英语电影鉴赏论文——肖申克的救赎

How Andy Obtain His “Redemption”— Analysis of The Movie The Shawshank Redemption Introduction The movie The Shawshank Redemption is adapted from American famous writer Stephen King‟s gothic novel “The Shawshank Redemption”. It is a profound implication of fine arts. Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. The movie shows us Andy, with the help of his 1friends, obtains his greatest redemption. I. Subjective Reasons In the court, Andy Dufresne claims that he is innocent. However, all the evidences indicate that he is the murder who must be punished. At last, Andy is sentenced to a lifelong imprisonment. Since the fair law cannot help him, Andy is doomed to save himself. The redemption is really a harsh task, which needs a person to equip himself. Andy Dufresne, as it is, is just the one who can receive his own redemption. A. Professional skills and wisdom The society is not a world of fairy-tale. Man who wants to realize his dreams must have his special and professional skills rather than blank words and illusion. Originated from the traditional agriculture, traditional American spirit did not emphasize people‟s knowledge in the society. Yet, after the industrial revolution, the 2 American society gradually changed into capitalism.Industrialization altered the way Americans thought at the same time that it transformed their ways of making a 3living. As the society became more complex, the need for specialized training 3 increased.One have to own skills to achieve what he wants. Just as British philosopher, Francis Bacon says “Knowledge is power”. A free man can gain knowledge from different sources to fulfill his mind, while one can be wretched if he is ignorant. Andy Dufersne is an educated man full of skills and wisdom. With his excellent work, he comes to be a promising vice-president of a bank. Even though he is in prison, his knowledge makes him extraordinary. First, he helps his fellows gain a moment of being respected. With his professional skills, he assisted Mr. Hadly, the captain of the guards, to get the huge inheritance. In return, Mr. Hadly gave them beer to drink. After work, these prisoners sat and drank on the roof “felt like free man”. At that moment, just as Red says they were “the lords of all the creation”. Second, professional skills protect Andy against hard work and the Sisters‟ harassment. In Shawshank, the homosexual Sisters always keeps at Andy. Meanwhile, the serious situation has been changed since Andy‟s skills are known. In the movie, the warden Mr. Norton tells Andy “Man should have a skill”. In order to make Andy laundry his money, Mr. Norton gives the Sisters a big lesson. From then on, no one can lay a finger on Andy. At the same time, he is busy with the filtering process. Though he is only “a wonderful pet to have”, he gets his peaceful time in Shawshank. Third, wisdom is the key reason why Andy succeeds in escaping from the prison. First of all, Andy makes everybody think his hobby is shaping and polishing rocks so that he can tunnel under the wall. Besides, he covers the wall with a big poster of a sexy lady. Almost every man likes beauties, Andy knows it very well. He uses the big poster to hide his great tunnel easily. Moreover, Andy hides his rock hammer in the Holy Bible and the guards cannot find it. Mr. Norton once tells Andy “Salvation lies within”. The Holy Bible indicates Mr. Norton‟s hypocrisy, while Andy Dufresne makes it to conceal the tool of his tunneling. After Andy‟s escape, Mr. Norton finally opens the Bible and finds there is hammer-shaped hole right in the chart “Exodus”, which tells 4 how Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt.From the whole movie, the strategy of Andy‟s redemption is full of careful thoughts and plans. He is “Rembrant”. B. Hope 5 Hope is one of American spirits.In the movie, Andy redeems the spirit of those prisoners and himself. Time can make people get used to anything. Just as the old Brooks, they were all “institutionalized”. “These walls are funny. First you hate them. Then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That‟s institutionalized”. Their hearts are numb and desperate. Nevertheless, Andy tells them “There is something inside that they cannot get to, that they cannot touch. That‟s yours—hope”. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies”. With hope, he has waited in Shawshank about 20years. Although he is trapped in destiny, Andy has the desire for freedom. In his eyes, people should live in hope. “Get busy living or get busy dying”, Andy chooses the first one. C. Great patience, Equanimity and braveness As wonderful hope is, Andy Dufresne does not have enthusiastic hope. His hope is relevant with great patience and equanimity. Hope does not need passion, the enthusiasm of hope is just a casual impulse of the soul. In prison, where life must be measured by time, any enthusiasm is only helpless disappointment, which makes people accept the fate. Only man who has clear heart can see the ridiculousness of life. 6Otherwise, they may be furious and hopeless. At the beginning of the movie, Andy shows his specialty. On the first night in Shawshank, while the fat man cries and then hit by Mr. Hadly, Andy is silent and “he never made a sound”. His calmness makes Red lose two packs of cigarette. No body could know how strong Andy is, because it looks like “a stiff breeze could blow him over”. However, he lives in his own quiet and hopeful world. In the exercise yard, “he strolled, like a man in the yard without a care or a worry in the world”. He does not care and worry about the prison life in Shawshank. What he behaves does not belong to a man who must be kept in prison for the rest of the whole life. In the whole movie, he keeps calm all the time except the day he asks for a retrial. First, he answers and retorts the lawyer unflappably in the court. He appears to be very silent and all he says are from careful thinking. Second, though receiving a fatal sentence, Andy does not feel hopeless and desperate. He makes himself get used to the prison life and treats the Sisters‟ harassment as “routine”. Third, he is extremely composed when facing Mr. Norton. As the guards first check his ward, they turn his small room up and down. At that situation, Andy does not appear to be nervous and frightened. They find the rock blanket and rocks, which turn to be tools in Andy‟s little hobby. Also, they see the big poster of Rita Hayworth, still, Mr. Norton says “exceptions can be made”. In the small room, he hides all his unspoken secrets. To everybody‟s surprise, he looks so peaceful and answers the warden‟s questions in a logical way. He is really full of equanimity and braveness. Fourth, once Andy has a chance, he plays the beautiful music to all his fellows. He dares to lock the guard and close the door of the office. He and all the prisoners are addicted to the music of the outer world. “It was something so beautiful, it can‟t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it…Those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like a beautiful bird flagged into our drab cage and made those walls dissolve away. And for the briefest of moments every last man at Shawshank felt free”. Music is a universal language. Whether you can understand it or not, the emotion in music can touch your deep heart. In Shawshank, there is no music instead of high walls and hard work. However, Andy is brave enough to bring them music. At the moment Mr. Norton tries to break into the office, there is an impression of hesitation on Andy‟ face. But, immediately, he smiles, turns up the radio and closed his eyes to enjoy the music. Absolutely, he knows he would get a heavy punishment if he did not stop playing the music. In fact, he does it on purpose. For those in prison, music is the sound from the 7real society, which stands for freedom. Obviously, Andy cannot miss the chance to fresh the prisoners‟ minds. He is the real warrior. At last, he spends 19 years in escaping from Shawshank. He is excellent and optimistic and why does not he leave the prison earlier? He needs time. During those 19 years, he has to prepare for his redemption. Firstly, he must tunnel through the wall without others‟ notice. Second, he tries to collect the evidences of Mr. Norton‟s corruption. Third, Andy managed to collect money for his rest life. Fourth, he does his best to expand the prison library and improve other prisoners‟ education background. With so much things to do, he has waited 19 years patiently and hopefully. Nineteen years is not a short time for anyone. However, with his great patience, Andy Dufresne achieves his redemption finally. II. Objective Reasons A. Opportuniy 7 Chances became more imptant.An ambitious man can do nothing if there is no opportunity. Likewise, chance favors only the prepared mind. Fortunately, Andy Dufresne gains both of them. Accidentally, he found the rocks on the wall can be cast when he is trying to carve his name on the wall. This is the very step for him to find his way to salvation. Second, helping Mr. Norton laundry money gave him an access to the corruption. He can grasp every evidence to charge the warden. At the same time, he can accumulate his own life fund by the name of helping Mr. Norton. What‟s more, the death of Tommy stimulates his escape process. If Tommy had not been killed by Mr. Norton, Andy could have waited a little longer. The death lit the fire of Andy‟s heart so that he realizes his redemption on the raining night. In a word, opportunities are very necessary to Andy. B. Others’ help Human beings make up a big society, and no one can stand without the support of nature, environment and other people. Andy cannot make his project come true in case there were no others‟ help. First of all, with the help of Red, he got a rock hammer, which is the only tool for him to tunnel under the wall. Second, Red and his friends try their best to bring him some rocks so that he can do his little hobby. Third, the big poster from Red covers his hole under the wall. Fourth, his friends assist him to expand and manage the prison library. All the physical aids of his redemption come from his friends in prison. Andy helps them to obtain knowledge and become hopeful. In return, they help Andy to fulfill his dream. During those 19 years in prison, they have built deep friendship with each other. Friendship is also an important part in the movie. C. The warden’s arrogance and ignorance At the first day in Shawshank, Mr. Norton told them “I believe in two things: Discipline and the Holy Bible. Here, you‟ll receive both. Put your trust in the lord, your ass belongs to me”. From that, we can know he is really a cruel warden and there is no easy life here. When he checks Andy‟s ward and asks which are his favorite passages, Andy answers “Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh”. Then he says “But I prefer „I am the light of the world. Yet that followeth me shall have the light of life”. Mr. Norton thinks he is the lord of Shawshank and nobody could rebel him. All his behaviors indicate that he is arrogant and he always looks down upon others. He does not think there would be someone who manages to escape from his cage. Thanks to his arrogance, Andy realizes his plan step by step just under his eyes. Mr. Norton thinks he is great, in fact, he is really innocent. The step he forces Andy to laundry his money tells us how foolish and innocent he is. He himself let Andy deal with his credits and corruption evidences. Namely, Andy helps Mr. Norton, while he is killing the warden slowly. To some degree, Andy is a good killer. When Mr. Norton shoots himself, he still dose not know how Andy defeats him. D. Pressure Red once says “It would take a man 600 years to tunnel through the wall with it”, but Andy “did it less than 20”. How does he succeed? “Geology is the study of pressure and time. That‟s all. It takes, really. Pressure and time. Pressure and time force him to tunnel under the wall because there is no other choice for him. We all know Andy is innocent but he must accept the unfair sentence. Before that, he is a standard banker and could have a bright future. However, all his achievements disappear in one night. He must stay in Shawshank, bear the control of the guards and the harassment of the Sisters. All his life is very dark and hopeless in the prison. Sometimes, pressure can be great power to stimulate you to get what you want. Andy must make himself to tunnel the wall with the pain we cannot imagine. E. Fate Because of a murder, Andy Dufresne turns to be a lifelong prisoner. We can say it is a joke made by fate. Since then on, he has to do his best to change his unfortunate fate. Finally, he succeeds. From the whole story, trying to change his fate of imprisonment and his success in escaping are both his fates. He is doomed to fight 8against fate and the succeed in the battle.Just as Red says “Some birds aren‟t meant to be caged, that‟s all. Their feathers are just too bright”. Conclusion The movie The Shawshank Redemption is a mirror of the black part of the society, in which there are oppression and abnormal treatments. Nevertheless, Andy Dufresne is full of hope. Though trapped in prison, he never give up the opportunity to be a free man. Besides, he does his best to achieve his redemption. We should learn to be optimistic in face of any difficulties.