The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption story is all about hope. When life kicks you, hope will lift you up. To be free, you must have something to believe in, something to hope for, and you must never lose hope or purpose to move on in life. Many book adaptations usually have more differences than similarities, but The Shawshank Redemption is the exact opposite. The book and the film have differences, but there are similarities.

Surprisingly, the similarities between the novel and the film turned out to be more than I expected. The most similar was that the dialogue between the novel and the film was identical in most cases. It took me by surprise because some of the dialogue in the story was very graphic, inappropriate and unpleasant, and this in the film can scare people away. In both versions, all the main events of the story happened in the same way at the same time.

The story is called "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," in which Rita Hayworth is the name of the women in Andy's first poster from Red. In the story, this poster changes several times to different things. The only reason I believe the author put Rita Hayworth in the headline is because Andy and Red became friends for that reason, which is why the poster mattered in the story. The difference is that in the movie, Rita Hayworth's poster was requested after Red and Andy were already friends. In addition, the poster in the film changed only twice.

Probably the biggest differences are in the ending of the story and the movie. The film has the same ending as the story, but more. The story ends with Red finding Andy's note and money at a stone wall in Buxton, Maine. He will never see Andy again, he just hopes he will. While in the movie, Red just doesn't hope to see Andy again, he sees him again. After, Red finds a note and money; he takes a bus to Mexico, in violation of parole. When he reaches Zihuatanejo, he walks along the beach and sees Andy working on the boat. The two meet again and live with each other as wanted criminals. It was probably the most moving scene in the film, and not a trace of it remained in the story.

From my personal opinion, the film is better hands down. I say this because the scenes the film had but the short story didn’t made a huge difference in the way the story left its mark. Scenes like the ending where Red and Andy meet again is heartwarming, and moving, it just makes you feel good about life. That scene made the difference for me because I felt that it was the only scene showing the main idea of the story, which was hope, just keep the hope. Andy said “hope will set you free” and this scene showed that like nothing else could. That is what the short story didn’t accomplish; a sense of completion to the story. Overall the novella was great, but compared to the film I believe the novella came up short of just the best.