The moral of this well received movie is distinctively and excellently embodied in the characters vividly depicted.I'd like to put two of them forward Brooks and Andy,who stick to different beliefs about hope as representatives.
Brooks,a victim of forty year prison life in Shawshank National Prison,is "formatted" by the tough disciplines.Getting up,having breakfast,working,having lunch,working again,having supper,going to bed and preparing for the day coming,these dull but orderly things form his everyday life.Hope,to some extent,is something of a beautiful illusion.Once hope,the approval of his request on parole,descend on,he is hopelessly at a loss.He is just afraid of the world outside,which is never taken account into his mind.Dead is he eventually,sadly by suicide.Compared to Brooks,Andy,who vows to leave Shawshank the moment he enter it,is inspiringly optimistic.Keeping a good
relationship with other prisoners,assisting Norton the ruler of Shawshank in cleaning his black money,all these things he has done are for escaping from Shawshank in the future.And there is hope in his heart.Somebody tells him:"Hope is a dangerous thing; hope can drive a man insane." "Hope is good things,maybe the best of things; and no good things ever die," replies Andy.The words quickly becoming famous accompany the hard time when he is digging the seeming indestructible wall as well as the tough course during which he crawls with great difficulties through the rotten sewer whose length equals to five football square.He is irresistibly successful.Every time I watch this scene,I couldn't help my tears running.It's the power of hope,which never dies.