Finding Forrester

In Finding Forrester it was shown that he is a boy who has an extreme talent in writing. Jamal lives in a poor part of town and is a typical kid. He plays a lot of basketball and doesn't try hard in school. Even though he doesn't try hard his English teacher realizes his potential and knows he reads a lot of books. The reason he doesn't try hard is because he doesn't want to stand out as weird and unusual to all the other kids. He felt forced to conform with all his other class mates. When a private school offers him the chance to come to their school he takes it and is than more open about his passion in literature. His teacher doesn't want him to talk out and correct him in class so he tries to get him to be quite. Even in his fancy private school he is still forced to conform to what others want. Besides his teacher the private school does give more room for him to improve his writing. The true key to his blossoming talent was William Forrester, the talented writer. He helped him develop and become a better writer. Throughout the movie the different environments Jamal is placed in have varying degrees of conformity and individuality. The public school in the poor area is much more based around conforming to sports and not anything scholarly. When he transfers to the private school everything is around advanced education and more formal teachers. He doesn't feel as if he has to conform and is actually limited by how smart and educated he is.