Michal Jacobs
ENG 2150, Dr. Blankenship
March 17, 2016
Paper 1: Rhetorical Analysis of a Cultural Artifact
Dear Dr. Blankenship and Writer’s Group,
The Shawshank Redemption is a powerful and iconic movie that incorporated many life-lessons to its audience. This movie, set in the 1990’s depicts the protagonist, Andy Dufrense’s life being shattered when he is put in prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. Andy had a life full of wealth and accomplishment with a nice house and a beautiful wife, but lost it all when it was taken away in an instant when being thrown into Shawshank prison. Rather than letting these hardships get to him, in which he would lose his pride of the success he has achieved. He uses his brilliance to escape from prison, and rather than living the life of a broken puzzle piece, he fixes himself and actually ends up being a stronger and more successful individual than he originally was. Because of Andy’s willingness to overcome these personal struggles and hardships, I titled this paper The Next Step to Freedom: The Shawshank Redemption.
Andy’s strength proved to the audience, that they too can overcome any barriers and obstacles and live the “American Dream” that each man desires. Not only did Andy find his freedom, yet again, but so did Brooks and Red in different ways. Freedom to each character in the film represented something different and came to each at different times as well. My thesis is “Whether adversity is deserved or not, it is how a person deals with these unique challenges, which will determine if they will achieve the freedoms they yearn for. However, not only are peoples’ challenges impeding freedom unique to them, but so are their very interpretations of what freedom means itself. One film that truly exemplifies the varying interpretations of freedom and explores the exigence that freedom has to each individual is The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont.” This thesis is dramatically changed from what I had in the first draft. The rough draft I submitted focused more on the themes of hope and redemption and the different times and situations I saw those themes and ideas play out. Not only was that draft a little more disorganized because it kept going back and forth in the film with these concepts, but it was also much more of a literary analysis, as opposed to a rhetorical analysis.
In this edited version of my paper, I decided to rather take a look at what freedom was to each character and when they saw that freedom and redemption take place. This was able to prove how a prison specifically takes away freedom and is a metaphor symbolic for the loss of one’s personal choice, while being held captive. I want to know if a reader of this paper is able to understand the differences of how each character accepted their freedom? Is this paper more of a rhetorical analysis now that is has an argument and a message not only to its readers, but also to its viewers in 1990’s America? I added another source called The Metaphors We Live By to explain what a metaphor is and how it explains the deeper meanings in this film. Because I had to revise this paper in its entirely for the final draft, but was hesitant in destroying the rough draft completely, I had a difficult time knowing what information was able to be kept and what parts of my draft were completely irrelevant to my edited paper and thesis.
The Next Step to Freedom: The Shawshank Redemption
Throughout history, humanity has shown strong desires for freedom, while struggling to overcome adversity. Life is full of many unexpected challenges. Whether adversity is deserved or not, it is how a person deals with these unique challenges, which will determine if they will achieve the freedoms they yearn for. However, not only are peoples’ challenges impeding freedom unique to them, but so are their very interpretations of what freedom means itself. One film that truly exemplifies the varying interpretations of freedom and explores the exigence that freedom has to each individual is The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont.
The Shawshank Redemption is a tale of hope in the midst of despair telling the story of Andy Dufrense (Tim Robbins), a successful banker condemned with a life-sentence in Shawshank Prison for the assumed murder of his wife and her lover. Upon Andy’s arrival at the prison, he meets Red (Morgan Freeman), a fellow convict and supplier of all goods coming into the prison. The two men connect and become best friends, despite their different backgrounds. Because of his connection to Red, Andy is rescued from a beating from the convict gangs and is later under protection from the guards when the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation. Andy’s dream of living by the beach in a Mexican coastal town is resolved when he escapes through the sewers under the prison and is on his way while seeking ultimate justice by revealing the crimes of his captors.
A prison is a generalized symbol of an individual’s loss of personal freedoms. Due to a person’s illegal actions and bad choices, their consequence is to be incarcerated, stripping them of their freedom and dignities until they are rehabilitated. The setting of the prison has significant meaning throughout this film, in terms of the audience. This structure envisioned, is symbolic because it represents the logos and mind state of a prisoner enduring a life sentence. This impenetrable fortress is representative of the realism of Andy’s tragic loss of freedom. In the beginning of the film, Red, the narrator, first points out this description of Andy in the prison. “The first night is the toughest no doubt about it. They march you in naked as the day you were born, skin burning and half blind when they put you in that cell… and those bars slam home… that is when you know it is for real. Nothing left, but all that time in the world to think about it.” In the film, the audience sees the closing of the steel doors before lights during the parole board scenes and whenever the inmates gaze out of their own cell, the symbol of prison represents loss of freedom and hope.
The main battle for freedom revolves around the film’s main protagonist Andy Dufrense. Andy’s ability to overcome the major obstacles placed before him is his need to escape Shawshank and obtain freedom. Andy’s mantra “Get busy living or get busy dying” is indicative of a man with a positive attitude whose perseverance will affect everyone he attaches himself to. To Andy, freedom is knowing that he is in fact still a strong willed man, and has even become stronger through his ordeal. He is aware that he will never have the same life he had before, but refuses to give up because accepting the circumstances and remaining in Shawshank would prove his weakness to himself. This sense of self-doubt would be an even larger loss of personal freedom than even the prison walls themselves. This is why Andy only truly feels free upon his arrival in Mexico. He knows he has accomplished the impossible and spending his remaining days in paradise is validation of all his efforts and planning over the past twenty years. This is why he, and he alone, was able to escape Shawshank despite overwhelming odds.
Andy had come to the prison a successful banker with a nice house, wife, etc. His whole future was changed because of an unjust decision. His first night in prison, the other convicts actually place bets to see if he would make it through the night. The sheer strength of his character brings about the pathos to which the audience will ride along in this journey to his freedom, not just from the Shawshank prison and its injustice, but from the overshadowing of tyranny and hopelessness that prisons foster and promote.
This significance of hope, and determination amidst the constraints of society are relatable to the reading by James Baldwin “My Dungeon Shook-Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation.” Surely, racism was imprisonment for all Black Americans at its peak and the residual effects remained long lasting. However, hope and inspiration can rise above despair and it is important to focus on future generations and how one person’s perspective can bring about change.
Freedom from prison and isolation is what drives the inhabitants of Shawshank more than anything else. However, for some characters in this movie, freedom can be interpreted in a different way. For example, the character of Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), who was an institutionalized prisoner for forty-years in the Shawshank prison is finally paroled, cannot adjust to normal life. Unlike Andy and Red, Brooks does not feel that leaving Shawshank will grant him freedom. On the contrary, it does not seem as if there is freedom in Brooks’ future because he has a unique personal definition of freedom. Brooks has been emotionally sidelined by his incarceration and too much time has passed for him to start life again.
In the article Metaphors We Live By by Lakoff and Johnson, it is stated, “The essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.” The Shawshank Prison is cast in the shadows of much darkness and this is why the first part of the movie was first slated to be produced in black and white, instead of color, to sensitize the audience’s perception. Here we see that freedom can be interpreted by each person and its’ meaning acted on differently. Appropriately, the metaphor of prison is descriptive in terms of imprisoning the souls of its inhabitants, particularly in the case of Brooks, whose soul is imprisoned and will not allow him to try to adapt to a civilian lifestyle. For forty-two years, Brooks functioned as a productive member of the prison community. He was in charge of the library and that represented a normalcy in his life while serving his time in prison. Another metaphor, which heavily analyzes Brooks’ feelings, is his pet pigeon, Jake. Brooks releases Jake before he leaves prison on parole. This represents Brooke’s letting go of the idea of freedom he has created for himself over the last forty-two years. He symbolically looks for Jake in the park, but neither finds the bird or hope outside the prison.
Brooks’ freedom is also not attainable because he has personally defined freedom as a life in which he does not have to make any decisions. He has committed himself to living a mundane lifestyle. Upon his release into society, he is disheartened to learn that the simple world he left no longer exists; and to adjust, he must be willing to learn how to solve new problems. It is the realization that his personal freedom of a carefree and simple lifestyle has been taken away from him that causes him to end his own life.
Similarly, Red’s problem lies in his institutionalized way of thinking as well. “Hope is a dangerous thing, he tells Andy.” He supports the prison system and believes it has helped him and is the first to tell everyone what he thinks they want to hear. Once he begins to oppose the system through his parole board hearings, he begins to stands up for himself and takes on a new point of view. It is at that point; he can leave Shawshank Prison a new man.
Red’s personal freedom comes with his decision to meet Andy on the island. He has let the prison system control his life for so many years that his decision-making process is dysfunctional. He is completely exposed to society’s judgment of him and must find the inner strength and courage to push forward to create a new beginning. His friendship with Andy is the stepping-stone, which guides him and gives him hope. Red’s “freedom” is his decision to be self-supportive. In the prison he was able to be the “go to man” and that was the extent of the control he had in life. Upon his release from Shawshank, he now can control his destiny, the right to make decisions while accepting the responsibility of his choices.
The spirit of The Shawshank Redemption is everlasting because the audience can relate to the protagonist and his journey to overcome the obstacles set before him. This iconic film resonates with the American public because it explores the human experience and challenges our ideals of freedom and justice for all. The Shawshank Redemption is indeed a redemption for all those who believe in second chances and each person no matter the hardships can find their personal island if they are determined to find it. In watching this film we can all be inspired to gather the courage to find happiness and “The American dream”, just like Andy does.
Works Cited:
- Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: The Dial Press, 1963. Print.
- Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1980. Print.
- Saito, Garrick. Why was The Shawshank Redemptionso powerful? 19 July. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
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