Satire In 'The Shawshank's Redemption'

Despite there being reviews stating how this film is unmoving and unsatisfying, The Shawshank Redemption is an inspiring film that brings fourth plot twists, tension, and symbolism that leaves the viewer craving for more. The Shawshank Redemption directed by Frank Darabont, contains a number of scenes that pull at the heartstrings, and eventually concludes with a heartwarming ending. It is centered around Andy Dufresne, who is wrongfully accused of murdering his wife as well as the man who she was having an affair with. As a result, Andy is sent to serve a lifelong sentence Shawshank prison where he meets characters such as Red and Brooks.

Some examples “Don’t forget to thank Satan for the baby Alive he gave you last year”. Even though they used the name Satan it was actually implied to be for Santa. Satire is the use of humor to overly exaggerate the critical purpose and to also mock other’s weaknesses.

Throughout the history, different medias-(Movies, tv shows, novels, songs) tackle the topic of teenage society.  Jerad Hess, the director of the film Napoleon Dynamite, used many satirical device such as Exaggeration, Parody, irony, to interpret the life of a teenager in Idaho . The representation of teenage society in Napoleon Dynamite express the ups and downs of teenage life and mock/ exaggerate the life of teenegers and other contemperoty problems and situations. The director's main objective is to exaggerate  and to reveal the covel changes of  the country through a point of view of a teenager and the impact of those changes in their life. The immigration of Latin Americans to America and from urban areas to more rural areas are portrayed through the character Pedro and his interactions with protagonist-Napoleon Dynamite and  other characters.

For example, one way he shows satire is in the beginning of the prompt he says “country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism”(Twain). Twain is showing how the soldiers were ready for war that even their chest was on fire because of how much patriotism they had. When soldiers go to war I don't think there breast burned them for feeling patriotic. This shows how ironic he is because that didn't really happen. Twain trys to explain to the people how the soilders were so happy to go fight and knew they were going to win

“Satire is traditionally the powerless against the powerful.” – Molly Ivins. Satire is a style of criticism that can be used in many ways and in many different situations. Occasionally satire is easy to find, other times it may be disguised. Most of the time satire is found in literature.

According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, satire is a “way of using humor to show that someone or something is foolish, weak, or bad”. Satire shocks its reader into awareness of the situation through the use of sarcasm, blunt and harsh words, and/or exaggeration of the issue. The two types of satire utilize these

Satire is used in literature to criticize and point out society’s flaws. The criticism is usually masked in humour. Irony is commonly used in satires to expose flaws, an effective example is John Smith’s A Modest Proposal, he effectively uses irony, to communicate his argument about the poverty in Ireland at the time. Similarly, in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale she criticizes the society that women live in. Atwood uses allusions to the Old Testament, Cultural Revolution, Salem Witch Trials, and the Taliban to satirize the oppression of women in political, religious and social aspects.

Satire is used by many famous writers to create humor and to criticize people’s unwise, and senseless actions. As George Orwell once said, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." (Orwell, 1945). People will always be greedy and think they are smarter than others but this is untrue. The one who thinks he is smarter or better than the other will always end up losing in life.

Throughout the history author’s created different type of genres of literature because what they wanted to tell or explain differed from one another and needed a different perspective, a different look. One of the most important and known genre of literature is satires. In my paper I am going to focus on answering various questions about satires by using Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, Judy Brady’s I Want a Wife and a modern day TV-Series that we consider as satire, Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy. We can consider all these 3 different works as satire because all of them have the necessary tools to be considered as satire; irony, ridicule, dark humor, exaggeration and taking their subjects from important social and political issues.

Few remember that not just the indicted are changed in the prison system-the authority figures become different, too. Thousands of people go to detention facilities and stay there from minutes to decades, but the authority figures stay there with every influx of new prisoners. The wardens, in particular, are a monumental part of the system. They regulate the prisoners causing them to adapt to situations, whether positive or negative. Samuel Norton, the warden in the adaptation of Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption, is embodied by the atmosphere of the prison.

In the criminal justice system, the corrections component is also responsible for the rehabilitation of the convicted individual. It is their duty to attempt to make the defendant a productive member of society once again. Based on the individual’s behavior while incarcerated, the court and corrections officials may decide to place them on parole, which ensures that the individual will comply with the rules of society once they are fully released from the system. The criminal justice system is an essential role in the organizational structure of not only the United States but also in countries around the world. If there were no criminal justice system to administer punishment, the world would be unstructured, disorganized, unjustified, cruel, and not to mention a chaotic place for it citizens.

Shawshank redemption written and directed by Frank Darabont in 1998, is a film revealing the repressive and undemocratic domain of Shawshank prison. Almost the entire film takes place inside the walls of the Shawshank prison. Its muted prison set, is enhanced by the integrated blue colours of the prison-uniforms, numbs the viewer visually. On arrival at Shawshank we see the establishing shot of the isolation of the prison itself, allowing us to see the how the convicts find amusement in something evidently boring to the viewer, as a bus full of newcomers.

The Shawshank redemption is about much more than just a young banker spending many years of his life in prison. It shows us the struggles inmates go through to adapt to an environment as harsh as prisons and how creating friendships with others helps the men get through the rough patches. The film demonstrates that prison is a world of its own, with its own rules and how many men struggle to fit back into society when they are released. Shawshank Redemption’s director, Frank Darabont, uses many brilliant film techniques to capture key scenes. A few examples of these are: when Andy first arrives at Shawshank an establishing shot is used to show the prison.

Synopsis Shawshank Redemption is a novella by Stephen King which originally appeared in his collection, Different Seasons. Shawshank Redemption film depicts the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who is charged and sentenced to two consecutive life term in prison at Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. The movie was set in the 1940s, demonstrates how Andy, with the help of his new formed friendship in prison, Red, the prison entrepreneur, turns out to be a most eccentric prisoner. After the murder of his wife, hotshot banker Andy Dufresne is sent to Shawshank Prison, where Andy experiences and deal with the ropes of prison (how the crooked prison system operates), brutality,

The film is an adaptation of Stephen King’s novella the Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Set during the mid-20th century, the symbolic story of freedom and hope organically twists from one interesting vignette to the next. The story follows the character Andy Dufresne, played by actor Tim Robbins.