Religion
"Captivity narratives were often shaped by the idea of religious conversion, and simultaneously portrayed captivity as a spiritual trial that brought one closer to God." (Fons 2014)
Religion is deeply involved in the film, from beginning to end. The prisoners of Shawshank receive three things when they arrive at the prison: uniform, toiletries and the bible. The Warden of Shawshank is a deeply religious man who uses religion as his reasoning behind incredibly strict discipline and to hide his abuses of power; which is shown throughout the film.
The warden uses religion to shield his wrongdoings; for example he hides his laundered money behind a sewn and framed bible quote (shown above). The Warden Norton shields himself from his sins by having a strong outwardly religious persona.
Andy Dufresne, the main character, uses the Warden's hypocrisy against him by hiding his escape weapon, a rock hammer, in the bible that the warden gave to him when he arrived. Andy signed the bible, "Dear Warden, you were right. Salvation lay within."
While the Warden uses religion in horrible ways, and shows a common, real-life theme of those in power using religion to their advantage, it does not totally speak against religion or show anti-religious themes. It could even be argued that Andy Dufresne is a Jesus-like character. Andy is kind, helpful, and hopeful; he is "the only innocent man in Shawshank." Andy helps bring hope to the prisoners in Shawshank and helps Red get out of prison and make it to "paradise" (a beach in Mexico that has "no memory"). The city/beach, Zihuatanejo, is the personal heaven of Andy and Red. He crawls through "hell," a football field sized sewage pipe, to escape and find salvation. The idea of Andy as Jesus isn't as obvious as the film exposing the abuse of religion to do evil and illegal activities; but religious themes being present in the film is still highly prevalent and undeniable.
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