• Andy does not give in to the sisters, its significant because it shows that andy does not give up and he is persistent
• Andy uses his talents and skills to get the guys working with him a beer. It is significant because it showsandy has guts, he did it to make friends and also he did it because ismade the inmates feel like free men
• He escapes by digging a hole, it again shows his patience and persistence because it took him years and years with a small pick
• He plays music to the prisoners over the loud speaker to give the inmates hope and to make them feel like free men
• He legally screws the warden, this is important because andy and the warden are having a power struggle or battle of wits and it shows that andy finally wins out
• Andy helps red after he gets out, this shows that he has compassion and that he cares about his friends
• He helps tommy get an education ecause he has compassion but he also believes that people should be helped if they are willing to make the effort
• Hegets the books for the library to help the inmates like tommy and to help himself because it reminds him of how he used to live his old life, its more civilised. It is also a power struggle again with the warden and it shows andys persistence because he has to wait years to get the funding
• He does all the stuff for the guards and the warden to get a little slack so that he can do things like escape and steal money without being noticed

Symbolism

To escape Andy has to go through a pipe that is going to the sewage from the toilets, this could symbolize that sometimes to be free we have to confront ours and others crap from before and work through it to be truly free.

As a bird, Jake can be seen as a universal symbol of freedom. Putting him in an unnatural "cage" of the prison serves as a mirror for Andy's own captured spirit. Andy is compared to a bird who "is not meant to be caged" because "his feathers are too bright" and his "song too sweet and wild" The film has Jake flying out of a window to freedom, and so gives a more optimistic view of Andy's human spirit. It foreshadows his escape from Shawshank and his ultimate victory over the society that robbed him of his basic right to exist without unfair restrictions.

The library is a social and intellectual gathering center within the prison walls, and a sign of Andy's longing for a real community.

Here, a beautiful woman represents everything about life on the outside: sensual pleasures, fulfillment, and most importantly, rebirth to a new life. When Andy says that he would like to "step through the picture to be with the girl," he actually means that he wants to experience freedom again in the form of all the things the woman represents. The secret escape tunnel he creates behind the poster allows Andy to do just that. He must literally go through the woman, crawl through a birth canal-like sewage pipe, and emerge, renewed and reborn, somewhere outside the prison walls. In this way, the woman is Andy's new "mother," the giver of life, freedom, and redemption.

The ocean at the end of the movie also acts as a purification symbol. Andy's life by the ocean redeems him for the wrongdoings that he is forced to endure.

Andy gives a harmonica to Red as a parole rejection present to show that Red needs to keep the hope alive, and music can do that.

Another important symbol to the movie is the Mexican town of Zihautenejo. Zihautenejo is an old fisherman town of the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is known for its beautiful beaches and peace. The town symbolizes the life that Andy not only dreams of having but deserves. There he will be able to live a quiet life full of simple pleasures that were kept from him. There he can completely free.

After tommy dies in the film Andy is seen in the shadow which means he has no hope left, at all other times in the film he is in the light with hope.

Personality

Andy Dufresne is a very quiet person, he doesn’t talk a lot but when he does talk it is usually important or meaningful “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”. This shows that Andy is always thinking things over and that he is an intelligent man. When he talks he usually talks in a slow and collected way which also shows that he’s thinking things through as he says them.

Part of Andy’s personality is that he is very calm and seems to always keep his cool. When Andy first arrives at the prison Red bets that he would be the first to crack but Andy doesn’t crack in anyway and I think this is because Andy thinks a lot and is able to distract himself from the surroundings. We see this all throughout the film with Andy having heaps of different hobbies such as the carving of the chess pieces, the building of the library and later we find out the digging of the tunnel. These all give him the chance to distract himself from the reality of being in prison and in a way it keeps him sane and gives him hope. Andy is the kind of guy that always needs to be doing something, he doesn’t belong of prison and doing these things keeps him in touch with the real world.

Andy comes across as being a bit of a loner, he does talk to people such as Red but he mainly keeps to himself. I think this is mainly because he is different and doesn’t belong in prison and this is shown by the way he is separated from the rest and treated differently. Andy spends a lot of time away from the rest of the prisoners when he is doing the paper work for the warden. For this time Andy is usually alone but he never seems worried about being alone, it seems more that he likes being alone. This makes him very different from the rest as most people would hate to be alone but I think that Andy separates himself as he doesn’t want to accept his fate and by separating himself he is saying that he doesn’t belong there.