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Essay On The Shawshank Redemption

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In the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ the director, Frank Darabont, uses many significant scenes throughout the film to present the idea, institutionalisation, to the audience. To do this, Darabont skilfully uses lighting, voice over, motif and foreshadowing to present the idea which helps to develop and further the idea of the text. One of the most important segments in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ which uses a number of these techniques is Brooks release up until his suicide.

There are two techniques which aid in showing the idea of the text during Brooks release, these are lighting and foreshadowing. Once brooks accepts that he can’t stay in the prison, inside the walls he now calls home, he unwillingly parts with Jake. Jake is a pet black, raven which was raised by Brooks. Brooks walks out of the dark …show more content…

He lifts him to a small window erupting with bright light. This could be said to be Jake’s ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ a popular saying attached to death. Jake, much like Brooks, is institutionalised, he was raised by brooks inside the prison. He was fed the grubs from prisoners meals and never learnt to catch grubs for himself, or any experiance in the wild. It is often said a caged bird will not survive outside its natural habitat. By leaving Shawshank, both Jake and Brooks walk (fly) out of their natural habitat. “These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on ‘em. That’s institutionalised”. The scene in which Brooks is in the park uses a voice over and lighting to show how sullen Brooks is. As Brooks sits on the park bench, a tree shades him to symbolise Brooks continuous lack of hope. The birds which he is feeding are in the light signifying that they can go anywhere, they are free. The birds can escape from danger and go to and from home as they please, but Brooks does not have

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