Janisah Saripada
Lindner
AP English III- 3rd
30 September 2015
The Shawshank Inspection In the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman portrays the role of Ellis Boyd Redding who is given a chance to speak in front of the parole board. Although he is supposed to serve a complete life sentence, Redding is released after forty years. Throughout his conversation with the parole board members, Redding uses reasoning and appeals emotionally with regret and imprudence to debatably persuade the audience to approve his parole application. To begin with, Redding criticizes the entire prison system. When the interviewer asks him if he feels that he has “been rehabilitated,” he responds by casting off the interviewer’s remark and questions the definition of rehabilitation. By doing so, Redding steers the conversation in his favor and gains full control of the argument. Furthermore,…show more content… He mentions “[looking] back on…[when he] was a young, stupid kid who committed a terrible crime.” This line establishes Red’s trust towards the parole members as he confesses and criticizes his past self which therefore creates an intimate relationship between the board members and himself. In addition, Redding also addresses his desire to harangue the “stupid kid” that he was, but he can not because “that kid’s long gone and this old man is all that’s left.” With this line, Redding generates a perturbed reaction from the board members sitting in front of him which is important because these people, who had to power to determine how he would live his life from that point on, would feel pitiful for his daily suffering, especially since he is an “old man.”. Thus Red’s old, remorseful self invokes emotion which supports his argument to convince the parole members to approve his application for