in+class+essay

nick brown ** In class essay ** The environment that we as humans are placed in strongly effects how much we value and appreciate life and being human. There are many examples of how a certain environment affects human behavior in the film Shawshank redemption. For example in the first few scenes as the new prisoners are entering the jail the film depicts very well how a quick change in environment effects human nature. In this case it is going from being a free man to living under the cruel rules of the prison guards and even the tertiary prisoners. Examples of this change being when a man asks the warden when dinner is and gets beaten down by the guard, also when another man emotionally breaks down on the first night of being in prison. There are also examples of how prisoners like Andy do not want to give into this change of environment, examples such as how he keeps to himself for the first few months; only first talking to red when he needs the hammer to break out of prison. Another one of the main concepts of this film is how while the prisoners begin to adapt to this new environment they start to become “institutionalized” this means that they become so used to the routine and life of prison that they start to forget about everything out side of jail, some like Red even lose hope. Through out the film Andy shows examples of how he avoids becoming institutionalized by finding ways to remind him of hope and freedom. The main three examples of him doing this are him building the library for education of the other inmates, when he makes a deal with the head guard for getting him and his companions cold beer in turn for doing the guards taxes, the other example is when Andy locks him self in the prison office and plays the jail music through the speaker system to remind the prisoners of hope and that there is something on the other side of the prison walls. The film also depicts how the prisoner’s lives are affected once they leave the jail. For ones such as Brooks who had been in the jail most of his life and is a perfect example of Reds description on being institutionalized. He finds the out side world scary at first after being in prison for so long, but soon becomes depressed once he realizes that out side of jail he has nothing; no family, friends or means of being happy so he decides to commit suicide. Once Reds parole is finally approved he responds to being free very much the same way as Brooks only he looks for hope in finding Andy who left him a letter and money once he got out of jail. Andy was different from both Brooks and Red because although he changed his overall out look of life he never became institutionalized in prison and he never lost hope in either his life outside of prison or his plans of escaping. In conclusion these are examples of how an environment or changes in an environment affect human nature and persons own out take on life using references from the film shawshank redemption.