Good Will Hunting: A Protagonist’s Path to Physiological
Fulfillment and What That Teaches Viewers About Success
Introduction
Good Will Hunting is the touching story of a young man’s struggle to transcend his Dickensian childhood, to discover his place in the world, and to achieve intimacy with others. On some levels the story and the plot of Good Will Hunting, conveys a very fundamental messages to the viewer; that we are all products of our environments and made up of the vast experiences in which we live. However, this movie introduces an extremely complex character whose past is tainted by abuse and abandonment and introduces a character that is both genius in his capability but hindered by his inability to face his brutal upbringing.

Character development
The most compelling character that Will encounters is Sean, Will’s psychiatrist.
What makes the character unique is that Sean too comes from Southey, the rough and tumble neighborhood that Will grew up in. Sean has escaped his past by attending
Harvard and graduating as an intellectual. However, Sean is also conflicted, as he has suffered after witnessing the slow death of his wife from cancer. In there first meeting, after Will tells Sean that his painting of a boatman in a storm is a metaphor for his own tumultuous existence after the loss of his true love, Sean responds with violent consternation. Will notes that his therapist has not fully recovered from his past something that draws Will closer to him. This is the opposite feeling he has towards

Professor Lambeau. His relationship with this Fields Scholar winner is tenuous at best in that Doctor Lambeau wants to be accredited with discovering the prodigy genius instead of considering what Will wants out of life. Throughout the film Dr. Lambeau represents opportunity in today’s success engaged society. It’s clear that Will relates personally more to Sean than to professor Lambeau.

Plot Conflict
What makes this film remarkable is that there is plot conflict in nearly every scene. Aaron Sorkin, American screenwriter and producer, said in a Newsweek interview; "…you always look for where is the point of friction - two people have to disagree on something for there to be a scene." This is exactly what happens in Good
Will Hunting as there are forms of friction come in both verbal exchanges and physical fights. One of the first examples of this is in the beginning of the movie when Will encounters an old schoolmate and decides to assault him with extreme violence as punishment for beating him up when he was younger. In an admittedly gratuitous and misguided confrontation, Will turns to the demons of his past instead of walking away and choosing the high road. Will makes bad choices throughout the movie and tends to act aggressively when he is with his Southey friends. With his posse he is at his best, as he relates to them in spite of their educational levels and their work conditions. Another plot conflict moment is between Will and his best friend Chuckie, who tells Will that he will “kill him” if he were to be around working construction in 20 years. Chuckie too knows that Will has special talents and that he should escape their day-to-day struggles to

make ends meet. It’s here where we learn about how Will views success; his view is counter to how mass society defines it.

Dialogue
A scene that uses repetitive rhetorical language to draw Will to open up to him is the park bench monologue. This is the second meeting between Will and Sean, and this is when Will realizes that Sean has figured him out.
So if I asked you about art you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written...Michelangelo? You know a lot about him…But I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel… If I asked you about women you'd probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites…But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy… I ask you about war, and you'd probably--uh--throw Shakespeare at me, right? …But you've never been near one...And if I asked you about love you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable… Known someone could level you with her eyes…You don't know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. You're an orphan right? Do you think I'd know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? I can't learn anything from you… unless you wanna talk about you, who you are. And I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't wanna do that, do you, sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.

What is especially powerful about this scene is that the repetitive narrative is almost song like…If I ask …you would say…This is a turning point in Will’s and Sean’s relationship because it brings the troubled genius to put down his guard and to reveal his most inner, dark secrets. It’s the way that Sean states this, through Colloquial diction, that invites
Will to open up to him. Phrases and words like, “skinny,” “sport,” “Your move chief “ and the profanity filled language that enables Will to relate to Sean.

Conclusion
One should feel fulfilled after watching a show or movie, hopefully wanting to adopt part of certain characters’ personalities. In narrative paradigm, Walter Fisher believes all communication has this sort of affect on people, and its through fiction and accounts that we relate the way we do with one another. The story told in Good Will
Hunting resonates with its viewers on a deep level. It doesn’t need action or a dragged out love scene to make it appealing because viewers are drawn to the “realness” of the characters and their interactions. It has what Fisher calls “Narrative Fidelity” – content that the readers can connect with so that when they listen to the story they think ‘I would have done that too’”.
If the basic plot of the movie, Good Will Hunting, is about a talented young man that needs to confront his past to move forward in life, the sub-plot in the story relates to how society views success. Will comes from a world that has been somewhat suppressed by societies Brahman Bostonians. In fact, the Irish migration into South Boston began in the mid to early 20th Century. This migration created a division of “Haves” (Boston
Brahman) and “Have Nots” where the disparities in culture and upbringing were great.
In the article Revisioning Migration: On the Stratifications of Irish Boston in "Good Will
Hunting, Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera comments on the class separation prominent in the film.
The mythology of the Boston Irish that Damon and Affleck employ in this film comprises a historiography of oppression and complicated dynamic of cultural, political, and social subjugation. The Boston Irish have resisted these circumstances through an inwardly focused, local sub-community that is most clearly present in South Boston. … the filmmakers place this group of IrishAmericans in the context of their social distance from the landed classes, a dimension we see through the perceived inaccessibility of the Cambridge institutions.