Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Film & TV shawshank shawshank The movie, Shawshank Redemption, is about a story of two men, Andy Dufrane and Red Abbott, who spent most of their lives in a prison together going through the ups and downs of prison life. Andy, who was once a vice-president at a bank, was in prison for murdering his wife and her lover, when he caught them in bed together; he was giving life in prison. Whereas Red, also a convicted murderer, got life but with a chance of parole. The two grew close to each other because they were both very educated men and had the same interests. After five years of doing the laundry, the warden thought it would in the prisons best interest to use such an educated man as Andy in the library. So they transferred Andy from the laundry to the library to assist the librarian, Brook Hadlen. After being Brook’s assistant for a while Brook’s got paroled and Andy took over the library job as well as did taxes for all the guards and the warden. There was not much to the library so Andy asked the warden if it would be all right if the started sending a letter and week to the Senate to get funds, and the warden agreed. He sent a letter a week until, finally, six years later he got a response. He went down to the warden’s office and he saw stacks of old books, magazines, and records sent from libraries that did not use them anymore and also a check in the amount of two hundred dollars to go toward the building of a new library. Andy was overjoyed with all of these things and begins to look through all the different records and such. He finds a record that he likes and gets the nerve to play it on the record player. The music is an opera style piece and once the music begins you can see and feel the joy it brings to Andy. An officer from the restroom asks Andy if he could also hear that but Andy just ignores him and uses the key to lock the restroom and then proceeds to lock the warden’s office so he would not disappear. So as the music continues, Andy decides that he should not be the only one to enjoy the music but to allow everyone to hear it. He then goes over to the switchboard and turns it on for all to hear. As the music goes through the speakers all the prisoners and guards turn in awe toward the speaker and just listen. Two Italian ladies were singing the beautiful Italian opera music and their voices soared that one could hear from the heavens. It gave all the prisoners mixed-emotions starting from confusion to and then feeling a since of freedom. Nobody knew what the singers were singing about but no one really even cared as Red said, “Some things are best left unsaid.” Although, a breath taking experience for the inmates, it really made the warden mad. He tried to get Andy to turn the music off and go unlock the door but Andy just sat their with his hand behind his heads and had his feet prop up on the disk just smiling. So the warden made Andy spend time “in the hole” or solitary confinement for two weeks. Communication patterns were used throughout these scenes even though a lot of the communication was nonverbal but communication can be so much more than verbal. One example of this was when the major amount of self-talk Andy did with himself while listening to the music. Self-talk is a nonverbal process of thinking or it can also be when someone is trying to interpret what someone is thinking by the person’s behavior. It was seen when Andy turned on the music a grin came to his face as the past memories flowed back into his mind and heart. Self-talk was also in all the minds of the inmates, such as Red had when he was listening to the opera singers, “I tell you those voices soared, higher and farther than anybody in a great place dares to dream.” It was an inspiring experience for every man in Shawshank. The communication process could not even have been attained without the use of hearing. Hearing, another form of communicating, allows the receiver to understand the message completely. It made everyone stop for one split second and think about the real world and that there is still life out there. It was the first time for many of the prisoners to hear music. They did not have music available for prisoners since that have been in prison. Other types of communications where gestures by Andy leaning back in the chair, completely relaxed, with his legs on the desk and arms behind his head. It showed that he was at ease with the situation and himself. Feeling statements are the thoughts the inmates had when everyone turned in complete bewilderment and just stared toward the speaker. A feeling statement is an expression of a person’s emotions that come from an action done by the sender. This also showed when Andy turned on the loudspeaker for all to hear. Although, Andy’s action in playing the music was welcomed by some, others thought that he was trying to teach the warden and guard’s a lesson. The warden showed many different types of disciplinary communication when he tried to get Andy to turn off the music. One of those types was verbal abuse, a response that is supposed to cause pain mentally to another. The warden did this by screaming and knocking on the door yelling, “Open this door!” and also the warden impatiently yelled, “Turn that off, turn that OFF!” It showed that the warden was trying to gain control of the situation by using a form of direct aggression in which a demand threatens the person to whom it is directed. If the warden could have only realize what Andy was doing and show some empathy I believe the warden would have understood. Empathy is the ability to view an idea from another person’s perspective and understand the other person’s feelings. While Andy was sitting in the warden’s office he was using a type of communication called defensive listening which means when a receiver of a message perceives a speaker’s comments as an attack toward them. For example, as the warden was threatening Andy to turn the record off Andy disregarded him and instead turned the volume up while giving the warden a little grin. I’m sure Andy and the warden both were having mixed-emotions about the situations. Mixed-Emotions is the ability to feel different emotions at the same time. Disregarding what the warden said made a big impression on the warden because it showed that Andy was not going to be put down by him and that no one else had to either. It also could be said that the warden and Andy use complementary communication, communication where one person has a powerful position while another has a subservient position. Andy is the prisoner where he must take orders whereas the warden is the one giving the orders. Andy’s actions during this scene fully communicated to everyone the point he was trying to make. He put hope back into everyone’s hearts, such as Red stated “and in the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.” It was a bonding experience for all the inmates of Shawshank. There was no criminals, no race, no bias, just men standing there listening. Andy was expressing the emotions that music can give off. Music allows you to think about things clearly and music can influences people greatly on the way they act and think. Andy needed something to use as a vent and music did just that. This form of communication is called displacement, the ability to vent aggression towards something other than what you’re directly angry towards. This is how Andy showed his displacement by playing the music and felt like a regular human being again. He has been in prison for over six years at that point and was starting to feel the stages of becoming an “institutional man.” An “institutional man” is someone who has been in the prison system for a while and it becomes all they know. An “institutional man”, Red says, would not be able to make it on the outside because it is to fast moving in the real world and not done by a schedule like prison life. After spending two weeks in solitary confinement for his little stunt, Andy went to his first real meal since being “in the hole.” Andy sat and told his friends that it was the easiest time he had ever done because he had the help of Mozart to keep him company. His friends look at him with confused faces and he replied by saying it was in his heart and mind, “they can’t take that from ya.” Andy states, “That this (prison) is where it (music) makes the most sense.” Andy’s perception affected the communication process greatly because he locked himself in the warden’s office and would not whisper a word to anyone. He just wanted listen. The warden did not understand the real statement Andy was trying to make. It was not that he was trying to be better than the warden is but that he just wanted to feel like a man instead of a prisoner. Andy could have corrected the situation by better explaining himself to the guards or the warden. So the warden thought that Andy was just trying to abuse the rules set at the prison and punished Andy for it. Maybe if Andy told the warden his feelings then playing the music could be put into consideration by the warden and would have allowed him to play the music. I believe that explaining himself to the warden would have been a lost cause though because the warden is a controlling, hard-nosed man and must have his way. So Andy’s actions were the only choice he had since the warden would not of allowed it. The whole point to this scene is communicating to the audience how much of affect music has on people and what it communicates. Music one of the major forms of communications, it changes people’s attitudes because it touches souls before anything else. Music helps people through the good and the bad times of their lives. Andy realizes that there is more out there than just prison, “there are places in the world that aren’t made out of stone, there is something inside that they can’t get to, that they get touch.” What Andy is talking about is hope. Hope is what keeps everyone alive and going day after day. Hope can bring the most happiness to one’s life. That is what the prisoner’s were thinking of when they heard the music in the courtyard. It was not two Italian opera singers, it was the voice of reason reminding them that everything will be alright and good will come to all. None of the inmates knew what the Italian singers were singing about but they listened because it touched all of them. If positive music, such as the opera singers, were more integrated into everyday lives people would change and become better human beings because of it. Bibliography: Word Count: 1904
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