Reading Journal

       What type of character do people typically sympathize the most? What type of character do they hate the most? What type of character do they really get into?
I can assure that the answer to all these questions is ‘character like me’. People sympathize, hate, and get into the character that reflects them the most. They feel a deep sympathy for situations they’ve gone through, feel hatred toward their own weaknesses, and eventually see themselves in that character. It sounds a little ironic, but this is how it works for me at least.

       There are numerous characters in this story-Andy Dufresne, Red, Hadley, Samuel Norton, Thomas, Normadan, Brooks, Ernie and several other characters. Among these, who is the person who resembles me the most? I just got a feeling that ‘Red’ was so much like me. So while reading the book, I was unconsciously paying most of my attention to Red. I noticed this when studying for my mid-term, when I figured out that I remembered quite many lines of Red’s words.

       Andy was the hero of this story. He discerned ridiculous contradictions in Shawshank. He saw all the depravities infiltrating into every people, vitiating their innocence. Instead of letting himself vitiated, Andy chose to get over it. It seemed impossible-warden superintending all over a prison, prison guards keeping eye on prisoners every second, and prisoners working in a mob under the sunlight burning their skin. But Andy made his way out all by himself. He had intolerable pressures. He was always concerning for his uncertain future. He planned and struggled to get out of Shawshank’s ‘vicious circle’. Sometimes he was unable to work on his plan for several months, but he patiently waited. His calm emotion collapsed when the chance to prove his innocence was ruined by Norton, but he settled himself. He went through a terribly long pipe, baring horrendous stink. When he reached the end of the pipe, he was free. The ‘hopeless hope’ had become true.

       Red was the narrator. He was a ‘capable’ man who could smuggle anything into Shawshank. He was a man who could accustom to prison lead a comfortable prison life. He was a great friend, and perhaps the only friend, of Andy Dufresne. And in some way, he availed Andy of getting him necessary stuffs (such as Rita Hayworth, Linda Ronstadt, rock hammer, and etc.) But he was also a man who remained an unconcerned spectator till the last page of the story. When Andy was placed in a solitary confinement, Red didn’t say a single cheering word to Andy. Knowing Andy’s innocence, Red remained amazingly neutral. When Tommy was sent to (or got the chance to move to) another prison, Red didn’t stop him or advised him of anything even though he knew the whole truth. I felt anger. How could a ‘best friend’ be so indifferent? But I was impressed of his superficial indifference at the same time. He was watching Andy every minute. He stepped back from Andy’s situation and did everything he could do for Andy while maintaining neutrality on the outside. I saw Red’s hidden sincerity.

       To me, this book was more than a ‘didactic literature’ which made me look around world and the people, and think about them. It was the ‘mirror’. Reading this story, I could see a girl who was perhaps not the best speaker but was the best listener, a girl who saw a lot of problems around her but never tried to fix them, and a girl who never had a striking passion coming across her mind. But at the end of this story, I saw a girl who finally left her first journey for the one who meant the most to her. I learned ‘passion’.