But something else is going on underneath Andy’s calm exterior; in the decades of imprisonment, in his own dark nights of the soul, comes a realization that he is guilty. He realizes that his own coldness, his aloofness -- insulated in his own self-contained world -- drove his young wife into the arms of another. While very much in love with his wife, he barely understood her, especially her emotional needs. So self-contained, content, and sealed-off was he that he had difficulty understanding need in others. And it is only then, after this pivotal recognition of his own culpability, his own very real guilt that Andy moves to escape.
And when he emerges from the sewer amid flashing light and pouring rain he raises his arms. He is exultant, clean and free. The success of the escape and the righting of wrong signifies absolution, a telling forgiveness from above (which is the Christian definition of redemption). Only after all of that is Andy suited for freedom, physically and spiritually.
But the process of “redemption” doesn’t end with his escape. There is more and it is beautiful. Putting what he has learned about himself, and life in general, Andy invites Red to come join him in Mexico when Red is released from Shawshank. This gesture constitutes the fullness of Andy’s redemption. He is ready to begin a mature relationship with another human being, which the picture makes clear is not confined to romance and marriage. In the remarkable closing sequence of the movie, as Red joins Andy on the Mexican beach, it suggests a mutual trust and delight in another -- which after all constitutes the very end for which people were created by God in the first place. The best thing to happen to Andy(and Red) is that one very thing that redemption is for.
