What Goes around Comes Around: Shawshank Redemption - Essay Example

What goes around comes around: Shawshank Redemption As it is known for the law to be meant for people who are innocent, dependable and trustworthy, what is depicted in the Shawshank prison is that the warden and the guards seem to do worse things than some of the convicts in prison. The guards often beat up their inmates, and the warden seemed quite contented with these wrongful and evil acts. There is no humanity in the prison because the inmates are tortured and mistreated for no reason. In fact, these prisoners were treated like animals. The guards would beat them up and damage their cells and later ask them to do the entire repair (The Shawshank Redemption). Apart from being beaten, these prisoners had to do everything. When prisoners are beaten senselessly, it proves to other inmates that they do not have to respect one another. Beating up the prisoners also hurts them both physically and mentally. The warden went as far as supporting behavior that was not called for in the prison. However, the guards and the warden failed to recognize that one may not play with Karma. As it is known that “we reap what we sow,” this is what the warden and the guards had sowed and it was clearly coming back to them. As opposed to the fellow inmates, Andy possessed a sense of self-worth. Some of the other inmates tried to rape him and beat him up, but he managed to withstand all those harsh treatments even though he suffered lacerations and bruises (The Shawshank Redemption). He managed to quietly befriend Red and his team of friends. Once they became friends, they formed a dreadful group that always stuck together. There is a lot of prison violence and conflict throughout the movie (The Shawshank Redemption). The worst conflict was when the warden ordered the murder of Tommy who had information that would prove that Andy was innocent. Andy had not been doing the taxes of the warden. When Andy was informed of what the warden did, he got emotional. Andy decided to plan his escape that would set him free and give him a chance to expose the evil warden and the guards. In the Shawshank prison, the warden permitted the guards to torture and even to murder their prisoners. As a warden, he has the responsibility of bringing justice, but when he discovered that he had the opportunity to free Andy from wrongful accusation, he destroyed the evidence that would set Andy free. Apparently, the evidence that he destroyed was the murder of a man by the name of Tommy. When Andy discovered that he had nothing left to prove his innocence, he became devastated. Karma became quite significant when Andy managed to escape from the prison. Andy wrote a letter to the local newspapers that described how immorally the convicts were treated and even beaten to death in the prison (The Shawshank Redemption). The journalists and the police turned up within some minutes once the information had been read and revealed. This shocked the warden and he got scared and later committed suicide. In the beginning of the movie, the warden displayed the characters of Christian men. He ensured that the Shawshank prisoners had the Bibles, and he familiarized the prisoners with his favorite Bible verse, “Salvation Lies Within.” The warden and Andy both had conversations regarding this Bible verse; however, Andy disrupted the conversation in an encouraging manner. When the warden discovered that Andy had been concealing in the Bible the tool which assisted him to flee, his jaw dropped. No one knows how people may react to what they are told and how the precise opposite may set them free. The film depicts that everyone gets what he deserves. The warden and the guards received their punishment just like they mistreated the inmates (The Shawshank Redemption). People may dance through life doing evil things to others and even mistreating others, and they may think that they may have a smooth life. Andy was an innocent man who was convicted for a crime that he did not commit. This subjected him to a life that he did not deserve. However, he managed to expose the evil warden and the guards that often mistreated the inmates, and this made the warden and the guards receive the punishment that they deserved. The Shawshank prison has a lot of hypocrisies and insincerities. The characters that these were infused by were the opposite of what the audience would believe. The prison employees and the warden were the ones who cheated and did the wrong things instead of the prisoners. However, the prisoners who did the wrong things always admitted openly unlike the pretentious guards and the warden. The warden claimed that he had a spiritual life, which was not true. He pretended to use the principles and morals of Christians to apply in prison law (The Shawshank Redemption). The warden lied and pretended in the name of God. The truth is that he was not a Christian, but a hypocrite who hid his character as a false Christian. In the whole movie, the warden displays a double standard. He claimed that he was a virtuous man; however, he permitted the guards to beat the inmates to death, and this was against his religious claims. Since he was acting in the name of God and not doing the rightful things as a Christian, he got the punishment of death. He had sown in him too much hypocrisy against the Christian faith that he had to reap what he had sown, which was death. While the guards also prove to be hypocrites, they were not as serious hypocrites as the warden (The Shawshank Redemption). These characters swore in the eyes of God that they were innocent while they were not. It is not always advisable to lie in the name of God because some day one would have to answer. In this film, the people who are expected to be good, that is, the warden and his guards, are the bad people. The others who are expected to be the bad people, that is, the inmates, are depicted as the good people. The guards, like the warden, would get away with the evil deeds that they had done. No one would question them because they were the ones in charge of the entire prison. Works Cited The Shawshank Redemption. Dir. Frank Darabont. Distributed by Warner Home Video. 2007. Film. Read More