Meredith Liu Mr.

Brocato 117H 6 March 2013 Shawshank Redemption Literary Analysis Eloquence, Logical Argument Evil men understand no judgment, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully (Proverbs 28:5, KJV). Justice is receiving and accepting the appropriate consequences for ones actions. It is often associated with the sound of a gavel hitting polished rosewood at the hand of a judge sitting in a seat on an elevated podium. However, is justice always attainable? The court system is meant to distribute justice properly and accurately, but in many cases, is flawed. It is believed by many that God is the ultimate judge, who makes no flaws with his verdict, and will remain just throughout all the trials of humans, for the LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love (Psalm 33:5, ESV). Any mistakes made can be forgiven and rectified through the recognition of repentance or even guilt. Ideally, the choices one makes should determine how much freedom or discipline he or she receives, both on earth and beyond. In the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, justice is served in the precarious trials involving the inmate Bogs, Warden Norton, and Andy Dufresne to prove that ones actions will be judged and will be handled accordingly, in life and in death. The law is established to protect and enhance the well-being of other human beings. Breaking the law can be anything from littering to taking the life of another individual, and both have pertinent consequence for each situation. For Bogs, an aggressive inmate who thinks only of his own personal desires, makes Andy Dufresnes life a living hell at Shawshank through means of sexual abuse. Not only was this a violation of human rights, but was it also grossly

wrong. Bogs got what he deserved by [spending] a week in the hole of solitary confinement, being left alone with his own thoughts. How can an individual not feel guilt or regret when he is left in the dark to ponder upon such a gruesome past? It took being beaten nearly to death for Bogs to feel regret about his actions, and that was for his own selfish reasons, not for what he did to Andy on a physical and emotional level. The guard beat him viciously and threw him off the balcony, and two things never happened again after that. The sisters never laid a hand on Andy again, and Bogs never walked again. Bogs recognized what he did and his party never made a move toward Andy again, but did their regret come from his punishment or the guilt from their crime? They were remorseful, but had they repented? A crook who makes his cash by swindling others is a crime, but a crook who uses another man and kills a boy to get his hands on a considerable sum of blood money is a sin. Such a man was the warden of Shawshank Prison, Warden Norton. He is the quintessence of hypocrisy, lust, and egocentricity. He speaks of God constantly, referring to and relying upon the Bible. However, he thinks nothing of how he himself will one day find himself in front of the Judgment Seat but is quick to acknowledge the faults of others. Ironically, the embroidered cloth that rests on the wall to conceal the safe that contains his blood money reads: His judgment cometh and that right soon. In the Wardens case, his judgment day would come sooner than he ever expected. As he was discovered for his crimes, Norton panics and commits suicide, unable to recognize his wrongdoings, a bullet penetrating his skull from chin to bald spot. Red narrates, I like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him. This was how the God that Norton had hypocritically esteemed as a fair judge disseminated toward him his rightful justice before their

encounter after death. When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but a terror to evildoers (Psalm 21:15, ESV). A man stands alone on a wooded path, having just discovered of his beautiful, beloved wifes infidelity, a deep, dark pain in his heart. The revolver feels cold and heavy in his palm, but not quite as heavy as his heart. A drunken dizziness overcomes him and his memory fades into a swirl of darkness, anger, and hurt. But the revolver is thrown into the river, unfired. No murder is committed by the hand of Andy Dufresne. So how does it come to be that the judge slams his gavel onto a dark slab of unspoken doom to say, It chills my blood just to look at you. By the power vested in me by the State of Maine, I hereby order you to serve two life sentences, back to back, one for each of your victims. So be it, when Andy proclaims, I am innocent of this crime, sir, plainly to his face? Is this how our courts should be represented: a man, completely innocent, losing his freedom on the grounds of being declared guilty for a crime he didnt commit? This only proves that even the most seemingly foolproof systems of law are erratic and flawed, and only one Judge reigns supreme over all. In Andys case, justice was evident in multiple cases. For his wife and her lover, they ended up dead, wrapped in each others arms, as they manifestly chose to be. Leviticus 20:10 (KJV) says, And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's wife the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death, and this was so. Moreover, for a man who has no escape from the walls of imprisonment, no outlet to be free, Andy was blessed with the opportunity to build a new life for himself before his imminent escape. When he finally sneaks away from Shawshank in the dead of night, Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of sh*t came out clean on the other side, and with a bank account filled with $350,000 of Warden Nortons money. An innocent man could finally have his dream come true, where he could be free to rebuild his life on the white beaches on the

Pacific Mexican coast, to hope for a new future of freedom and a different day of judgment, the day of judgment when there will be no errors and he will get what he deserves. It is a terrible thing, the idea of suffering. The men at Shawshank supposedly all deserved that fate, according to the legal system. Some men, like Andy, truly didnt merit that doom at all, and some, like Red, would spend the rest of their lives regretting the day a younger version of themselves made a mistake. A parole officer would hear the same stories, about how a man is sorry and apologetic for the crimes he committed and wouldnt break the law again upon his release. But how can he be sure? How can he see the mans heart? The fact of the matter is that he cant. The only one who can is God, and He is the only one who can make the right call and decide on the correct verdict for the individual. But whatever the verdict is, it will be, unfailingly, complete and just.