肖申克救赎英文影评

哈尔滨商业大学广厦学院学期论文

浅谈电影《肖申克的救赎》中的希望与

自由

学生姓名程磊

指导教师王立新

专业英语专业本科一班

学院外语学院

2011年12 月20 日

Guangsha College of Harbin University of Commerce

Term Thesis

Hope and Free - On the Theme of Shawshank Redemption

Student Cheng Lei

Supervisor Wanglixin

Specialty English Major Class 1

School School of Foreign Languages

December 20, 2011

Hope and Freedom - On the Theme of

Shawshank Redemption

The story may sound simple, but the truth behind the words is remarkable. When some people heard the name of the film first time, most of them considered the Sh awshank to be a man’ name, but in fact it is a jail’s name - a hell in the world. Not only for the inhumanity of the jailors - they behaved brutally; but also for the jail gnawed at people’ heart by keeping them waiting and waiting as life passed. It seeme d that only those utterly worthless people who gave up everything could survive. That’s where the story happened.

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” When Andy Dufresne puts it in such a quiet way, my heart ache because of it. Have you ever felt that way about hope? Hope is the only thing in the wild world not carved out of gray stone. Hope is a small place inside of us anyone can never lock away. That is what I’ve learnt from an excellent movie The Shawshank Redem ption.

The story begins in 1947, when Andy Dufresne, a city banker, is wrongfully convicted of his wife and her lover. He is sent to Shawshank prison and receives a double life sentence for the crime. In shawshank, Andy forms an extraordinary friendship with Red, a man who knows how to get things from the outside. Andy gets a 5 inches long rockhammer and a huge poster from Red, by which he secretly puts his pipedream into practice. After 20 years digging, Andy tunnels through the prison wall. Then he crawls 500 yards through the sewer and gets out into a ditch near the field beyond the ground of Shawshank, with no equipment, no one knows.

On the first viewing, it’s the story of Andy and his struggle to maintain hope despite his circumstances. However, this is really a movie about Red and his struggle to find meaning and purpose. It seems that we are more or less similar with Red, because we’ve got used to the gray walls around us, which stand for routine, and then more routine. If one day, these walls dessolve away, we’ll be afraid instead of free. We’re afraid of not being ruled? That sounds ridiculous, but we actually are! Fortunately, when Red is faced with the same situation as we are, because of Andy, he can find a different path—the path of freedom that is lit by hope.

Sometimes, we feel many things have let us down and don’t hope for the good anymore. But I have to say, suffering is not always a bad thing. Suffering produces perseverance, character, and character, hope. If we can see hope through all the hardship, nothing’s gonna stop us marching towards victory!

“Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free.” this is a sentence written on the poster of the movie The Shawshank Redemption. It’s a movie about freedom, friendship and hope. An d the aspect that shakes me a lot is “freedom”.

What is freedom? It’s a carefree and content breath under the sun. To us, it just like air, so ordinary that you can’t imagine what it will be when you lose it. But to those prisoners, especially those who w ould live there all their lives, it’s a precious happiness out of reach. Andy finally got rid of Shawshank, what made his redemption come true? Maybe his aspiration after freedom, his believing of hope!

What is freedom? It’s that blue sky above the prisoners in the wall; it’s Andy’s pure blue eyes where hope revealed; it’s the vision that the prisoners sitting on the roof drinking beers; it’s the little jack that Norton fed flew out of the window; it’s “Le Nozze de Figaro” flying over the roof of heaven in the prison; it’s the arms Andy stretch out in the lightning day; it’s the ocean the heaven the cockleboat…