After watching "Shawshank Redemption: the movie"

131 INT -- GUARD STATION/OUTER OFFICE -- DAY (1955) 131

Andy wrestles the phonograph player onto the guards' desk,
sweeping things onto the floor in his haste. He plugs the
machine in. A red light warms up. The platter starts spinning.

He slides the Mozart album from its sleeve, lays it on the
platter, and lowers the tone arm to his favorite cut. The
needle HISSES in the groove...and the MUSIC begins, lilting
and gorgeous. Andy sinks into Wiley's chair, overcome by its
beauty. It is "Deutino: Che soave zeffiretto," a duet sung by
Susanna and the Contessa.

[From the Shooting script of Shawshank Redemption]

If I was to choose one thing that made the movie much better than the book, (other than the shorter title,) it would be this scene. The serene music played in the background while Andy, an innocent man wrongly accused with murder of his own wife and her lover with seemingly no hope of getting released ever in his life, relaxed in his seat with his feet on the table relishing the beautiful harmony of the women’s voices.
 
For this one act of glory, Andy is later locked up in solitary confinement. When Red finds him, however, he discovers that Andy’s spirits had not been perturbed at all. Instead, he replies with this remarkable comment:

ANDY

(taps his heart, his head)
The music was here...and here.
That's the one thing they can't
confiscate, not ever. That's the
beauty of it. Haven't you ever felt
that way about music, Red?

When I was reading the novel version of the Shawshank Redemption, I wondered how on earth Andy was able to keep himself from becoming "institutionalized", and how he was able to hold on to his hope. Something was different about him, something that the warden noticed from the start. He never lost his appreciation for beauty in things around him, from rocks, books, and finally, to music.

Perhaps it’s because of the fact that we often find ourselves so tangled up in the problems that surrounds us, or the fact that we're always chased by the lack of time, but some of us have started to lose appreciation for the beautiful things in our everyday life. We only think of the practicality of the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, and the food we eat. The details that made it special, like the beauty or what they represent have lost meaning in the busy blur we call the modern life.

Andy wasn’t just speaking to Red alone. His message was directed towards us, to all of us who had forgotten about the beautiful things that surrounds us. Even in the darkest times, or rather, especially because we are in the darkest times, we should never give up the things that made our life worth living, such as beauty and hope.