Question: Name one text on your comparative course and identify a hero, heroine or villain you studied. Use one or more key moments to explain whether in your opinion, this character reacted positively or negatively when faced with a difficult situation. Support your answer with reference to the text.
The text I have studied is The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont. The hero in this text is Andy Dufresne and I think Andy reacts positively to a difficult situation.
Andy is jailed for life for a crime he did not commit. His difficult situation is made even more difficult by ‘The Sisters,’ who repeatedly rape and torture Andy on a daily basis. This is a horrible situation for Andy but he still reacts in a positive manner.
The first thing that he does that is positive is try to improve the facilities in the prison for the inmates. He decided that the prison library was not good enough and wrote a letter every day for a few years requesting government funds. Despite not getting an answer, he continued to write until they finally gave in and supplied the library with new books. Andy then decided to write two letters a day until he got what he wanted. This had a positive impact on all the prisoners.
With the library set up, Andy begins to tutor other prisoners, helping them to read and write. He helps Tommy, a young career criminal to pass his high school equivalency test, despite the fact that he couldn’t read or write when he came into prison. Andy makes the lives of other people better as a way to cope with his own situation. He shows a very positive mindset to do this.
When Norton puts Andy in the hole and kills Tommy in a bid to keep Andy in prison, he faces his most difficult situation and his reaction is brilliant. He manages to escape from Shawshank Prison, steal all Norton’s money and supply the police with enough information to bring Norton, Hadley and the corrupt prison officers down. Norton ends up shooting himself because of Andy’s clever plan. This reaction from Andy was really positive. When we see Andy and Red on the beach in Mexico at the end of the text, we see how he is rewarded for his positive mindset throughout his ordeals.
For these reasons, I think Andy was a hero who reacted positively to the difficult situation he faced in prison.