Prison
The first time Andy enters the prison, Darabont shows us a dark hallway behind a set of bars, and down that hallway is a door with a tiny fenced-in square opening. The image gives a clear representation of the confinement of jail, the inhuman conditions in which prisoners live every day. The shots of the prison in all its drabness and darkness show the viewer the difficult and depressing dimensions of incarceration.
Rita Hayworth
One of the first things that Andy requests from Red is the American film actress and sex symbol Rita Hayworth. His request is cheeky in that he knows it would be impossible for the ever-crafty Red to procure the actual Rita Hayworth for him, but Red makes good on his claim of being "the guy who knows how to get things" and gets Andy a large poster of the starlet. The poster hangs on Andy's cell wall, a vestige of the outside world, the pleasures of sensuality and female company. It represents escape, freedom, and pleasure. Later on in the film, we realize that the pin-up posters represent literal escape as well, in that the Raquel Welch poster covers over the hole through which Andy makes his escape from the prison.
Reunion
At the end, Red finds money and an invitation to Mexico in a box under the oak tree that Andy described to him. Taking a leap of faith, Red boards a bus and travels all the way to Andy's dream home, and the two are reunited on the beach. The white sands and blue waters of the beach are a far cry from Shawshank. It is a utopian escape from the hardships of their former lives, and the two friends smile at each other with a happiness they have never before been able to realize.
Freedom
Andy crawls 500 yards through a plumbing pipe in order to get free from Shawshank. Darabont composes an image of the man in the tightest of pipes with human waste floating inches beneath his face. When he reaches the end, he stands in a large river in the light of the moon and lightning as it rains. He rips off his shirt, the image of the free man, and the water cleanses his feces-covered body. In spite of all the hardships he has faced, Andy has finally found escape and redemption through his own ingenuity.
