Existentialism in The Shawshank Redemption高俊杰 1230100033 文学2班Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology.There are three concepts in existentialism, existence precedes essence, the absurd and facticity. In The Shawshank Redemption, the three concepts are shown completely.Andy Dufresne, is sent to Shawshank Prison for the murder of his wife and secret lover. He is very isolated and lonely at first, but realizes there is something deep inside your body, that people can't touch and getto....'HOPE'. Andy becomes friends with prison 'fixer' Red (Morgan Freeman), and Andy epitomizes why it is crucial to have dreams. His spirit and determination, leads us into a world full of imagination, filled with courage and desire. Will Andy ever realized his dreams?In Sutter's view, the world is absurd, life is painful. He believes that people and people are inevitably conflict, struggle and cruelty, full of ugly and crimes, everything is absurd. But the man is only a person this absurd, cold situation, the world gives a person can only be endless anguish, disappointment, pessimism and negative. Life is painful. His philosophy in The Shawshank Redemption has repeatedly been shown. The Shawshank prison is an absurd existence in the world, it unlike the books say that is a transformation of an evil place. On the contrary it breeds evil. In this environment, there are a lot of people not turn over a new leaf, but in despair, giving up , beatings, booing, bullying the weak, greedy and dirty deeds is ubiquitous. Warden know the Bible, he likes to let the prisoner to read the Bible, by the name of God of admonition prisoners, they do the devil's activities, money laundering, on trumped up charges of killing the witness, disregard for human life. Andy was jailed for justice, but when the truth is to be big white, God gave him a bigger joke, the witness Tommy was killed in prison. Reed repent sincere each time but did not get on parole, in the loss of hope, he throw the handle after the blade, he was approved of the parole. At the same time in prison,only because the late night crying the fat man was brutally killed by the guards. In these absurd moments, God does not exist. It is the absurd, let the life in which people feel helpless, make Andy buried his beautiful youth in prison, make the witness Tommy died unaccountable when he decided to turn over a new leaf, make the Bruce committed suicide for the helpless life, Jeanyder that "hope is a dangerous thing, is the root of depression”, and gives up hope. This is just a confirmation of Sutter's thought: the world is absurd."Existence precede essence" is an important proposition of Sutter "s existentialism. Man’ s essence is to create freed according to his own will. Freedom and choice can never separated. Man's choice is free, because man is the himself, the individual has the will and the initiative. This kind of subjective initiative can make people totally make choose freely, create their own unique image, realize their own position and value. All personal success or failure is the results individual choice.In The Shawshank Redemption, there are two main characters, Andy, the vice president of the bank and Reid, have different life experiences and different attitude towards life, but there are one thing is the same -- their freedom of choice. After Andy escaped successfully, he comforted and encouraged Reid so that Reid did not committed suicide. Finally, Reid get free and rebirth.。