爱华网The ShawshankRedemption
A successful young banker Andy found his wifefornicate with a baseball coach. He flew into a fury and planned toshoot them dead at one night. But at last he gave up. His reasonwon his emotion. Surprisingly, his wife and her lover died at thatnight. Andy was framed for murder. And the sentence was two lifeimprisonments. He was sent into Shawshank prison.
That was a dark and gloomy hell with madprisoners, cruel warders and viperous and greedy wardenry. Thefirst night Andy spent in it, a new comer like Andy couldn’t bearthe fear and kept crying and shouting. The result was he was takenout and beaten dead by the warders. At that moment, Andy understoodthat if he want to live he must be silent in Shawshank.
In Shawshank Andy knew an old prisoner Red. Theygradually became friends. Red was able to get some small goods forthe prisoners. So Andy asked for a little hammer because of hisinterest in geology.
The life in Shawshank was full of danger. Andy,as a new prisoner, was often threatened and maltreated by somescoundrels because he always refused their unbearable anddisgusting demand. In such a dark prison, no one could help himeven if someone may want to. After tow years, one day, Andy, Redand some other prisoners got the chance to rebuild the roof. Theyheard the head of the warders complaining that he had to pay hightax to government if he wanted toreceive hisbrother’s inheritance. Andy grabbed the opportunity and taught hima way to be exempt from taxation. The condition was to give eachprisoner 3 bottles of ice beer. All the prisoners enjoyed the rareand short freedom leisurely. Red said,” It’s just like rebuildingthe roof of our own house. We are free like God.” Anotherconsequence was that from then on Andy got the protection from thehead of the warders. And all the warders even the wardenry began toconsult Andy for financial affairs. So some of his specialbehaviors were permitted, such as pasting posters of some famousactress on the wall or carving chessmen with his little hammer atnight.
Prisoner as he was, Andy did more than acivilian. He kept writing one letter to the government every weekto ask for bankroll to develop the library in Shawshank. Afternearly ten years, a new library finally appeared. When checking thebooks from the government Andy found a piece of disc ofThe Wedding ofFigaro. Then he playedthe disc in the radio room, letting the dulcet music spread aboveShawshank. Although he was imprisoned alone for two weeks aspenalty, he wasn’t regretful at all, because of the greatest thingin the world——music,which represents another best thing for human——hope.Later on, Andy knew a new prisoner Tommy, from whom Andy knew whowas the real murderer that killed his wife. He immediately told thewardenry about this and naively thought the wardenry would help himleave there. But the wardenry didn’t do that. He killed Tommy. Andyhad been laundering money for the wardenry for a long time. So it’simpossible for the wardenry to set Andy, as a tool and an attesterfor his crime, free. At this moment, everything seemed to be over.Both Andy and the audience should despair.
But the climax of the movie appears. At a nightwith thunderstorm Andy escaped from Shawshank. Everyone includingthe wardenry and Red couldn’t believe it. The stone wall which Redasserted wouldn’t be dug through even with six hundred years wasdug through by Andy in two decades. He kept digging with thatlittle hammer at night, the sound of which was mistaken for thesound of carving chessmen. And the hole on the wall was covered bythe huge poster of a famous actress. At that night, Andy crawledthrough the narrow tunnel to a drain-pipe and then smashed it witha stone under the cover of thunderclap. He was crawling whilevomiting in the pipe which was as long as five football grounds byRed’s estimate. At length, Andy got out of the pipe into a littleriver outside the prison. He walked to the middle of the river andripped his shirt, letting the rain wash all the filth away. Underthe lightning and thunder, Andy spread out his arms, regainingfreedom. When reading the postcard from Andy, Red sighed withfeeling,” Some birds aren’t meant to be caged, that’s all. Theirfeathers are just too bright.”
Andy had said,” Life has only twochoices——get busy living or get busy dying.” This is themost impressive word in this movie. It influenced a lot of peopleincluding me. Everyone is able to be busy living, but not everyonecan do that all the time. That’s why a few people have brilliantlife; many remain mediocre till the last minute of their life whilesome always struggle to get out of poverty. We complain that God isunfair. We just despair when we are in all-time low. We takehands-off attitude towards ourselves when others think we arefailure, although we will weep in dreams. All of these have a samereason——we forgot that only ourselves can saveourselves.
Holding hope forever especially in desperationand reminding myself to get busy living at any moment. That’s themost precious thing I got from this movie——TheShawshank Redemption.
