Hope

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Hope

Stephen King published his novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption in 1982. In 1994 this novella was turned into a movie called The Shawshank Redemption. Frank Darabont wrote the screenplay. A good adaptation will capture the same overall essence of the written book or novella. Darabont did a wonderful job of adapting this novella into a movie. He captured the overall essence in a way that makes a heart rejoice in happiness and relief. The adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption is very well done.

One of the major motifs of the story is “get busy living, or get busy dying.” This phrase sticks out the most in the movie. In the novella it is said once by Red just before he leaves to go to McNary, Texas, where Andy Dufresne crossed the border into Mexico after he escaped. Red was contemplating not going. He figured that so much of his life was already gone and wondered if it was even worth the trouble. But he told himself, “get busy living, or get busy dying” (King 105).

In the movie this phrase is first said by Andy in the prison yard just before he escaped. At this point in the movie Andy seems to be completely depressed. Throughout the movie, Andy always seemed to have a little smile on his face, but at this point it seemed as all hope was gone from him. He was talking to Red about Zihautanejo, Mexico. This is the place Andy wanted to go to after he got out of Shawshank. He talked about how beautiful it was and how he wanted to go down there and start a hotel

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on the ocean. Red told him to stop dreaming those “shitty pipe dreams.” This is when Andy said, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” After that Andy tells Red about a place in Buxton where under a rock there will be something that he wants Red to have. Andy made Red promise him that he would go there if he ever got out. At this point in the movie it seems as if though Andy was about to kill himself, so it seemed as is he was going to get busy dying instead of getting busy living (Shawshank).

The last time the phrase was said was when Red finally got paroled out of Shawshank. This time the movie follows the book in that Red was trying to decide whether or not to go to Mexico. Red was feeling depressed at this time. He figured that his life was over. He had been institutionalized. He didn’t know how to operate outside the walls of Shawshank. But he told himself that quote and decided to head down to Mexico to meet Andy at his hotel. Both times in the story the character decided to get busy living instead of dying (Shawshank).

Another wonderful motif of the story is hope. Throughout all of the things that happened to Andy at Shawshank, good and bad, he never loses hope. That is what gets him by more than anything does. Red always told him that hope won’t get him anywhere, but it kept him from becoming institutionalized. “It is hope that allows the self-proclaimed innocent man to survive what may or may not be an unjust imprisonment.” Says Rita Kempley. This motif was held by the movie very well, if not better.

Hope is a gift given to Red by Andy. In the novella, before Andy escapes, he fills Red with hope of a new day when he will be free. Red almost resents this more than he

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wants to accept it. He thought it would just bring him more heartache to hope for another, happier day. But still the whole night of Andy’s escape Red’s mind was filled with pictures of a sandy beach, a blue sky, and the wonderfully blue and enormous Pacific Ocean (Kempley).

In the movie, Red’s hope starts only after he decides to go to Andy in Mexico. At this point Red had gone to the hayfield in Buxton and found the letter and the money that Andy had left for him. Red finally made up his mind to go to Andy. The movie ends with Red saying, “I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” Then for the final scene you see Red walking up to Andy who is working on his boat on his beach in Zihautanejo. The novella ends with just Red saying “I hope.” The book actually makes the reader hope more at the end by leaving it open and not saying for sure that Red made it to Zihautanejo. The reader “hopes” that Red did in fact make it (Darabont).

The overall essence of the story is actually captured better