawshank Redemption Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont.

• Receiving Redemption: The Transformative Power of Hope
• Ropes of Oppression: Escaping the Noose
• How Journeys Challenge and Broaden Understanding of the World: "Father and Child," "Spring Hall," and The Shawshank Redemption
• Shawshank: The Injustices of the Justice System
• Patience and Persistence: Andy Dufresne’s Long Game

Wikipedia Entries for The Shawshank Redemption

• Introduction

Film Analysis: The Shawshank Redemption Essay

Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 film which stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and is based on Stephen King’s novelette Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption .

Log line: the film chronicles a young banker’s prison sentence which he is serving for the murder of his wife and his wife’s lover and his eventual escape from prison.

Protagonist: the protagonists of the film are Andrew “Andy” Dufresne and Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding.

The major theme: perseverance is the major theme in the film. This is evidenced by the lengthy periods of time that Andy takes to meet his goals; from small goals like getting books for the library to his major goal of escaping prison.

Inciting incident: the event that sets the story rolling is the sentencing of Andy Dufresne to two life sentences to be served back to back in Shawshank State Prison.

Forces against them: major forces against the protagonists are the prison administration and the changes that come with life in prison. The prison guards are especially brutal towards the prisoners and do not respect the prisoners’ rights.

Act structure: the film has a 3 act structure. The first act covers Andy’s trial, his introduction to prison life and his initial interaction with Red, Brooks, Heywood and “The Sisters”. Act two covers Andy’s tribulations brought on him by “The Sisters”, his time doing taxes for the guards, Andy laundering money for Warden Norton, Red developing a friendship with Andy, the release and suicide of Brooks and the murder of Tommy by the warden. Act three comprises Andy’s escape, Red being released on parole and the two of them meeting in Zihuatanejo as Andy had planned.

Act climaxes: the climax of the first act is Andy getting sentenced to two life sentences to be served back to back. The climax that ends the second act is the death of Tommy after he is shot by Captain Hadley and the climax of the entire film is Andy and Red meeting in Zihuatanejo.

Complications: the first complication is Andy’s encounters with “The Sisters” who are a prison gang that rapes and beats Andy. The second complication is Warden Norton’s unwillingness to let Andy appeal his case.

Physical symbol: Zihuatanejo is an island in the Pacific Ocean and it is a symbol of hope and freedom in the movie. The Pacific Ocean in this film is used as a symbol too. Andy regards the Ocean as having no memory and this is a symbol of him leaving behind the past and having a fresh start, free of his past.

A moment that shows character through action: Andy is calculating and this trait is clearly shown in the scene where he is explaining how he launders Warden Norton’s money using accounts in the name of someone who only exists in his imagination. After escaping prison Andy uses the identity he created to withdraw the money he was laundering for Warden Norton.

Interesting narrative techniques: the story of Brooks is a subplot in the main plot that supports Red’s hopelessness about getting out of prison but juxtaposes Andy’s hope that he will one day leave prison.

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Home Essay Examples Entertainment Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption and the Power of Hope

• Category Entertainment
• Subcategory Movies
• Topic Film Analysis , Shawshank Redemption

In this movie, a banker named Andy Dufresne is convicted of killing his girlfriend and her secret lover. He is sentenced to a life term at The Shawshank State Prison. In prison, Andy becomes friends with Red, who can smuggle things from outside. Andy very soon became familiar with the ugly realities of prison life. A corrupt warden, cruel guards, led by Capt. Byron Hadley and inmates who use rape or beatings to show their existence. After all this, Andy has the sincere hope of innocent; he never cracks. Andy uses his banking skills to get favors from Warden and the guards. Andy has to do the books for Norton’s illegal business schemes. In exchange, he was improving the prison library and the life of most of the inmates, including Red. In the article ‘What a simple library can mean,’ Jeff Little argues that the library in The Shawshank Redemption is a symbol of hope because the library made the prisoners feel independent. The library gave the prisoners confidence of getting educated. Being educated tells what are you capable of. I agree with Little’s argument but believe that the library also demonstrates how Andy never gave up trying to build the library. Andy kept on writing letters with the hope that one day he would get funding to build the library. Andy was sent to the prison library, where he sets up a make-shift desk to provide services to other guards with income tax returns and other financial advice. There Andy sees an opportunity to expand the prison library. He starts asking the Maine state senate for funds. Andy starts writing letters. It took him a few years, but eventually, it worked, and he received some aid and supply of donated books. After receiving those books and funds, he now begins writing two letters a week with the hope that he might start getting more donated books and funds. Andy Dufresne was the main character who struggled to improve the library and to make it a better and peaceful place in prison. It became a project for him to keep him busy in prison. He talks about how the prison was such a violent place, and if they did anything wrong, the guards would beat them close to death. Andy experienced great injustice of imprisonment. In film, themes are often expressed through the use of symbols. The Shawshank Redemption relies on many symbols to communicate the idea of hope, including success, dedication, and normality. When Andy first talked to Red, he had the belief that Red would get him what he wants because Red was the one who had access to contraband. The Shawshank Redemption makes it clear that Andy’s influence saves Red. Andy’s sense of inner peace and hopefulness powerfully affect him, inspiring him to make a determination, and a non-complaining attitude leads to his release. What happens when Red is released is even more telling. The film has shown his outside film, clearly following in the footsteps of Brooks, Brooks was also a prisoner who was released sometime before Red. Brooks had been so afraid of releasing that he threatened to kill another person than to be released from prison. His sad life outside prison in a world Andy no longer knows or understands ends in his suicide. Red follows the same pattern, he got hired in the same store, and he was living in the same apartment. Instead of killing himself, he takes the lifeline offered by Andy before his escape: he breaks his parole and goes to find his friend in Mexico. Andy is living a successful life in Mexico, so hopefully, Red will also be successful. The Shawshank Redemption includes many scenes that resonate with the theme of hope. One especially powerful scene is the scene when Brooks releases his bird Jake from prison. Brooks found a small crow named Jake, who had fallen out of a nest near the license plate shop and was caring for him during his stay in prison, but as he leaves, he lets Jake go free. This scene exemplifies the theme of hope because this represents Brooks letting go of any hope he has of surviving life on the outside. Another compelling view is the poster of Rita Hayworth pinned to Andy’s cell wall. This scene exemplifies the theme of hope because it represents the freedom to the outside world and Andy’s desire to escape to a healthy life. The poster hides a hole in the wall, and as a result, Rita Hayworth keeping Andy sane and alive with a hope that he will escape one day from the prison walls. Although it took Andy 20 years to escape through the walls of prison.

Music becomes a recurring symbol for freedom for the prisoners of Shawshank. In one scene, we watch as Andy locks himself inside the Warden’s office and plays a record over the loudspeaker. At that moment, all of the prisoners stop what they’re doing and listen. For that small period, they all experience a piece of freedom that renews hope within them all. Music is a great way to convey the idea of freedom, which restores faith within them all. Music is a great way to communicate the concept of sovereignty because teenagers who are struggling with problems turn to music as a sanctuary from those issues and to escape reality. The symbol appears again when Andy gives Red a harmonica as a gift, and then Red plays a single note later on in his cell alone. This scene represents the necessity of hope through the harmonica being a sign of if you can play it, you are not falling to the sense of institutionalization within Shawshank prison.

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In the first quarter of the film, when Andy was analyzing everything in prison, he noticed that Red had access to many things. He can get a lot of prohibited items through connections within prison. So Andy decided to ask Red to get him the rock hammer because Andy knows that Red is the man who knows how to get things. Andy agreed on the price which Red gave him to get the rock hammer for him, and that’s how Andy got the rock hammer. After getting the rock hammer, Andy had the hope that now he can continue his hobby of collecting rocks.

The Shawshank Redemption is a moving story of hope. Most of the characters are prisoners, but still, this exciting story has incredibly outstanding characteristics. Andy is persistent. He is quick and convincing. As well as well-groomed and a man of great personality, which made him a role model for prison inmates. His positive character always restores hope in the inmates. We can see his positive attitude in the movie when he plays the music through a loudspeaker in the library. In this film, Andy is the lead character of the significant force hope because Andy is the one who restores faith in Red. Red was heading for the same mistake as Brooks, but Andy changes his way of thinking and brings him hope to start a new life. From Andy’s character, we can learn that life is a symbol of hope. Hope brings a change in life.

With confidence, one can be successful. Andy always has the spirit of breaking out of the prison; that is why he never gave up on digging the hole in the wall. This movie is based on prison life. Many films deal with prison or life of jail, but The Shawshank Redemption did a great job of giving the real feeling of what prison life is all about. This movie brings forth many situations such as corruption, educational programs, government funding. From this movie, we can say that prison life is not easy. This movie shows cruelties that inmates deal with while in prison, which tells us imprisonment is not comfortable at all, but inmates must keep hope day after day. In prison, the inmates are allowed to go out in the yard; they can lift, they can do anything to make the stay more comfortable. In the film, a pack of cigarettes is used as money, a way to get things in prison. All these utilities in prison help inmates from not losing their hope of living a healthy life.

The story of Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman is about a 30+ years old woman sentenced to fifteen months in prison. She was convicted of a decade-old crime of transporting money for her drug-dealing girlfriend and is ‘starved out’ by a sizeable Russian inmate known as ‘Red.’ If we compare the characters of The Shawshank Redemption and Orange Is the New Black, we can see that the main character in both of these is highly educated and wealthy. Andy from The Shawshank Redemption and Piper from Orange Is the New Black, both of them are smart, intelligent and hard workers. The film The Shawshank Redemption and the novel Orange Is the New Black are both based on prison life. In the movie, they probably have shown more cruelties than in the case of the novel, and that is because the film is about male prison, and the story is about female prison. Piper Kerman from Orange is the new black on her first day in prison was very frightened.

Women began to approach her, and she was very scared, there were sketchy people in jail whom Piper has to deal with. Whereas for Andy, he became an essential asset to the Warden and the prison staff because of his accounting. He was exempt from manual labor and harassment by his fellow inmates. He wrote letters to the state for six years, asking for books and funds to help build a prison library. After he succeeds, he is thrown in the hole for playing a song over the speaker so the entire prison can hear. Andy became a symbol of hope for most people in jail and was considered as the smartest guy in prison, which he also proved after. One of the reasons why he became the symbol of hope was he built the library for inmates to possibly learn and get educated in jail. The difference is they don’t beat women in prison. They have to wait in line for hours to get food. They have to deal with sexual harassment, and they have to listen to the jail superintendent at all times. With all this, both of them have the hope that one day they will be released and they will live a healthy life again as they used to live before.

From the article ‘The Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment,’ written by Kathryn Campbell and Myriam Denov, I learned that the objective of this study was to show how people managed to cope with many years of wrongful imprisonment. The literature indicates that while there is a burgeoning body of research examining factors that impact on wrongful convictions, input has been notably absent from the wrongly convicted persons themselves.

This tells that the criminal justice system does little to facilitate their exoneration. The value of this study extends beyond the results of the data: the wrongly convicted have much to contribute to an understanding of how such miscarriages of justice occur, and their experiences should help inform future policy in this regard. We can relate this article to the movie ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ with the theme of hope. Even in these circumstances, the prisoners have the desire that one day, they will be discharged from prison and will live a normal life.

At first glance, I thought of The Shawshank Redemption as a film about prison, but after careful consideration, I’ve come to realize that the film also sends a strong message about hope. This movie helped me to understand what prison is like and how people in prison live and why some of them end up committing suicide or losing hope. I have also learned that life was difficult for people who get released from jail; they will always have trouble finding a job, their life will be a pain for few years, and it will take several years to clean the criminal record. The true essence of hope must be within the minds of anyone who is trying to get through a robust and ugly situation like Andy.

Works Cited

• Darabont, Frank. ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’ Release date: September 23, 1994. Rev.
• Young, Stephen Dine. ‘Movies as Equipment for Living: A developmental Analysis of the Importance of Film in Everyday Life.’ Critical Studies in Media Communication. Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2000, pp.447-468. Print.
• Little, Jeff. ‘what a Simple Library Can Really Mean.’ Journal of correctional education. Vol. 49, Issue 1, March 1998. Print.
• Kerman, Piper. ‘Orange Is the New Black: my year in a women’s prison.’ Random House. Issue 2011. Print.
• Campbell, Kathryn and Denov, Myriam. ‘The Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment.’ Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Issue January 2004. Rev.

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15 Best Quotes on Hope from ‘Shawshank Redemption’

15 quotes on hope from the movie shawshank redemption.

The Shawshank Redemption is often considered to be one of the best movies ever made. The following are quotes on hope from Shawshank Redemption.  This movie tells the story of an innocent man sentenced to prison after he is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. The movie is based on a novella called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption , one of the most popular non-horror stories by Stephen King.

The Shawshank Redemption is one of King’s most spiritual stories and is enduringly popular for the message of hope that pervades the story. This is a movie that reminds us how important it is to see the light at the end of the tunnel, even in the darkest of times.

15. “I tell you those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream”

This line comes during one of the most famous scenes in the entire movie. The protagonist, Andy Dufresne, has gained special privileges in prison because he is a model inmate.

He is working in the warden’s office and he locks a guard in a bathroom. He then takes advantage of this opportunity to lock his guard in the bathroom. He then puts an opera record on the record player and blasts the music over the prison’s PA system for everyone to enjoy.

14. “That’s where I want to live the rest of my life – a warm place with no memory”

This quote comes during another famous scene in the movie where Andy is talking to his best friend Red. Andy tells Red about his longing to leave prison and go to Mexico to see the Pacific Ocean.

13. “Andy Dufresne – who crawled through a river of s**t and came out clean on the other side”

This is one of the best quotes in the movie about hope. Red is describing Andy’s escape by crawling through a sewage pipe. This quote reminds us that brighter days are ahead even if we have to metaphorically (or literally) crawl through sewage to get there.

12. “I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged”

After Andy escapes from Shawshank Prison, Red is sad because he misses his friend. He has to remind himself that Andy’s drive to leave prison was too strong and if Andy can leave, Red has a chance too.

11. “I hope I can make it across the border. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it is in my dreams”

Red finally makes it out of prison on parole and he is struggling to adjust to life on the outside. So he decides to violate the conditions of his parole and illegally voyage across the country and border to rejoin his old friend in paradise.

10. “Get busy living, or get busy dying”

This is one of the most famous lines not just from The Shawshank Redemption but film history in general. This line is as famous as “Luke I am your father” or “Play it again, Sam”. The line is used in slightly different contexts in the movie and the book.

In the movie, this is about Andy finally taking control of his life again even when he is in prison. In the book, this is about Red’s decision to do the same. This is when things turn around for both characters.

9. “It lasted twenty minutes, that beer-break, and for those twenty minutes we felt like free men. We could have been drinking beer and tarring the roof of one of our own houses.”

Andy is a former banker who helps the prison staff hide their money from the tax man. As a reward, he is able to negotiate that the prisoners be allowed to drink a warm beer while they do their prison labor one day.

8. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

In his letter to Red, Andy talks about how hope is the only thing that keeps him going. Hope is the most important thing to him.

Read on for more quotes on hope from the movie shawshank redemption

7. “i find i’m so excited, i can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. i think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.”.

At this point in the story, Red has been paroled from prison but he is struggling to adapt to life outside. He has made his decision to break his parole and journey across the country to be with Andy.

6. “Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”

Red initially doesn’t agree with Andy’s thoughts on hope. He believes that clinging onto hope can be dangerous and lead a person to ruin.

5. “There are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside…that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.”

This is another great quote that comes from a scene where Red and Andy are discussing music. Red is talking about how he lost interest in playing the harmonica because he feels that it doesn’t matter in prison.

Andy argues that prison is where it matters most, because it will remind Red that he still has something to live for.

4. “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”

This is another one of the most quotable lines from the movie. This is an important quote to remember when times are dark and everything seems horrible.

3. “It goes back to what I said about Andy wearing his freedom like an invisibility coat, about how he never really developed a prison mentality. His eyes never got that dull look.”

This quote comes when Red is thinking about Andy’s time in prison. He is thinking about how Andy kept the prison life from breaking his spirit. Andy was able to maintain his soul in prison, because he never lost hope for his future.

2. “I’d like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.”

After Andy breaks out of prison, the sadistic warden commits suicide. Red thinks about this and he hopes that Andy’s final victory over the warden was driving the warden to suicide after the warden underestimated Andy.

1. “Dear Red. If you’re reading this, you’ve gotten out. And if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don’t you?”

While still locked up, Andy tells Red a secret location where he will leave him a note when he gets out. Red finds this note when he gets paroled, and he decides to begin the perilous journey to rejoin his friend.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/quotes/qt0470737 Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption Novella by Stephen King

The 20 most memorable quotes from 'The Shawshank Redemption'

Posted: October 11, 2023 | Last updated: February 3, 2024

The Turner Broadcasting Corporation helped turn “The Shawshank Redemption” into an iconic film. While the movie was nominated for Best Picture in 1994, it wasn’t a huge hit and came and went. Then, it became a cable TV staple. You could seemingly watch “Shawshank” on some channel any given day of the week. Now? A lot of people consider it one of the best movies ever. It used to be the highest-rated film on IMDb. Adapted from a Stephen King novel, the dialogue is part of what helped it stand out. Here are the most memorable quotes from “The Shawshank Redemption.”

“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

While “The Shawshank Redemption” is not a two-hander between Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, the characters of Andy and Red dominate on the memorable quote front. Andy’s refrain of “Get busy living, or get busy dying” is arguably the most-quoted line from the film.

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“Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”

Red is a mentor to Andy, having been in prison for many years. He offers this as a warning to Andy, a bit of hard-earned cynicism from his own personal prison experience.

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“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Andy, of course, does not necessarily agree with Red. Instead, he has his own feelings on hope, the kind that helped him on his journey to escaping from Shawshank.

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“The funny thing is, on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.”

Andy Dufresne is in prison for a murder he did not commit. While in prison, he uses his acumen with numbers to curry some favor by doing the books for the prison. That includes some, um, creative accounting, which is part of what inspired this line from Andy.

“Sometimes it makes me sad, though...Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.”

Red does a lot of narrating in “Shawshank Redemption,” which is what you do when you cast Morgan Freeman (in a role that in the book is a white Irish guy). After Andy’s escape, Red is left to reflect on his complex emotions. This bit of narration ends somberly, if sweetly, with Red saying, “I guess I just miss my friend.”

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“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid.

Here’s another Red line. The prisoners are given a bit of entertainment, some “high art” to try and teach them some culture, perhaps. Red is able to enjoy it, even if he can’t understand the language. He understands the emotion, though.

“I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it's just a made up word. A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?”

Red says this at his parole hearing. He’s asked if he’s been “rehabilitated” and when he says he isn’t sure what that means, the man running the parole hearing starts to define it, before Red cuts him off to say this.

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“Forget that...there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside...that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.”

This is part of a tete-a-tete about music between Andy and Red. Andy expounds on the beauty of music, and Red says he used to play harmonica before he was in prison, figuring it didn’t make sense anymore. Andy disagrees, saying music makes more sense than ever in prison, so that you don’t forget, well, what he says in this quote.

“Same old shıt, different day.”

This is a phrase used commonly and not as a movie quote. It cuts to the heart of the matter, that’s for sure. Red says it after he is denied parole, which is what he expected to happen.

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“That's "Cristo" you dumb shıt.”

Hey, a quote from somebody who isn’t Andy or Red! It’s Floyd, one of the other prisoners who says it. He’s talking to Heywood, who calls the book “The Count of Monte Cristo” the “Count of Monte Crisco.” File that one under “Educational.”

“No hard feelings. Brooks.”

Brooks offers a brief, somber aside for the prisoners of Shawshank. He’s been in prison for ages, so much so that in his letter he is floored by there being cars everywhere. Alas, Brooks is unable to make it on the outside, unable to adjust to life and get his legs under him in a world without a place for this old crook. This is how he ends his letter. By the time the prisoner get it, Brooks has already killed himself.

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“I'd like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.”

It’s a little morbid to have these two quotes back-to-back but, well, this is a film about a prison, so it’s not exactly a cheerful tale. The crooked warden has been bested, with Andy free and aware of all the criminality the warden has been involved with. Unable to face the penalty for his crimes, the warden opts to end his life instead. Red, reasonably given the way the warden treated the prisoners, is not feeling too solemn on the occasion.

“Only guilty man in Shawshank.”

It’s a joke in Shawshank that nobody is actually guilty. That is, save for Red. When he tells Andy what he’s in for, Andy replies with “Innocent?” Red, shaking his head, offers this up.

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“Zihuatanejo.”

It’s the town in Mexico that Andy dreams of. It’s where he plans to escape to. He tells Red about it. Andy escapes, and when Red gets out, he has a letter from him. Andy asks, in the letter, of Red remembers the town's name. Then, we get to hear Freeman say, “Zihuatanejo.”

“They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory.”

More Zihuatanejo talk. Or, more specifically, the Pacific Ocean. This is what Andy says Mexicans say about the Pacific, and it is what Andy dreams of.

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“I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your āss belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.”

Warden Norton, as we noted, is not a kind man. He does not mince words, clearly. This is how he introduces himself to the new inmates, and it doesn’t get any nicer from there.

“How can you be so obtuse?”

Andy says this incredulously to the warden, and probably introduced many people to the word “obtuse” in the process. He’s right to be incredulous, of course. The warden effectively keeps Andy from getting a retrial that could have him released from prison. Obtuse is the least of it.

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“Bad luck, I guess. It floats around. It's got to land on somebody. It was my turn, that's all. I was in the path of the tornado. I just didn't expect the storm would last as long as it has.”

Andy is more hopeful than many of the inmates at Shawshank. Even he gets drained on occasion, though. As the protagonist of the film, it’s not surprising that Andy has to really go through some serious struggles and dark moments before he can rise toward triumph. This memorable line helps elaborate on that.

“Andy Dufresne…who crawled through a river of shıt and came out clean on the other side.”

We started with Andy’s most-quoted line, and this is Red’s. This is Red summing up, eloquently, what Andy has done in his escape from prison. It’s a moment of triumph not just for Andy, but for all the inmates at Shawshank, particularly his friend Red.

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“I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”

These are the final lines of the film. Red is narrating one last time. He’s free, and he’s on his way to see Andy. It is fitting that the final line is “I hope.” Red had once found hope to be a dangerous thing. Now, he happily has it.

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