The Road To Freedom For Individuals In An Alienated World

Through a protestant interpretation of The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, this thesis tries to explore the possibility of religion’s solving the issue of individual freedom in an alienated world, and draw some inspiration for similar issues in China. The alienation of reason, as the external representation of the alienation of of man’s will, reveals the deficiency of man’s ethnics. While man’s ethnics is not sufficient to ensure man’s freedom in the contemporary social context, theolgoy offers new meaning to it. The reason system and religion system gain the possibility of dialogue in regard of ethnic man’s will.The novel presents a plight of individuals in an alienated world. In the post-modernist industrialised society, sphinx are the issues of alienated reason and individual freedom. The distinctness of this thesis lies in that it penetrates in the perspective of Protestantism and quests for solutions throughout the American Protestant culture.It is divided into five chapters. The first one, foreword, introduces the current situation of relevant research both at home and abroad, and lays out the theory, techniques and structure of this thesis.By analysing The Shawshank Redemption, the second chapter looks, in regard of free will, into the metaphor of the Shawshank prison and the embodiment of alienated individuals, against the post-industrialised American society. Meanwhile, it takes single figures for example and analyses the predicament facing the contemporary American individualsThe third discusses the possibility of Protestant in keeping individual’s independence and integrity in American society. Basd on the analysis of the diverse mentality of the wardenry, prison guard and prisoners, it focuses on the hero’s initiative and possibility of escaping from the alienated reason in a religious way.It is followed the forth chapter which, along with close reading of the text itself, elaborates the specific ways of the realization of Protestant individual freedom in the contest of American society. In outlining the process of the hero’s pursuit of spiritual independence against the post-industrialised culture, it expounds that individuals counteract the alienation posed on them by the alienated reason in the post-industrialised society, trying to establish religion as the pillar of individual freedom. The fifth chapter, in conclusion, drawing from the text of The Shawshank Redemption, reveals the inspirations of religion ensuring individual freedom and independence.