The Shawshank Redemption The film, The Shawshank Redemption, is about the story of two men, Andy Dufrane and Red Abbott, who spent most of their lives together in prison going through the ups and downs lows of prison life. Andy, who was once a bank vice president, was in prison for killing his wife and her lover when he caught them in bed together; he was giving a life sentence. While Red, also convicted of murder, received a life sentence but with the possibility of parole. The two became close because they were both highly educated men and had the same interests. After five years of doing laundry, the warden thought it would be in the prison's best interest to use an educated man like Andy in the library. So they moved Andy from the laundry room to the library to assist the librarian, Brook Hadlen. After being Brook's assistant for a while, Brook was paroled and Andy took over the library job, as well as paying the fees for all the guards and the director. There wasn't much in the library, so Andy asked the director if it would be okay if they started sending a letter and a week to the Senate to get funding, and the director agreed. He sent one letter a week until finally, six years later, he got a response. He went down to the director's office and saw piles of old books, magazines, and documents sent from libraries that no longer used them, and also a check for two hundred dollars to be earmarked for the construction of a new library. Andy was delighted with all these things. and started looking through all the different documents and things like that. Find a record he likes and work up the courage to play it on the turntable. The music is an operatic style piece and once it starts you can see and feel the joy it brings to Andy. A bathroom officer asks Andy if he can hear him too, but Andy simply ignores him and uses the key to lock the bathroom and then proceeds to lock the manager's office so he doesn't disappear. So, as the music continues, Andy decides that he shouldn't be the only one to enjoy the music but let everyone hear it. Then he walks over to the switchboard and turns it on so everyone can hear. As the music comes through the speakers, all the prisoners and guards turn in admiration towards the speaker and just listen. Two Italian women sang beautiful Italian opera music and their voices rose high so it could be heard from the sky. It was... middle of paper... the director wouldn't allow it. The whole point of this scene is to communicate to the audience how much effect music has on people and what it communicates. Music is one of the main forms of communication, it changes people's attitudes because it touches souls before anything else. Music helps people through the good and 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 of stone, there's something inside that they can't reach, that they can't touch." What Andy is talking about is hope. Hope is what keeps everyone alive and moving day after day. Hope can bring maximum happiness in one's life. This is what the prisoners were thinking when they heard the music in the courtyard. They weren't two Italian opera singers, it was the voice of reason reminding them that everything will be fine and that good will come to everyone. None of the inmates knew what the Italian singers sang but they listened to them because it touched them all. If positive music, like that of opera singers, was more integrated into everyday life, people would change and become better human beings thanks to it..