Nicole Nkiwane

Ms. Hunnisett

ELA 30-2

January 9, 2017

What is your opinion that individuals actions affect the lives of others?

In life our actions can affect the lives of others by leaving a lasting impact on the lives of other people. Those actions could be unexpected kindness, hope and many other actions that could change the lives of others. This is explored in Finding Forrester with Jamal Wallace and William Forrester with an action of true friendship. Finding Forrester is about Jamal Wallace – a disadvantaged, basketball player, an African- American teen from the Bronx, New York who meets William Forrester a famous writer who has isolated himself  from the rest of the society and through the film they create a friendship that helps them both come out from behind the shelf where they have been hiding their true identities from the rest of society because they are afraid of being judged. In Finding Forrester , Director Gus Van Sant explores the idea that when an individual is faced with unexpected kindness it will result in them gaining hope, showing their true identity and gaining confidence in themselves. This is explored when Forrester’ willingness to help mentor Jamal helps, Jamal gain hope that his writing expertise are further than what they seem to be and also gain more confidence in own writing.

Initially, Jamal is introduced as a character who cares only about his appearance in society so he chooses basketball more than anything. Jamal breaking into William’ apartment as a dare from his friend show that he was placing himself in where society wants him to be. When he breaks in the apartment, he runs away leaving him backpack behind after he accidentally wakes up Forrester. In the scene where Jamal meets the man with a BMW is the first scene where we see that he is much more smarter than what he seems to be because he know how BMW came to be. After Jamal get his backpack back, he see that all his journal where marked by William Forrest in which he goes to him and ask if William could read more of his pieces. William tells him to go away and write a five hundred word document on why he should stay away. Many people would have left it alone and never come back. Jamal choosing to write the essay shows that he has so much potential in life and he wants to extended his writing into something bigger that he could show some days. William finally agrees to mentor Jamal because he see that he has so much potential and he could do so much with it outside of the environment he is in. This is an act of unexpected kindness from Forrester because he is willing to teach Jamal even though he does not know him because he saw something in Jamal that he had not seen in many year which was a brilliant writer.

Then, Jamal begin to gain hope and confident in himself when he moves to the new private school because we see him going to see William more often to challenge his writing. This is shown more when he is given a book by Forrester and was told to start writing from what he sees and then extended further with his writing. He was normally judged by his professor Crawford who instantly judges him because he is an African- American boy who lives in the  Bronx and plays basketball. Crawford instantly judges him because he does not believe that Jamal a teen from such an environment he lives in could possibly be that smart and such a great writer. This shows that not only was Crawford being judgmental, he was also being racist and was also threatened by Jamal being such a great writer. Jamal gains more confidence when he says “You said my expertise are further than just the basketball quote : what you meant was that it’s further not as in distance”, this shows that he was more confidence in himself to which  he challenges Crawford with quotes and their authors.

Finally, Jamal gains more confident in himself about his writing. This is shown during the basketball state championship game after being told to win the game and then his paper and his suspension could be excuses. Furthermore, Jamal misses the fouls shot in which earlier in the film he shot fifty foul shots in a row this shows that he misses those foul shot to prove a point to Crawford and the rest of the society that was placing his just as a basketball player. He misses the foul shots because he wanted to prove that he was more than just a basketball player, he wanted to be known as a brilliant writer who wanted to fit in society. All he wanted was to be able to prove that even though he was a black teen from the Bronx, he was a reclusive , brilliant and a fantastic writer who just wanted to be seem that way not  be placed where everyone thinks he is. Through their friendship and unexpected kindness both Jamal Wallace and William Forrester gains confident in themselves and escape where they are usually put in by society. Furthermore, Jamal Wallace being able to show that he was more than what he seemed to be and William Forrester being able to escape solidarity from society.

In conclusion William’ unexpected kindness to mentor Jamal, made Jamal gain hope that he was a brilliant writer and could further his expertise into something more powerful and gain confidence in himself that he could writer something powerful that showed hope and could help others in society that writing could be way to to prove something in society. It also helped William Forrester can confident and travel after many years of isolating himself.