Finding Forester Journal

Do Not Judge Book by Its Cover

Why is it so easy for us to assume things hastily about people before we even get to know to them? Why are we so judge mental and think because certain race or people a famous of doing something so anyone from that race will do the same? Why do we discriminate between ourselves instead of giving everyone a fair chance? For instance, if you watch the movie Finding Forrester, you will learned that Jamal was accused of plagiarism and another white guy assume that Jamal will either damage or steal his car because of his age and racial color.

Jamal began to write his first essay but he could not come up with an essay title so Forrester angrily said to him “Forrester: No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think”! Before he gave Jamal, a story wrote prior to his refrain from publishing his writings. As time passed by Jamal finished his essay but could not come up with a title so William gave his title but forgot to tell Jamal that he published a story with the same title. Jamal had an assignment that was overdue so he turned in the essay he wrote in Forrester’s apartment. When the English teacher read Jamal’s essay he assumed that a sixteen year old could never write such a good essay. However, Jamal did not easily accept the accusation but he showed us his bravery by being assertive was not guilty of plagiarism, he could not prove himself innocent because he turned the essay in without Forrester’s permission.

Jamal’s literature teacher, Robert Crawford, was a bitter and arrogant white old writer, who failed to get his book published. One day in class the while Crawford was rudely questioning another student Jamal interferes and Crawford gets very angry and they started arguing. Crawford: “Perhaps your skills do reach farther than basketball” Jamal: "Further” Crawford: “What”? Jamal: “You said that my skills reached "farther" than basketball” “Farther" relates to distance, "further" is a definition of degree. You should have said "further”. Crawford: “Are you challenging me, Mr. Wallace”?  Jamal: “Not any more than you challenged Coleridge”. Crawford may tried to accused and humiliate Jamal but in Jamal character we learned that it is essential to sometimes stand up for what you believe even if the person you are going against is your superior.

In another scene, we saw that a white man with a BMW assumed that since Jamal is a black teenager in Bronx he would either steal the car or damage it. However, Jamal did not remain quiet and watch the man humiliate him but he stood up for himself in a clever way by telling the man what BMW is and how it started. 

Although all obstacles were in Jamal’s way, he never gave up on himself or his dreams. He always kept with him Williams saying, “Someone I once knew wrote that we walk away from our dreams afraid that we may fail or worse yet, afraid we may succeed. You need to know that while I knew so very early that you would realize your dreams; I never imagined I would once again realize my own. Seasons change young man, and while I may have waited until the winter of my life, to see the things I've seen this past year, there is no doubt I would have waited too long, had it not been you”.