Shawshank Redemption

Watching Shawshank Redemption was not only a fantastic journey, but it also made me question some of my beliefs regarding inmates. Andy Dufresne’s character conveyed a kind spirit even though the people he was surrounded by were anything but. Red’s mockery of the behavior assessment committee was especially poignant of what perspective of prisoners. Though I had never considered prisoners to be drastically different people, I had never realized how similar they were to us. The idea of contrasting the physical imprisonment and mental imprisonment had really led me to understand Andy Dufresne’s resilience and why he had done some of the things he did. His audacious actions only proved that being in prison did not mean that you were imprisoned.
Watching ShawshankRedemption and being forced to write about it had made me ask questions I rarely ask about a movie before. What was the director attempting to convey? What were some of the symbolisms? Were there philosophies inherent in some of the character’s actions or interactions? These questions had challenged me to engage in a movie through literature. Thinking about what the movie contained and then writing down my thoughts and feeling had made me a more focused writer. I saw the various aspects running through the movie, and I pinpointed examples of reoccurring themes. Because I stopped watching the movie purely to enjoy it and started, instead, to analyze the movie’s many components, I had organized my writing in the same manner. For example, when I had to focus on symbolism, I had re-played many scenes where I became familiar with some objects. I attempted to seek symbols in every scene and interpret their meaning. To me, this was an important progression of my analytical skills as I could more easily separate individual parts of what I read or see and write about