Shawshank Offers Hope

Rating: Null/10 (4 December 2016)

I recently watched The Shawshank Redemption, and what stuck out to me most was the offer of hope that Andy Dufresne offers to the inmates at Shawshank. The prison is depicted to be a place where people are treated poorly, abused, assaulted in every form and through it all dehumanized completely. We see this through the life of Brooks, who lost all hope of a good and normal life in the world that he became happy in Shawshank, identifying with being a crock and only a crock there. Once he is released from prison, he contemplates what is the best way to get back in, so that he can go home. Instead, he kills himself, because he would rather die than be a free man outside of the prison walls. But, when a innocent man walks into the prison and offers hope to the inmates, lives are changed. Although all of the inmates claim to be "innocent,"Andy was the only true innocent man in the prison, and with that he stuck out in every way. Andy reminds them that "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." Jesus Christ was the only truly innocent man to ever walk this Earth. Similarly, God has told us through his words that are bodies are tarnished by the worlds sin and evil. We are in a world run by our fleshly desires and sin. But, Jesus, as perfect as He is, stepped into our evil world and offered us Hope. He continues to save change lives today, many more than Andy Dufresne. Shawshank Redemption is a great feel-good, while still heart wrenching movie, but it has much more to offer than just a 2.5 hour movie. Next time you watch it, think about the life Andy is living and the example he is portraying for the other inmates, and consider the true life that Jesus Christ is trying to offer to you.