Name:

Course:

Professor:

Date:

Narrative Essay

The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favourite movies of all time. I also enjoy watching a variety of other films of all genres, but this particular one stands out for me. I first watched it as a part of a class assignment, but it struck a chord within me. It taught me many valuable life lessons that have been vital in my life.

The film is set in a prison, and the main characters are Andy Dufresne and Red. Andy was in jail for the murder of his wife and her lover. When I first watched the film, Andy’s trial fascinated me. He maintained his innocence despite the prosecutor’s compelling evidence against him. He was however found guilty and sent to Shawshank where he met Red, an inmate at the prison. The movie opens with Red up for a probation hearing which he fails as prisoners always do.

Andy had a hard time adjusting to prison life and remained quiet, but after a while, he opened up to Red. He asked Red to get him a small hammer. Red wonders what Andy could do with a small hammer, a question which I also asked myself. What I like d about Andy in the film was his sense of purpose. When he set his mind on a particular task, he would stop at nothing to achieve it. One such mission was when he dug a tunnel through which he escaped using the tiny hammer Red had gotten him. Andy also expanded the library in prison by writing numerous letters to the state board for donations. It took years, but it finally paid off. I learnt from Andy the meaning of resilience and keeping at a task even when it seems insurmountable.

I have always been curious about prisons, what inmates do. Do they just sit in their cells all day and meditate upon their crimes? Watching the film helped me to understand how prisons work. I felt sad at the treatment that they had to endure in there, but it helped to remember that they had committed crimes that warranted their imprisonment. One of the most challenging parts of the movie for me was watching the warden engage in corrupt activities such as s money laundering. Andy who had been a banker helped the warden keep his tracks clean. Andy seemingly has no choice but to go along with the warden’s activities. At the end of the movie, however, I was quite shocked when Andy escaped and took all the money he had hidden for the warden in various banks. This showed that Andy was a brilliant man who was quite cunning, all along I had believed him to be a helpless prisoner but he trained out to be a sly and shrewd schemer.

Red is one of my favourite people in the film. He is the one on whom all inmates can count to get them anything they wished for a price. He could smuggle all forms of contraband into the prison. I wonder how he did it, considering the prison was quite isolated and guarded. He also gives many of the inmates good advice. The Shawshank Redemption is an excellent film with credible characters and events, and I was left quite affected at the end of it. I have watched it severally just to see how Andy endured the harsh prison conditions for years with a goal of escaping to a far off island in mind. He eventually succeeded in his plan, and I was happy that he did, he had spent so much on preparing for the escape.