Revision Whiteboard Notes
ESSAYS
Opening Scene
Tarring the roof scene analysis
Tarring the roof
ANDY
HADLEY
Quotes
This scene is all about giving the prisoners a taste of hope and freedom. Andy is offering them hope.
ANDY
- Listening to the conversation about Hadley’s money problem.
- He’s not afraid to approach the guard (courage) – when he talks to Hadley, he talks calmly “Do you trust your wife?”
- Light shining on Andy’s face as he is bribing the guard for beer - “All I ask is for 3 beers a piece for my co workers…A man feels more like a man when he has a bottle of suds”
- Andy watches the other inmates drinking the beer. Sitting in the shade with a look of contentment on his face – he has just brought freedom to these people. Probably something they haven’t sensed in a long time.
- “No thanks, gave up drinking” – this shows that it was a purely selfless act from Andy. He stood to gain nothing from it…except maybe respect from the other inmates. He wanted them to feel freedom and have hope. Also, Andy was drinking on the night of his wife’s murder and that piece of evidence helped put him away (he was not of his right mind)
- This helped him achieve some status with the guards and the other inmates.
HADLEY
Quotes
- This lawyer says to me your brother died a rich man
- “What do you think the government’s gonna do to me? Take a big wet bite outta my ass”
- “I tell ya Uncle Sam, sticks his hand down your shirt and squeezes your tit til it’s purple”
- “I don’t need some smart ass wife killing banker to tell me where the bears shit in the buckwheat”
- Andy – “I feel kind of stupid telling you this. I’m sure a smart man…
- Hadley is a ‘colossal prick’ who wants to squeeze as much money out of his dead brother as possible. He is not concerned at all with the fact that he has died.
- He doesn’t care about the lives of the prisoners as long as they are of some value to him (like Andy doing his taxes).
- Hadley is a ‘murderer’. We see this with ‘fat ass’ and also the fact that he is willing to push Andy of the roof and claim it as an accident. He is corrupt and abuses his power readily.
- He is a cold hearted, violent fiend who thrives on his prey.
- He is relatively unintelligent – a dumb thug. We can tell this by the crass language he uses “You're that smart banker what killed his wife”
- He does not like to be outsmarted – especially by the inmates. Andy knows this so he tries to make him look smart.
This scene is all about giving the prisoners a taste of hope and freedom. Andy is offering them hope.
Aria over the loud speaker
Exemplars:
Click HERE to access the 2.2 external exemplars.
NCEA Assessment Criteria
2.2_analyse_visual_texts.pdf | |
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Reading Activity:
http://labourlist.org/2009/03/the-tragedy-of-institutionalised-prisoners/
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Bank Merchant Andy Dufresne is convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover, and sentenced to life imprisonment at Shawshank prison. Life seems to have taken a turn for the worse, but fortunately Andy befriends some of the other inmates, in particular a character known only as Red. Over time Andy finds ways to live out life with relative ease as one can in a prison, leaving a message for all that while the body may be locked away in a cell, the spirit can never be truly imprisoned.
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Notes and information
the_shawshank_redemption.ppt | |
File Size: | 2621 kb |
File Type: | ppt |
the_shawshank_redemption_close_viewing.ppt | |
File Size: | 1171 kb |
File Type: | ppt |
KEY SCENES:
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The Opening Scene
Setting:
Setting:
Crane shot shows us the prison from a birds eye view, sweeping views establish and emphasise the prison's size.
The music is slow, played by stings and has a deep drawn out bass which adds to the feeling that this is a place of sadness.
The colours are bleak. Prisoner's uniforms are grey (as is the sky) and the lighting is dull.
We see the prison through Andy's eyes as he enters. Moves from a low angle of the entrance to an undershot which gives the impression that he is entering a place of misery and will not emerge for a long time. Again the sheer size of the place is shown in an imposing way.
Inside the prison it is dark, lit only by natural light from the windows. This creates long shadows which give an eerie, cold feeling and we get the suspicion that all is not as it should be, shadows hide secrets.
SETTING
Shawshank Prison
About 95% of the movie takes place inside the walls of Shawshank, so we should probably talk about it a bit.
Keeping in mind that a director's job is generally to make an audience empathize with a film's protagonist, what better way to do that than to create a helpless feeling of claustrophobia and desperation? Trapping us inside Shawshank with Andy and Red for two hours is certainly enough to do the trick.
From the minute Andy's bus is driven through the gate, we are unable to leave. We have to suffer along with him through every inmate attack, every stint in The Hole, every maggot-ridden cafeteria offering. By the time Andy finally escapes, we start cheering inside. Not just because he's our hero and we've been rooting for him to get out, but because we're sick of the place. We'd almost climb through that sewer of sludge with him if it meant getting to see a scene shot in a different filming location.
That said, the director does a great job of not making Shawshank seem soawful that it seems unrealistic. Even though the movie is based on a Stephen King story, it doesn't feel like a prison from a horror movie. Inmates aren't tortured nightly for no reason, they aren't killed willy-nilly (although at least a couple of them definitely didn't deserve it), and once in a while the guards and the warden even show some kindnesses, i.e. the beers on the roof, movie night, etc.
In fact, Andy's got a pretty sweet set-up, as life in Shawshank goes. He gets to work in the library, eventually helping the guards with their taxes, doing what he loves and what he's good at. He even locks one guard in a bathroom when he decides to go all rebel and play that record, and he somehow lives to tell the tale. Talk about being a "warden's pet."
The Most Depressing Apartment Ever
Apparently, when someone is let out of Shawshank, the big guys in charge like to reintroduce former inmates back into civilization by hooking them up with the most depressing boarding house of all time.
There's nothing inherently depressing about it. It's roomy, well-lit…seems comfortable enough. However, Brooks becomes so upset that he hangs himself there, and Red is nearly driven to do the same. What is it about that room that kick-starts the sad?
To be fair, the room itself may not be completely to blame. As Red says, once a man is "institutionalized," he has a hard time adjusting back into the real world. It can be a combination of loneliness, being overwhelmed by new technologies, and a sense that one doesn't quite fit into the grand scheme of things any longer that keeps driving them to despair.
That room is where they come home every night, though, and where they have time to really think about things. It's where the loneliness is felt the most. It probably doesn't turn Red's frown upside-down to see "Brooks was here" carved into the wooden beam.
Zihuatanejo
In this case, Zihuatanejo happens to be an actual place, but it really doesn't have to be. It's more the idea of the idyllic beach town that's important.
Zihuatanejo basically represents two things—hope and freedom. It's the carrot dangling just in front of Andy's nose, spurring him on whenever he starts to wonder if he's ever going to get to the end of that tunnel. Also, because most of us will never have to dig our way out of a prison cell, it's the concept of having a strong, definitive goal and working hard to realize it that resonates with the film's audiences.
What's your Zihuatanejo? An Ivy League college? Early retirement? A happy marriage and a couple of kids? Maybe your Zihuatanejo is the actual Zihuatanejo. We wouldn't blame you. We've seen pictures. That water is mad blue.
*Sourced from shmoop*
Crane shot shows us the prison from a birds eye view, sweeping views establish and emphasise the prison's size.
The music is slow, played by stings and has a deep drawn out bass which adds to the feeling that this is a place of sadness.
The colours are bleak. Prisoner's uniforms are grey (as is the sky) and the lighting is dull.
We see the prison through Andy's eyes as he enters. Moves from a low angle of the entrance to an undershot which gives the impression that he is entering a place of misery and will not emerge for a long time. Again the sheer size of the place is shown in an imposing way.
Inside the prison it is dark, lit only by natural light from the windows. This creates long shadows which give an eerie, cold feeling and we get the suspicion that all is not as it should be, shadows hide secrets.
SETTING
Shawshank Prison
About 95% of the movie takes place inside the walls of Shawshank, so we should probably talk about it a bit.
Keeping in mind that a director's job is generally to make an audience empathize with a film's protagonist, what better way to do that than to create a helpless feeling of claustrophobia and desperation? Trapping us inside Shawshank with Andy and Red for two hours is certainly enough to do the trick.
From the minute Andy's bus is driven through the gate, we are unable to leave. We have to suffer along with him through every inmate attack, every stint in The Hole, every maggot-ridden cafeteria offering. By the time Andy finally escapes, we start cheering inside. Not just because he's our hero and we've been rooting for him to get out, but because we're sick of the place. We'd almost climb through that sewer of sludge with him if it meant getting to see a scene shot in a different filming location.
That said, the director does a great job of not making Shawshank seem soawful that it seems unrealistic. Even though the movie is based on a Stephen King story, it doesn't feel like a prison from a horror movie. Inmates aren't tortured nightly for no reason, they aren't killed willy-nilly (although at least a couple of them definitely didn't deserve it), and once in a while the guards and the warden even show some kindnesses, i.e. the beers on the roof, movie night, etc.
In fact, Andy's got a pretty sweet set-up, as life in Shawshank goes. He gets to work in the library, eventually helping the guards with their taxes, doing what he loves and what he's good at. He even locks one guard in a bathroom when he decides to go all rebel and play that record, and he somehow lives to tell the tale. Talk about being a "warden's pet."
The Most Depressing Apartment Ever
Apparently, when someone is let out of Shawshank, the big guys in charge like to reintroduce former inmates back into civilization by hooking them up with the most depressing boarding house of all time.
There's nothing inherently depressing about it. It's roomy, well-lit…seems comfortable enough. However, Brooks becomes so upset that he hangs himself there, and Red is nearly driven to do the same. What is it about that room that kick-starts the sad?
To be fair, the room itself may not be completely to blame. As Red says, once a man is "institutionalized," he has a hard time adjusting back into the real world. It can be a combination of loneliness, being overwhelmed by new technologies, and a sense that one doesn't quite fit into the grand scheme of things any longer that keeps driving them to despair.
That room is where they come home every night, though, and where they have time to really think about things. It's where the loneliness is felt the most. It probably doesn't turn Red's frown upside-down to see "Brooks was here" carved into the wooden beam.
Zihuatanejo
In this case, Zihuatanejo happens to be an actual place, but it really doesn't have to be. It's more the idea of the idyllic beach town that's important.
Zihuatanejo basically represents two things—hope and freedom. It's the carrot dangling just in front of Andy's nose, spurring him on whenever he starts to wonder if he's ever going to get to the end of that tunnel. Also, because most of us will never have to dig our way out of a prison cell, it's the concept of having a strong, definitive goal and working hard to realize it that resonates with the film's audiences.
What's your Zihuatanejo? An Ivy League college? Early retirement? A happy marriage and a couple of kids? Maybe your Zihuatanejo is the actual Zihuatanejo. We wouldn't blame you. We've seen pictures. That water is mad blue.
*Sourced from shmoop*
Parallel construction:
PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION
Red is one of the only people who understands Brooks’ reaction to his parole. In this way we can see that, to some extent, Brooks and Red are parallels with each other – they have both served long sentences, both have a life and lifestyle in the prison.
Watch the two video links below. One is of Brooks' release from Shawshank, while the other is of Red's parole.
Task:
Take notes on the sequence of events in each scene. Draw up a table to compare and contrast the two scenes. Note down how they are similar and yet how they are different. Include film techniques. Explain the director's purpose in these two scenes. Why are they seemingly parallel?
Things to think about:
- order of events
- use of voice over
- dialogue
- character placement (take note of the bus)
- look closely at the moment each leave Shawshank - what is different for Red?
What do these scenes highlight about freedom, hope and becoming institutionalised?
Red is one of the only people who understands Brooks’ reaction to his parole. In this way we can see that, to some extent, Brooks and Red are parallels with each other – they have both served long sentences, both have a life and lifestyle in the prison.
Watch the two video links below. One is of Brooks' release from Shawshank, while the other is of Red's parole.
Task:
Take notes on the sequence of events in each scene. Draw up a table to compare and contrast the two scenes. Note down how they are similar and yet how they are different. Include film techniques. Explain the director's purpose in these two scenes. Why are they seemingly parallel?
Things to think about:
- order of events
- use of voice over
- dialogue
- character placement (take note of the bus)
- look closely at the moment each leave Shawshank - what is different for Red?
What do these scenes highlight about freedom, hope and becoming institutionalised?
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Quotes:
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Ellis Boyd Redding, your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence. Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?
Red: Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society...
Red: I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it's just a made up word. A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, are you?
Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.
Red: [narrating] There's a harsh truth to face. No way I'm gonna make it on the outside. All I do anymore is think of ways to break my parole, so maybe they'd send me back. Terrible thing, to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well. All I want is to be back where things make sense. Where I won't have to be afraid all the time. Only one thing stops me. A promise I made to Andy.
Brooks: [in letter] Dear fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid, but now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called "The Brewer" and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It's hard work and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time. I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work, I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello, but he never does. I hope wherever he is, he's doin' okay and makin' new friends. I have trouble sleepin' at night. I have bad dreams like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Foodway so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense any more. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me. P.S: Tell Heywood I'm sorry I put a knife to his throat. No hard feelings. Brooks.
Red: Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society...
Red: I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it's just a made up word. A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, are you?
Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.
Red: [narrating] There's a harsh truth to face. No way I'm gonna make it on the outside. All I do anymore is think of ways to break my parole, so maybe they'd send me back. Terrible thing, to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well. All I want is to be back where things make sense. Where I won't have to be afraid all the time. Only one thing stops me. A promise I made to Andy.
Brooks: [in letter] Dear fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid, but now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called "The Brewer" and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It's hard work and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time. I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work, I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello, but he never does. I hope wherever he is, he's doin' okay and makin' new friends. I have trouble sleepin' at night. I have bad dreams like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Foodway so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense any more. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me. P.S: Tell Heywood I'm sorry I put a knife to his throat. No hard feelings. Brooks.
Opera Scene Analysis
Red: I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.
Red and Andy discuss hope
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Andy: I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company...[He points and taps his head] It was in here. [And he gestures over his heart]And in here. That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you. Haven't you ever felt that way about music?...Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so we don't forget...that there are places in the world that aren't made out of stone, that there's, there's somethin' inside that they can't get to, that they can't touch. It's yours.
Red: What are you talkin' about? Andy: Hope. Red: Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It's got no use on the inside. You'd better get used to that idea. Andy: Like Brooks did? |
Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying
Andy: My wife used to say I'm a hard man to know. Like a closed book. Complained about it all the time. She was beautiful. God, I loved her. I just didn't know how to show it, that's all. I killed her, Red. I didn't pull the trigger, but I drove her away and that's why she died - because of me, the way I am.
Red: That don't make you a murderer. Bad husband, maybe. Feel bad about it if you want to, but you didn't pull the trigger. Andy: No, I didn't. Somebody else did and I wound up in here. Bad luck, I guess. Red: I don't think you ought to be doing this to yourself, Andy. This is just s--tty pipedreams. I mean, Mexico is way the hell down there and you're in here, and that's the way it is. Andy: Yeah, right. That's the way it is. It's down there and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'. |
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Andy's Escape
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Red and Andy's reunion scene
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RED: I find I'm so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at a start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.
TASK:
Watch the reunion scene and complete the match-up activity shared with you on google drive.
TASK:
Watch the reunion scene and complete the match-up activity shared with you on google drive.
THEMES
Institutionalism
Red: “Brooks ain’t no bug. He’s just institutionalised. The man’s been in here 50 years, Heyward. Fifty years. In here he is an important man. He’s an educated man. Outside he’s nothin’; just a used up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn’t get a library card if he tried. … These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalised. … Send you here for life and that’s exactly what they take – the part that counts, anyway.”
Institutionalism – custom or practice – makes you dependent, afraid to do things differently – makes you feel secure because no matter how awful, it is predictable (and so to an extent manageable). Fear of the unknown can be worse than the safety generated by repetition. It suggests that the opposite – freedom to experience absolutely anything – unpredictable, spontaneous – is too challenging. Having your life routines controlled to the extent that freedom feels frightening, is institutionalism.
Red: “Brooks ain’t no bug. He’s just institutionalised. The man’s been in here 50 years, Heyward. Fifty years. In here he is an important man. He’s an educated man. Outside he’s nothin’; just a used up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn’t get a library card if he tried. … These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalised. … Send you here for life and that’s exactly what they take – the part that counts, anyway.”
Institutionalism – custom or practice – makes you dependent, afraid to do things differently – makes you feel secure because no matter how awful, it is predictable (and so to an extent manageable). Fear of the unknown can be worse than the safety generated by repetition. It suggests that the opposite – freedom to experience absolutely anything – unpredictable, spontaneous – is too challenging. Having your life routines controlled to the extent that freedom feels frightening, is institutionalism.
Redemption
When Andy comes to Shawshank Prison, he may not be guilty of killing his wife, but he is still carrying the burden of her murder by previously neglecting her and forcing her to be with someone else. Red tells Andy that he is not to blame and in turn Andy tells him “whatever sins I may have committed, I’ve paid for them and then some”. Andy’s final act of redemption is when he escapes from Shawshank and becomes a free man again. This is thoroughly epitomised when he is standing in the rain after he gets out of the tunnel.
Red’s redemption comes when he chooses to believe in hope, and it is Andy who has taught him this.
“I hope I can make it across the border; I hope to see my friend and shake his hand, I hope the pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope…”
Hope and friendship have the power to redeem.
- (Christianity) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil
- repayment of the principal amount of a debt or security at or before maturity (as when a corporation repurchases its own stock)
- the act of purchasing back something previously sold
When Andy comes to Shawshank Prison, he may not be guilty of killing his wife, but he is still carrying the burden of her murder by previously neglecting her and forcing her to be with someone else. Red tells Andy that he is not to blame and in turn Andy tells him “whatever sins I may have committed, I’ve paid for them and then some”. Andy’s final act of redemption is when he escapes from Shawshank and becomes a free man again. This is thoroughly epitomised when he is standing in the rain after he gets out of the tunnel.
Red’s redemption comes when he chooses to believe in hope, and it is Andy who has taught him this.
“I hope I can make it across the border; I hope to see my friend and shake his hand, I hope the pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope…”
Hope and friendship have the power to redeem.
Hope
In Shawshank most of the inmates are afraid to hope. Red says “hope is a dangerous thing”. Andy is the only prisoner who believes that hope is paramount in a place like Shawshank, “you need it so you don’t forget that there are places that aren’t made of stone”.
Andy tries to give hope to others through education, willingness to provide a better way of life inside the prison and by talking to Red about the future. It is Red who Andy instils hope into at the end “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things”. By journeying to Mexico Red chooses hope over despair. The idea Darabont is trying to show the audience is that hope is the saving grace in the prison. Those who have the ability to hope are those, in the end, who will be redeemed. It is strongly contrasted with the idea of despair which so many of the prisoners face. Andy, initially, is the only one with the ability to hope and he tries to teach the others how to do this. Only hope has the power to redeem the human spirit.
Tagline: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
Symbols of hope: harmonica, music, bright light
In Shawshank most of the inmates are afraid to hope. Red says “hope is a dangerous thing”. Andy is the only prisoner who believes that hope is paramount in a place like Shawshank, “you need it so you don’t forget that there are places that aren’t made of stone”.
Andy tries to give hope to others through education, willingness to provide a better way of life inside the prison and by talking to Red about the future. It is Red who Andy instils hope into at the end “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things”. By journeying to Mexico Red chooses hope over despair. The idea Darabont is trying to show the audience is that hope is the saving grace in the prison. Those who have the ability to hope are those, in the end, who will be redeemed. It is strongly contrasted with the idea of despair which so many of the prisoners face. Andy, initially, is the only one with the ability to hope and he tries to teach the others how to do this. Only hope has the power to redeem the human spirit.
Tagline: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
Symbols of hope: harmonica, music, bright light
ESSAYS:
Powerpoint
the_shawshank_redemption_close_viewing.ppt | |
File Size: | 1754 kb |
File Type: | ppt |