Reading Journal #1. Shawshank Redemption and Rita Hayworth
10b2 Park MinSun
As Red narrates the story of Andy Dufrense and the lives Shawshank prison, all I could think about was how Andy would really look like if he actually existed. Andy is portraited like a hero in this story, and I think I fell in love with this guy, just like many other times when you would fall in love with a character in a book or a movie. He is a prominent banker outside Shawshank, which premises that he is very smart, plus he helps all the other men in prison to avoid taxation with his extraordinary ability. He has this calm, stoic-like attitude even at court when DA kept raging him to the limits. I still remember the lines when he said, ‘Given the fact that I am innocent in this crime, I feel very uncomfortable that he gun was never found.’, or something along those lines. He was smart enough to threaten the sisters at prison who tried to rape Andy by scaring them using his knowledge. He also quietly hurt sisters badly at night, breaking into their cells, this time also using his smart brain. The most admirable thing about Andy is how courageous he is. First of all he was described by Red that he ‘Never made a sound’ on his rough first day at prison even though he was truly innocent. Second he planned the most dangerous thing at prison; an escape. He knew very well that Shawshank guards would beat him to death when they find out that he was planning to escape the prison. However, he believed in HOPE, which made Red change his mind, and dugged a huge tunnel through the prison wall with his small rockhammer. He kept his huge hole covered with such a weak defense mechansim, a poster of girls, which he changed over time. Red predicted that it would take Andy to dig a hole over 300 years, but Andy did it within about 20 years in time.
Given that Andy was given a life sentence even though he literally didn't do anything, I really admire him for how he really kept holding on to his life. If I were him, I would have killed myself already when I'm accused of murders of two people I never did and given life sentence for it. Andy never lost hope and kept spreading it to the other guys at prison, and he finally achieved what he always wanted to do. I feel ashamed of myself when I think of him. I always sing about my little failures at school. 'Oh god, I ruined my quiz today! I'm sooo dead. I'm not even going to go to university anymore'. 'Tomorrow's my midterm and I haven't studied at all! I really want to kill myself'. Well, it does not pertain only to me. Almost everybody in this school says that everyday. Maybe I should start fixing this and start to say positive things!
