Hope Springs Eternal

Hope Springs Eternal, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

     When I first finished reading this entire book containing four different stories, I thought the first one which is Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was the least horrifying but still contained various concepts and I enjoying learning about the prison world. This story was the first long prison story I read and thus made me focus more and learn new things about a world that is isolated from the outside world. I had many questions while reading this story and tried to figure out the answers while thinking and guessing.

    

     This first part of the book has another title, Hope Springs Eternal. I wondered why the author related hope with this story and this was one of the questions that I could find the answer easily. Throughout the story, the author keeps on emphasizing the power of hope. Andy showed how hope helps prisoners live in such an isolated place. He dug into the concrete cell wall for nearly 28 years and everyday when he was digging that hole, he felt hope and this emotion helped him to control himself and not go insane. Also, in the part when Tommy Williams told Andy he could prove Andy’s innocence, the tiger called hope was released from the cage in Andy’s mind. If prisoners didn’t have hope, they could possibly not live in the dark and gloomy place for years. Andy always had hope and this strong feeling helped him escape in the end. That is why the author put Hope Springs Eternal for this story, Andy’s hope lasted forever.

    

     Does this story have credibility? Can we believe every word Red tells us? No, and Red admits it as well. This story was written in first person narrative which made the story seem more realistic but it had its limits. Red cannot remember every fact about the life in Shawshank and he cannot know exactly the thoughts of individuals. In the story, Red agrees that the things that he tells can be a mixture of rumors and plus, Red had an admiration of Andy which made the story look like it was justifying Andy’s escape. Readers need to be unbiased while reading it.

    

     There was another factor that contributed to the justification of Andy’s escape, the corruption of Shawshank. The prison didn’t mind the prisoners’ lives and rehabilitation and instead prisoners learned survival techniques and even Andy did money laundering. Red showed all the terrible sides of Shawshank which leads the readers to think Andy should not have stayed in the prison any longer and it was perfectly right to escape. However, the world does not look at jail breakers with an affirmative eye and this shows how the story tends to support Andy’s actions.

    

     The last question I had was, is Andy a hero? People usually think of a hero as someone with a very good image and someone who saves lives of others, not a prison breaker. However, I believe Andy is a hero because other people benefited from him and I thought simply helping others can be seen as a hero. Andy gave his rocks to other inmates which is a symbol of transferring inner light and also Red faced his fears and accepted the outside world after seeing Andy’s hope help reach his goal. Andy isn’t a superhero, but he is indeed a hero for some people.