What Is Darabont's Use Of Light In Shawshank Redemption

Light played a major role in the Shawshank Redemption. Both author Stephen King and director Frank Darabont use light to depict the emotions of the characters. Early in the novel, Andy helps Hadley with his inheritance, and in return, Hadley supplied beer to the convicts. As Red describes. “[We were] sitting in a row at ten o'clock on a spring morning, drinking Black Label beer […]. We sat and drank it and felt the sun on our shoulders […]. It lasted twenty minutes, that beer-break, and for those twenty minutes we felt like free men.” (King 32). The convicts were sitting together on a sunny morning, feeling the warmth of the sun on their shoulders. As Red describes, they felt free. Spending most of their day inside a dark, grey cell, the warmth

Andy successfully gave the other men an opportunity to feel like free men in a prison. He is showing that the prison can’t take away his hope, and he can still feel like a free man within the prison. In the movie, Darabont immensely used light, to the point where the background was all white. The convicts were all smiling and laughing, pouring with happiness. The light from the sun went right through Red’s beer bottle, as if he is drinking in the hope and happiness. The sun was shining on the faces of the men, and the viewer can almost feel that liberating warmth. The novel did not describe the scene in the immersive manner of the movie. The reader did not feel the hope and positivity of Andy that the viewer did. Another example of the this is the conversation between Andy and Red after Andy spent 60 days in solitary for calling Norton “obtuse”. When Red approached Andy, his face “turned up into the sunlight. It was surprisingly warm, that sun, for a day so late in the year.” (King 56). Andy’s face turned towards the warmth of the sunlight, the same warmth of hope from the beer scene. Red even notes that the sun was warmer than it should be that