Reflection of Shawshank Redemption;
The meaning of life that is presented in this film is that sometimes freedom is not walking the
streets as a free man, and that having something to look forward to can be the difference between
giving up on life and thriving. We can see this in a comparison of Brooks and Red. Frist, Brooks was
granted parole. He knew that he would not be able to make it on the outside and went as far as to hold
another inmate at knifepoint, threatening to kill him because it was the only way they would let him
stay at Shawshank. However, Brooks was released from prison and went to live in a halfway house. He
got a job bagging groceries at the local store, but was yelled at often because he was slower, due to his
age. He did not have anything to look forward to in his life, only memories from the past that he wished
he could go back to. Because of this, Brooks fell into distress, and as a result, he took his life in the
halfway house. On the other hand, Red had stopped caring about getting out of the prison after Andy
got out of his two-month stay in isolation. This was the moment when the council approved him for
parole. Though he thought he would not make it on the outside and believed that he had become an
institutionalized man like Brooks had been, he had something to look forward to. While talking to Andy
after the two months he had spent alone, he had promised him that if he ever left the walls of
Shawshank, he would travel to Buxton and find something in a field that Andy had left there for him.
Though he thought of all the things he could do to get himself put back in prison, the unfulfilled promise
made him keep pushing forward. Another comparison that we can make between the two is their ages.
When Brooks wrote his letter to his friends at Shawshank, he had said that the world “got itself in a
hurry,” and that he was stunned at how much technology had advanced. He said that he saw an
automobile once when he was a boy, but now they were everywhere. He felt a large disconnect from
everyone around him. He was stuck in the past, and his knowledge of this world was far gone. He did not
possess the skills to learn how to function in the new society. However, Red was much younger than
Brooks was. Though he would not know everything about the world that he was released into, he was
young enough to be able to move and learn the world around him by experiencing it. While this did not
make it feel easier for him, this could give him an immense advantage over Brooks beyond the walls of
prison. While Brooks failed to see that he could live a meaningful life outside of Shawshank, Red realized
that he could make a life or himself outside of the reputation that he had built for himself in the world,
and that he could work towards building a better life for himself. This came in the form of finding Andy
in Mexico so that they could build a hotel together. Andy would also help Red to understand the
advancements that the world had made without him being there to see it.
We can learn many important lessons from this movie, three of which I believe are represented
extremely well. The first is that it is more important to feel like you can look forward to your life than
your status in life. This could be represented also as someone who has a lot of money but feels
dissatisfied even though they could have anything that they could ever want, compared to someone
who does not have a lot of money but is grateful that they have worked hard to keep their kids alive and
happy. Another thing that I think is important to take away from this film is that surrounding yourself
with people who can think differently than you can help you to learn a lot about both you and the world
around you. An example of this was when Red told Andy that he thought hope was a dangerous thing
and Andy responded in the letter that he wrote to Red once they were both out of prison that he knew
hope was good. It is important to remember that no matter how negative we can get about our own
situations, when someone comes in to see it with fresh eyes, it can help us to break out of our own
The meaning of life that is presented in this film is that sometimes freedom is not walking the
streets as a free man, and that having something to look forward to can be the difference between
giving up on life and thriving. We can see this in a comparison of Brooks and Red. Frist, Brooks was
granted parole. He knew that he would not be able to make it on the outside and went as far as to hold
another inmate at knifepoint, threatening to kill him because it was the only way they would let him
stay at Shawshank. However, Brooks was released from prison and went to live in a halfway house. He
got a job bagging groceries at the local store, but was yelled at often because he was slower, due to his
age. He did not have anything to look forward to in his life, only memories from the past that he wished
he could go back to. Because of this, Brooks fell into distress, and as a result, he took his life in the
halfway house. On the other hand, Red had stopped caring about getting out of the prison after Andy
got out of his two-month stay in isolation. This was the moment when the council approved him for
parole. Though he thought he would not make it on the outside and believed that he had become an
institutionalized man like Brooks had been, he had something to look forward to. While talking to Andy
after the two months he had spent alone, he had promised him that if he ever left the walls of
Shawshank, he would travel to Buxton and find something in a field that Andy had left there for him.
Though he thought of all the things he could do to get himself put back in prison, the unfulfilled promise
made him keep pushing forward. Another comparison that we can make between the two is their ages.
When Brooks wrote his letter to his friends at Shawshank, he had said that the world “got itself in a
hurry,” and that he was stunned at how much technology had advanced. He said that he saw an
automobile once when he was a boy, but now they were everywhere. He felt a large disconnect from
everyone around him. He was stuck in the past, and his knowledge of this world was far gone. He did not
possess the skills to learn how to function in the new society. However, Red was much younger than
Brooks was. Though he would not know everything about the world that he was released into, he was
young enough to be able to move and learn the world around him by experiencing it. While this did not
make it feel easier for him, this could give him an immense advantage over Brooks beyond the walls of
prison. While Brooks failed to see that he could live a meaningful life outside of Shawshank, Red realized
that he could make a life or himself outside of the reputation that he had built for himself in the world,
and that he could work towards building a better life for himself. This came in the form of finding Andy
in Mexico so that they could build a hotel together. Andy would also help Red to understand the
advancements that the world had made without him being there to see it.
We can learn many important lessons from this movie, three of which I believe are represented
extremely well. The first is that it is more important to feel like you can look forward to your life than
your status in life. This could be represented also as someone who has a lot of money but feels
dissatisfied even though they could have anything that they could ever want, compared to someone
who does not have a lot of money but is grateful that they have worked hard to keep their kids alive and
happy. Another thing that I think is important to take away from this film is that surrounding yourself
with people who can think differently than you can help you to learn a lot about both you and the world
around you. An example of this was when Red told Andy that he thought hope was a dangerous thing
and Andy responded in the letter that he wrote to Red once they were both out of prison that he knew
hope was good. It is important to remember that no matter how negative we can get about our own
situations, when someone comes in to see it with fresh eyes, it can help us to break out of our own
