Compare And Contrast Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption

Shawshank Compare and Contrast Essay

In 1994, director Frank Darabont released the film adaptation of Stephen King’s bestselling 1982 novella, “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”. Both mediums were masterfully crafted to tell the story of Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding’s time in prison and the immense impact that his friend and fellow prison inmate Andy Dufresne had on his life. Each medium excellently captured and portrayed the main themes, one of which being the injustice and hypocrisy of the prison system. While they both succeeded at doing so, they came to this, each in a different fashion. These separate entities used different techniques of writing and film and character portrayal to capture the key themes in this story.

With time, the scenes became brighter, slowly and gradually throughout Andy’s stay at Shawshank. Andy brought hope to the prison and we began seeing and feeling this throughout the film with the use of lighting. This can be best exemplified by the well-known rooftop scene, where Andy “buys” some of his fellow inmates a moment of freedom. As they sipped a cold beer on a hot spring day in 1949, they tasted the freedom and hope that they craved ever so much, and this was all thanks to Andy. We could see the mood change through the lighting, as it was a spring day. The lighting in this scene helped to capture the message of the power of hope, as we see the men were finally feeling a glimmer of hope in this moment. In the novella, “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”, Stephen King used literary techniques such as narrative to help capture some of the key themes. This story is presented as a monologue and a first-person narrative. By presenting the story like this, the reader is given a greater sense of authenticity. Red uses Andy to tell us of the struggles that are faced in prison, to convey the message of hope being a powerful sentiment, and the injustice of the prison system. Red tells us in an