Shawshank Redemption Analysis - Kohlberg and Maslow connection!

Well andy is serving at shawshank it is may of 1950 and a few prisoners have been tasked with a job of taring the roof of a license plate factory. Well the prisoners are hard at work a strict and very violent prison guard named byron hadley and a few others are accompanying the prisoners . Well tarring the roof they over here hadley talking about a large sum of money he will soon receive from a dead relative but a big chunk is being taxed away. Andy being a big shot banker before attending shawshank sees an opportunity to put his skills to work and although knowing how the warden can react violently andy says to him “Do you trust your wife mr hadley”(King pge 44) , stunned by what andy says to him hadley says :i'll give you one chance to pick up that tar brush or your going off this roof head first. While all the other prisoners would

By all accounts we see Andy 's character reflecting certain choices of conformity in which he clearly represents behavior and appearance that follows and maintains a particular standard and acceptance of a group. As we learn further in the story we must also consider the factors of behavior that reflects deviance. This behavior challenges the norms. Andy has been convicted of violating the norms of everyday life by murdering his wife and her lover and he is arrested for the murder.

After Andy was proven guilty, this is when he was introduced to Shawshank Prison. This is when Andy took the next step of his Hero’s Quest and Crossed the Threshold.

a sense of freedom"(48) which Andy could even manage to possess inside the prison. Andy always carried an "inner light"(48) inside of him, an inner light that burned for the dream of freedom. Andy got the beer for all his crew because he wanted the crew to have a sense of freedom

(pg.#58). In these two quotes it explains how Andy prepared for his incarceration and how he knew how life would be extremely tough once he gets out. He uses an analogy of two men; one of which assumes nothing will happen to him, the other prepares for the worst that can happen and has every right to hope for the best. In this case Andy is the man who prepares for the worst, so he knows he will be okay no matter what happens.

In prison there are different levels of confinement and this was shown to play a big part in the prisoners life at Shawshank. If you were caught in the act of doing something against the rules or in Andy’s case, standing up to the warden, you were sent to solitarily confinement for a period of time. In the movie Andy spent two months in solitary with only bread and water to survive. This to me is a hell of a way to get what you want out of the inmates but some have nothing to lose so even solitary does not break them.

But before he escapes Andy’s been doing the wardens taxes and he has made the warden rich with dirty money that Andy made clean. One day Andy tells Red about his dream of getting out of prison and moving to Mexico and living by the ocean and fixing up a boat. This shows the subject of happiness because that's Andy’s dream believing in it makes Andy happy. This connects to the theme through happiness Andy found happiness with friends and his dream, later when he escapes, he becomes rich and accomplishes his dream and achieves true happiness when Red gets out he moves in with

The Warden sees how intelligent Andy is and moves him from hard labor, into the Library. Andy helps other guards with their taxes and college funds for their children. After 6 years of writing letters to the state, Andy receives two hundred dollars and used books for his library. Andy finds out about the Warden stealing money. After calling the Warden “obtuse” Andy is sent to Solitary for a month. One morning during count, Andy doesn't show up. The guard goes up to his cell to find it empty. Red is sent to Andy’s cell while Warden asks him questions. As he is asking him questions, he is throwing Andy’s rocks around the room. The rock hits a poster and goes through it. The Warden rips down the poster to find a hole in the wall. Andy escaped and stole the Wardens money. He mailed an article about a murder at the prison to the local press. At the prison, Hardley is arrested. When they go looking for the Warden, He is locked in his office with a gun. He then points the gun at himself and commits suicide. Red finally gets approved for parole and leaves

Prisoners like Brooks were trained to like routine for so long, that they became used to the way they were treated. Andy became subject to extortion when the administrator used him to do their tax returns ; “By April of 1951, Andy was doing the tax returns for half the screws at Shawshank , and by 1952, he was doing almost all of them” (51) This quotation shows that lack of empathy , and morals used by the administration at Shawshank. Shawshank as a prison was highly corrupt and the prisoners suffered from mental abuse by use of extortion and punishment.

In the Film Shawshank Redemption (1994) directed by Frank Darabont, Andy was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and is shipped off to Shawshank prison. The prison is run by Warden Norton who is a corrupt leader. When Andy first arrives at the prison he is very timid and shy. As the film progresses, Andy breaks out of his shell and starts building relationships with Red and the other prisoners. Throughout the film we learn that Andy is an ex banker who Norton enlist to help him with his taxes and balancing the books. Soon enough Andy realizes that Norton was laundering money. The movie displays many of the concepts that we have learned throughout Organizational Behavior textbook written by Cohen Et Al. Throughout the paper I will be talking about how Shawshank Redemption relates to the concepts we have learned in the textbook specifically in chapter 8 and 10.

Holding onto one’s humanity is a skill that takes constant practice and the conscious decision to do so. The protagonist of the film, Andy, is very different from the rest on his inmates at Shawshank in that he manages to hold onto his humanity throughout his time in prison despite many trying situations. This trait is first expressed when Andy asks if anyone knows the name of man who was beaten to death by the guards on his first night in prison. By simply having some human emotion Andy has proven that he is not willing to let prison change who he is as a human being. Again, Andy leaps out of his comfort zone during his confrontation with the guard on the roof. Perched on the edge of the roof, Andy spreads his wings and risks the fall in order to grant his inmates a taste of the outside world through the simple luxury of a few beers for his friends to enjoy. The great beauty of a man who not only has the courage to hold onto his own humanity but also has the boldness to help others do the same is what makes Andy such a captivating protagonist. His courage and determination are the only thing keeping him human and moreso, keeping him sane.

Initially, hope held great value for Andy, while he was in prison, using it to survive for all those years. He contained the hope that he would escape, by burrowing his way out of prison. Evidently, a small hammer was what lead to his freedom. When Andy first arrived in prison, Red believed he would be the first to break. However, Andy

Moreover another production aspect used to show us this idea is music. Music is used to create mood and help us understand what a character is going through. We hear violin and string instruments as Andy arrives to Shawshank Prison. Violin and string instruments are used in movies a lot to make the viewer feel sad about something happening or about to happen. We first hear Orchestral Music when we are shown Shawshank Prison we hear it playing in the background low volume and slow tempo and this increases in volume and tempo to create a sad mood for Andy’s arrival and emphasise that the prison is a dark and depressing place to end up. It suggests to the viewer that the prison is a sad place to end up in and that it is a corrupted place too. It makes us worried for Andy who seems like a good guy.

After years of being imprisoned with those unfit for society, Brooks has a role and purpose in his new world of isolation. The viewer is first introduced to Brooks in the prison cafeteria when Andy; a new inmate to Shawshank, sits across from him. Brooks is shown sitting a few seats down from the other men, revealing a subtle disconnect from the other inmates. The separation between Brooks and the men reflects that of the typical isolation that elderly face in society. However Andy, a new and fearful member of Shawshank sits next to Brooks instead of the other men his age. The actions of Andy reveal that Brooks is seen as someone who embodies a sense of comfort and safety in a society of hostility. The of role Brooks has in Shawshank is further

His skills helped him gain the trust and popularity from both Mr. Warden and his inmates. He is calm and cool in behavior that made him likable. He is loyal as he made sure he kept the promise he made to his friend Red. Andy has high external as he is educated and had a high position in a bank. On the other hand, Red has been in prison for his entire adult life which resulted in a change of personal system. He doesn’t think of life after prison. He has been “institutionalized “. He has become dependent on the required system that he doesn’t think he can survive after prison. The word institutionalized as described by Red is the process by which prisoners first hate the prison then gets used to it that finally, even their lives depend on it. (Movie). Red is also the guy that can get you anything. He sells “cigarettes, a bag of resources and a bottle of brandy” which resulted in high power and respect from his inmates. He values the life he has in prison than anything else. I believe this is because it has been a long time since he was out to see the world. He has already adjusted his behavior and way of life in regards to the required system of the prison. The rest of the prisoner’s personal system lies between these two.