Finding Forrester

Brenda Maravilla Professor Steele English 1001-006 March 11, 2013 Finding Forrester Reaction Paper When a two people meet for the first time in their lives they do not know what the road lies ahead for them. This is the case with Jamal Wallace and William Forrester; they came together as complete strangers and ended with a friendship that would last a lifetime. Jamal helped Forrester to live life again, to come out of his comfort zone and explore the world. Forrester inspired Jamal to write his “first draft with his heart” and too learned to never let life pass by, because they could potentially miss out on something worthwhile.

Forrester, one of the greatest writers in the twentieth century in the movie Finding Forrester, lived his life in loneliness and comfort, but one unexpected day Jamal Wallace came into his life and changed it all. Their friendship began to help Forrester leave his comfort zone, he allowed Jamal to enter his world and share his work with him. Throughout the movie Jamal learns he may only ask soup questions, a question that helps to obtain information that matters only to us, but as their friendship unfolds the more Jamal learns about Forrester.

He learns how Forrester lost his brother, his mother, father and why he has never written his second book. Jamal becomes his family; he becomes the inspiration to live again, the inspiration to write again. One of the key moments in the movie begins with Forrester making Jamal promise to tell no one about them which becomes difficult when Jamal turns in one of his works that was published in the New York Times. In desperation Forrester tells him to write the letter of apology and to keep him out it. Jamal looks at Forrester hurt more than ever, yells and walks away.

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He needed his friend, but Forrester is too afraid. The lesson William learns is to live and he does when he gets out of his apartment to save Jamal from being on probation. He has learned to come out of his comfort zone and leaves to see Scotland. Jamal saw the world in black and white. He only knew of his friends and basketball, but his secret was he loved to read and write. But once he met William Forrester his world changed, he no longer had to hide his passion. With the help of William Forrester, Jamal further develop his writing skills and accepts his guidance to better his life.

He is offered a full scholarship to a private school, which he accepts; he leaves his world of comfort and walks into a world of challenges. Although his writing is impeccable, one of the lessons he learns from Forrester is to “write his first draft with his heart and rewrite with his head. ” This is a challenge for him in the beginning; he cannot press the keys because he wants to think instead of writing what he feels. As his writing grows and allows himself to write what he feels Jamal’s work begins to change that even his professor recognizes him for it.

In the end Forrester leaves to see the world, Jamal continues to write, play basketball and go to school. He receives letters from Forrester, checking up on him and the colleges recruiting him. If it were not for the one-day he was dared to go into the home of what his friends made him believe was a killer Jamal would have never met Forrester and would have missed out on something worthwhile. Moments before the movie ends Jamal finds out Forrester has passed away of cancer, and in that moment he truly realizes why he never went out.

He was afraid to live his life because he would not know when it would just end. Forrester leaves him with a letter, keys to his home and a box. In the letter Forrester mentions “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 for you. ” Forrester would have lived a life that was broken and would have never moved past his mistakes were it not for Jamal.

In the box Forrester left him was the friendship that will never die, in that box was his second book. And Jamal was to write the Foreword and no one else. There is more to life than making mistakes, it is about molding them into a positive and living to the fullest. Forrester learned to move on from his mistake just like Jamal did. He learned to live life because in a short moment life could be taken away, without Jamal he would have never learned to leave his home and experience the world, as it is not how he remembered it with the bad memories.

Jamal learned to see the world on color and took advantage to develop his writing skills with one of the world’s greatest writers. He continued to do what he loved, playing basketball, reading and writing, but also learned a great deal about life from Forrester. Life is like the seasons changing, we all have spring, the time in which we blossom. Summer, the time in which we develop and find who we think we are. Autumn where we may lose ourselves, but find out way and winter when in the last moment we try to live before death catches us.

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