Andy Dufresne: An Inspiration to All.
The Shawshank Redemption is a powerful, elegant, yet wholly simple portrayal of Andy Dufresne's unjust confinement to prison, through which he purifies himself, learning invaluable lessons about justice, tenacity, and hope in life. .
Andy Dufresne bears his harsh life in prison without open complaint; knowing open resistance or complaint is futile, he takes pleasure in passively defying authority and bending rules only when he knows he can get away with doing so. On his first day in Shawshank prison, Andy sees firsthand how complaining and giving in to abuse from the other inmates only encouraged the deathly beating of a fellow inmate by Captain Hadley. Andy uses his wits and his persistent hopefulness to curry favor with the guards, initially seen when he boldly advises Hadley to give an inheritance from his brother as a gift to his wife in order to avoid taxes, and asks for beers for him and his comrades in exchange for his help in setting up the scheme. Andy gradually becomes recognized as a competent financial advisor, and does the taxes of all the prison staff, and is the mastermind behind Warden Norton's ingenious scams. Acting initially as assistant librarian to Ernie, and ultimately as head librarian, Andy sees the need to provide educational opportunities for the inmates and himself, and his persistent appeals to the government eventually give him the $500 per year and a donation of used books, with which Andy starts a well-stocked prison library, and even helps some prisoners get their GEDs through the mail. Although the other prisoners usually selfishly look out for their own interests, such as the reply to Andy's wondering who was beaten to death last night: "What do you care, new fish? Don't worry about him, he's dead." Andy brings compassion and a quiet benevolence to Shawshank. Ironically, Andy uses his knowledge of the Bible, forced upon all prisoners by the strictly religious yet insidious warden, as justification for his esape and publishing of the prison's pervasive corruption.
