...What makes people do what they do? What makes people say what they say; furthermore, what makes people who they are? Courage is what causes all of these things. Courage is what causes Jamal Wallace to break into the apartment of recluse and former writer William Forrester on a dare before he gets caught and the whole story begins. Forrester has not stepped foot from his apartment for years, yet Wallace does not give up and eventually breaks the mold; meanwhile, Forrester creates a writer of Wallace by teaching him how to write. Jamal Wallace is cast from his home in the Bronx and his public school into the rich and prestigious prep school because of his test scores and his ability on the basketball court, but because of his low class scores,...
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...Racism in the Criminal Justice System Racism in police treatment of minorities has created great disparities in incarceration amongst the races. Blatant cases of racist law enforcement that are covered in the news are a testament to the fact that racism within police departments exists from coast to coast. However, these are only the cases that people find out about; there are countless other cases of police racism and brutality that are not reported. A series of reports that have been published in the last few years have shown that young black men are being incarcerated at a rate far greater than their number in the overall population. In the fall of 1995, Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, released a study that found that nationally 33% of the black men in their 20~s were under the control of the criminal justice system in some way, shape or form. This shows an increase from 1991, when 25% of the black men nationwide ages 20 to 29 were incarcerated, on probation, or on parole (Butterfield 1996). Schiraldi, attributed the higher incarceration rates for black men to tougher punishment for the use of crack cocaine than for other drugs; harsh new sentencing laws; the prison construction boom; and poverty, lack of good jobs and poor education in inner cities. We will address how tougher punishments have resulted in worse treatment for minorities in the criminal justice system. The tougher punishment for the...
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...eccentric novelist William Forrester and Jamal Wallace a young gifted scholar athlete. Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) was a black sixteen year old boy that lived in the Bronx of New York. Jamal was faced with the normal woes of black males brought up in an underprivileged lifestyle with very little opportunities to leave. Although Jamal had intellectual talent for writing, quite contrary to his stereotyped ghetto friends. After taking an academic test. his high results in the test lead to an offer of a life time. An opportunity to have a fully paid scholarship to one of the most prestigious schools in New York. A fully paid scholarship with an option to play basketball....
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...Forrester learns to share his trust with a boy named Jamal when they connect through writing. Forrester is closed off and mean at first, but slowly opens up to Jamal throughout the movie. When he finally lets Jamal in, he starts to teach him how to write and talks to him about his life before Jamal. When Forrester is able to do this, they form a trust and friendship that stays strong even when they are separated. Whether that is by distance, as they go their separate ways or in death, or when Forrester leaves this earth at the end of the movie. Due to the strong sense of trust they have, when Forrester dies he is able to leave...
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...named Jamal Wallace. Jamal has the tendency to act unintelligent around his basketball buddies so that they will continue to accept him, even though he has outstanding test scores and is an amazing writer. While on the basketball court, the boys talk about the older man that stands in the window watching them, so they gave him the name “The Window” . Rumor has it that “The Window” has killed someone before. One night, Jamal’s friends dare him to sneak into the “The Window’s” house and steal something out of it, proving that he has actually completed the dare. As Jamal was in the apartment,...
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...Everyone suspects that the essay he reads illuminates the puerility of the student’s essay that preceded because Forrester reads his own work of genius. The essay Forrester reads is entitled “Losing Family.” It lures the reader into thinking that Forrester is addressing how Jamal, whom he has not yet revealed as his friend, has replaced his dead family. Forrester abruptly ends his reading and attempts to excuse himself, setting up the English teacher to ask why he attended the event. Forrester then strategically reveals that the essay he just read was written by Jamal. As the students, members of the board, and the principal applauds, the English teacher literally attempts to “shush” the students. Of course, Forrester has tricked the teacher, whom he has sabotaged before, into exposing himself as a power monger. In the midst of much applause, Jamal leaves the room with Forrester who explains that he is about to leave on a...
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...Finding Forrester Assignment 1. Jamal refused to recite the poem and say he has not read it because; he did not want his friends to make fun of him. 2. Jamal turned to reading and writing after his father abandoned his family because, he knew that learning things to make him smarter will help him become a better person when older, so he would not do something like this which his father did. 3. When Jamal finds his backpack in the street he discovers comment in red ink in his journals. Forrester had read his journals and made editorial notes in them. 4. When Forrester says “constipated thinking” about Jamal’s writings he is criticizing his work, saying it is not clear. 5. Jamal takes up the challenge to write 5,000 words on why he should stay away because; he wanted to prove to Forrester he is worthy to come in. 6. Some assumptions that adults make of Jamal are they think that he is not smart enough to write as well as he does, that a 16 year old black basketball player from the Bronx couldn’t possibly write like he did, they said it was too good. 7. These assumptions were very stereotypical. That since Jamal was a colored boy from a lower class place who was good at sports that he couldn’t possibly be good at something like writing. Myself I have been subject to assumptions about who I am. I have high functioning autism and other kids think I am strange and weird, but they do not know that I suffer from social anxiety and find...
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...Jamal is Innocent In the movie, Finding Forrester, Jamal meets a man by the name of William Forrester. By the fault of Jamal, Forrester acquires Jamal’s journal which were full of his writing. Forrester, a renowned author, corrected Jamal’s work by adding his own thoughts. After Jamal’s journals were returned to him, he began working on his writing with Forrester. At the same time, he was offered the opportunity to play basketball at a private school. No one at the school believed Jamal had any academic capabilities; they only believed he was there to play basketball. One of his teachers even went as far as to accuse Jamal of plagiarism. However, Jamal Wallace is innocent of plagiarism because he demonstrates a high level of integrity, the faculty at Mailor Callow was unfair to him, and he naturally possesses a high level of intelligence. One reason that Jamal Wallace is innocent of plagiarism is that he demonstrates a high level of integrity. Jamal was receiving help on his writing from Forrester; however, Forrester requested that Jamal never tell anyone about him or the work that they were doing. When Jamal was accused of plagiarizing, he could have cleared up the charges immediately, but he demonstrated integrity and kept his promise to William. Additionally, the professor asked Jamal to write a paper in his office. Jamal could have told him he wouldn’t do it, but he wanted to show that he could. Unfortunately, Jamal was under too much pressure and wasn’t...
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...you find Jamal either innocent or guilty of the plagiarism charges. Cite specific examples from the movie, and be sure to use all three of your argumentative strategies. Discussion Questions: 1. During an English class on Poe’s “The Raven,” why does Jamal refuse to answer the question on the poem even though he has read it? 2. Why is Mrs. Wallace not surprised when she is told by Jamal’s English teacher that her son is a C student who received an A on the state assessment? 3. Does Jamal’s peer acceptance depend entirely on basketball? 4. When Jamal first knocks on Forrester’s door, why does he take up the challenge to write 5000 words on why he should stay away? 5. What do you learn about Jamal as a result of his interaction with the gentleman regarding BMW? 6. When Jamal asks if Forrester will keep helping him with his writing, why does Forrester agree only if Jamal asks no questions about him, his family, or why he wrote only one book? 7. What does Forrester mean when he says that "The first step to writing is writing--not thinking about what you are going to write"? 8. What does Forrester mean when he says to write the first draft with your heart but then to rewrite with your head"? 9. How does Forrester’s having Jamal type out a copy of his "A Season of Faith’s Perfection" help Jamal to "discover his own words"? 10. What has Jamal learned from Forrester and Forrester from Jamal? 11. Why is Jamal presented...
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...job of defining what it means to be an outsider. There are many instances in the film where Jamal is shown to be an outsider by both his friends and his classmates and teachers. Jamal Wallace is a bright young black student from the inner city who is afraid to let his friends know that he is smart. He gets by with average grades but excels in basketball at his inner city school. Jamal and his friends pass the time shooting hoops and making fun of the reclusive man watching them through the window of the apartment above the court. One day, Jamal’s friends dare him to break into the man’s apartment. Afraid of not being liked by his friends, Jamal accepts the dare. After being caught by the man, Jamal leaves the apartment, forgetting to take his backpack with him. When he goes back to retrieve the backpack, an unlikely friendship begins to form. The man, William Forrester, soon starts helping Jamal with his writing. Jamal hides this from his friends. The film demonstrates that we often change our behavior in order to try to fit in, even though the behavior might not be a bad thing. Shortly after befriending Forrester, Jamal’s principal invites Jamal’s mother for a meeting at the school, she has no idea what to expect, fearing Jamal may be in some sort of trouble. She is surprised to learn that Jamal’s above average standardized test scores do not reflect his grades in school. When Jamal is offered a full scholarship to a prestigious high school, he is faced with the choice of...
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...inspirational movies in recent years. The movie takes place in Mumbai, India. Where eighteen year old Jamal Salik is a contestant on the India version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Jamal is one question away from winning the million dollars. But the host can’t believe that a boy from the slums of India can know all of the answers the questions. So he has Jamal arrested and interrogated after being convinced that he’s cheating. The rest of the movie employs flashbacks to narrate the story of Jamil and his brother Salim, and Latika a girl from there slum. Even though Jamals life wasn’t easy his life experiences gave him the knowledge to answer the difficult questions on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In the movie Jamal and Salim take totally different paths in life. These paths lead to two opposing outcomes. Jamal ends up winning the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? While Salim dies at the hands of his gangster boss’ employees. Nevertheless, to say that Salim is a bad person who made all the wrong choices, whereas Jamal is the typical good-doer hero of the movie. To understand how they ended up in these different situations, we must first understand the experience that shaped their lives. Salim and Jamal are both orphans who lost their mother on an anti-muslim attack in the slum where they lived. They didn’t have the opportunity to attend school very long. In fact, Jamal only learned to name of two of the Three Musketeers while in school. He referred to Latika...
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...Sean Connery, who played as William Forrester, and Rob Brown, who played as Jamal Wallace. Sean Connery was also the film’s producer. The film was about William Forrester, a reclusive writer, who wrote “The Great Twentieth Century Novel”. This earned him a Pulitzer prize but after gaining fame he shut his world to the public and settle in an apartment in South Bronx, New York. He was befriended by Jamal Wallace, a talented basketball player and an intelligent sixteen year old teenager. Jamal hides his intelligence in writing from his friends because he fears that they might make fun of him and put him out of place. One night, Jamal sneak into the apartment of William. Out of fear he accidentally left his bag in the apartment. Jamal talked to the delivery man of the apartment and showed his knowledge discussing the history of BMW. The delivery man left and his bag was dropped down from the apartment. He finds that the man read his journals and made notes in them. He asked the man to help him in his works, but he was told to write 5000 words on why he should stay out of his home, which Jamal completes and submit to the man. That’s when he started going to the man’s apartment. A prestigious school in Manhattan took interest in Jamal and offered him a scholarship. The man helped him in his writings but in return he shouldn’t tell anyone about this. Jamal was searching in the library when he saw a book and found out that the author...
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...Geetanjali Joshi Mishra Ravi Mishra Research scholars Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow Lucknow geetanjalijoshi2008@gmail.com ravidnmishra@gmail.com Slumdog Cometh! A reading of the Oscar winning movie „Slumdog Millionair‟ in the backdrop of Althuser‟s theory of Ideology and Interpellation This paper is an effort to read the Oscar winner movie „Slumdog Millionair‟ in the context of Althuser‟s observations on the subject of ideology. We shall, in the course of this paper, point to the case of interpellation in the movie and also demonstrate how the movie furthers an already existing ideology. Althuser‟s theory of ISA (ideological state apparatus) and RSA (repressive state apparatus) are only too well known. They have been one among the many theories of realistic appraisals of the society and an extension of Althuser's study of Ideology. These theories must be touched upon briefly before we move to place the Hollywood blockbuster in their perspective. Ideology is a very specific term used in the post-Marxist theories, such as Christian ideology, democratic ideology, feminist ideology, Marxist ideology, etc. Luis Althusser (1977) shows that there are two major mechanisms of State organization for ensuring the people of the State. The first is the RSA, or Repressive State Apparatuses that can enforce the public behaviour directly, like police, the criminal justice and prison system. The ISAs are some kind of institutions, which...
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...better. There are moment‘s were others try to prevent others from their success, but it is the way that it is handle that shows were your true destiny lies and this is what occurs to Jamal it is up to him to make the right decision as to where he belongs. The setting of this young man’s life is in a middle class neighborhood in the Bronx were many don’t live up to what life has to offer. It is a neighborhood where others don’t really expect much from them but Jamal prove the contrary he was a very intelligent, bright, and talented young man who had the abilities that many wouldn’t expect from a neighborhood from which he was raise. His talent lied far beyond the basketball court in lied in the love for writing and reading and he truly captivated many with his capabilities. In the movie “Finding Forrester” the meaning of basketball signified many things to me it signify escape, refuge, two separate worlds were life is different this was a sort of world for Jamal were he could bond with his friends and could have a connection between one another but to me it also meant a barrier between success and staying were others thought you belonged. In the movie books the love for literature and writing was to me, books meant opportunity, learning, adventure, uniqueness, and most the passion and love that both Jamal and Forrester had for writing and it was proved every time they wrote a passage or spoke with so much knowledge they clearly...
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...Walter Dean Myers, a 12 year old boy named Jamal Hicks has an older brother in prison and is left to get the money for the appeal because his dad is not around. Jamal is partially a victim of his circumstances and Myers gets his readers to sympathize with Jamal by showing the reader his living conditions, lack of money, and his feelings. Most readers will think Jamal will probably not rise above his circumstances for a number of reasons. Myers makes most readers see Jamal partially as a victim even before he started getting in trouble with the gun and the gang, he still seemed to be often frowned upon. One such time is when the principal, Mr.Davidson, tells another student,"The second warning is that if you continue to find people like Jamal Hicks as your friends, you're going to be in trouble whether you like it or not."(59). In this quote the principal is seen telling another student that Jamal is a bad kid before he starts...
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