For this Case Study I chose fictional character Will Hunting from the award winning movie Good Will Hunting. Will Hunting was born in a poor region of south Boston, Massachusetts, an orphan, who lived with a very abusive alcoholic foster dad. As a kid, Will was subdued to frequent physical abuse by his foster dad, between getting beat with a wrench, and having cigarettes put out on him, Will dealt with a lot at a young age (James A. Frieden). Will wasn't dealt the best hand, when it came to a childhood. The movie doesn't go into detail about his biological parents, it just describes him living in foster care. While in foster care Will had a difficult time, and dealt with quite a bit of mental and physical abuse. While in foster care, will …show more content…
While working a part time job at a janitor at MIT, Will solves an advanced math algorithm on a chalk board and is confronted by the professor in which Will smarts off and walks away. Here is a prime example of how he is almost ashamed of his talent, and wishes to cover that up by putting on this tuff guy persona. What you might not think, is that Will only has a high school diploma, never attempted college, going directly into the workforce as soon as he graduated. Even though he had the intelligence to go to any place, he has low self of steam, and doesn't think highly of himself (Sant, G. V.). As you can imagine, Will was always finding himself in trouble with the law while growing up. In the movie, a judge reads off charges, some of which included, grand theft auto, assault, and others. At one point, the judge addresses Will in the court room and delves into his past and about the abuse he suffered. You can see Will’s cocky smirk fade to almost a fearful teary eyed expression as the judge talks about the abusive foster fathers Will lived with in the past. You can tell, that Will still had many unresolved feelings about his past and it struck a deep emotional wound when brought up (Sant, G. V.). Overall, Will has had a troubling life, never feeling like he actually belonged. He was afraid to be smart and at the same time afraid to not be. The physical and mental abuse he suffered at the hands of those who are supposed to protect him, definitely scared him
The struggles depicted in the book Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns caused Will Tweedy to be the way he is. For instance, as the novel progresses Will sees many struggles. One of them is death. It mentions a couple of times of Will’s friend Bluford Jackson of getting some firecrackers for Christmas and burning his hand with one of them and died ten days later of lockjaw. This death in particular Will thinks it’s his fault for happening that it could have been avoided. Another example is his grandmother’s death and Aunt Loma’s husband Campbell Williams. Campbell Williams had suicided himself because Loma and Rucker criticize him constantly which drove him to
One reason that he finds his true self in this short story is that in the beginning, Will is confident. One example that he is confident is that he said “I’m really strong.” The text stated that he was comparing himself to Mike, and favored himself. Another example is that he said “That’s right.” in a menacing way. The short story
These being: family, schools, peer relationships, mass media, and work. Throughout the film, we see the growth of character in Will. He begins in the movie as the mishap trouble maker with a brilliant mind that’s being wasted because his inner demons are holding him hostage. Through the progression of his time in therapy, we can tell that will did not have the best home life. We discover that he was a victim of child abuse, both physical and mental. Because of this, he grows up believing that he is not worth much and will not amount to anything. Family is a big part of the way we grow up to perceive ourselves and present ourselves to others. Wills family did not show him that he was good enough so he believed he wasn’t and found solace in his school work. With the help of his peer relations and school, Will was “re-socialized” and succeeded beyond what he could have ever imagined. With the help of this therapist and time, Will resolved the resentment and attachment issues he has had since he was a child and begin to form new relationships while allowing others into his mind a bit more. This change in his life was all brought on by the professor teaching him. If he hadn’t intervened with the court and suggest that in place of jail time, Will could study under him and see a therapist, will would have never gotten better and advance much further in life. With the help of peer relations and school, will became a new and improved
His presenting self was the safeguard to his private self. Will was very much aware of his gift and his enormous potential but shunned it like some burden, or at least that's what he wanted others to believe. He often told Sean Maguire, his shrink with whom he had developed a bond, that his gift was something he didn't ask for, and he'd be perfectly fine working an honorable blue-collar job with his buddies. Despite his assertion regarding his gift as an aggravation Will's actions contradict, for he is asked why he just so happened to get a custodial job in the world's foremost institute for technology, M.I.T if he wanted nothing to do with his genius. Maguire sees behind Will's visage, he realizes Will is a wounded soul who really knows nothing about life for he hasn't experienced it, it is so much more that what he read in a book. It is hard to say what Will should have done for he had a difficult past one that most cannot relate too, or have any idea what it may be like to live it. However, If Will had been a little more open to the people who wanted to love him he would have been much happier. In his quest to never be hurt he was headed for a life where he would never be loved. His thoughts were becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy; where one's expectations of an event make that event more likely to occur (Adler, 65). Had Will been honest with himself and more willing
For example, when confronting an old foster home “Friend”, by the name of Carmine, Will unleashed an onslaught of punches, which lead to Will Knocking out Carmine then being arrested for assault by the local cops. When Will saw his old friend, memories of the abuse that his foster family gave him sprang onto Will’s head and triggered his mind to give some payback for everything that he experienced as an abused kid in the foster home. Not only that but his mood drastically changed from the moments prior to seeing Carmine. Before seeing Carmine, Will was planning to have a good time with his friends at a baseball game, But that changed as he saw Carmine at the game as well. Once he saw Carmine, Will was determined to beat Carmine up, as carmine did to him when he was a kid. Clearly in the movie, Will is a mathematical genius, as he was able to solve the problem that Professor Lambeau wrote on the chalkboard outside his room. However when Lambeau confronted Will, after he found out who solved the problem, Will ran away from the professor instead of being congratulated for his success in solving the problem. A valid reason why Will did not accept the praise from the professor was because he had a negative self-image of himself. To understand what a negative self-image is, it is important to know what the term self-image means. Karl Perera, from the website, More-selfesteem.com defines the term self-image as, “ how you see yourself. This may be how you see yourself physically or your opinion of who and what you are which is normally called self concept. It is important as it
Will 's group of friends seem to pick on him and judge him, which questions if they are truly his friends or not and if he truly fits in with him.
The main focus is placed on Will, whom has a rare genius to put together abstract math problems and finds it hard to relate to world without getting arrested for doing something violent and rebellious. He grew up in South Boston and the hard streets have jaded him, while his intelligence further isolated him from people and made him hostile to other people. In the beginning of the film, Will is discovered by Lambeu (Stellan Skarsgard) a professor of mathematics, and his well-being becomes a serious issue and he is pursued. While placing a difficult math problem on the chalkboard
Will did not know what he wanted to do with his life and did not think that he was good enough for anything outside of South Boston.
Good Will Hunting explains story of a young man who goes by the name of Will Hunting. He is a very intelligent man who has had a troubled life and lets it control him day to day. He doesn’t want anybody to know about his talents because he thinks they’ll think differently about him and he doesn’t want to get hurt. Like Will, almost all of us in college and even in life go through blocks of trouble, big or small, in our life and can relate to him. I myself can relate to Will in many aspects of his life.
Will reacting this way shows he is afraid that Mr.Smythe might hurt him. This might have raised some suspision. Of course, Will does not like his brother, and we are not fully sure on how he feels about his parents, so we can assume he would not want to give his family problems. If his parents found out, Will
Will’s decisions are a bit immature because he didn’t have much experience about life and using his brain for significant things. Will’s therapist says, “So if I asked you about art you could give me the skinny on every art book ever written... Michelangelo? ” (47.01) and that’s because Will’s thoughts are just about the books he read. And he doesn’t think and make decisions like an adult. Even his best friend knows that he is a genius and wants him to work for something significant, Will doesn’t want to use his intelligence for important things he just wants to keep having fun with his friends. That shows Holden and Will’s make their decisions poorly and without thinking.
Will Hunting is very smart. He was described as genius as evidenced by his ability to solve very difficult mathematical problem that even the students and professor Lambeau at MIT could not solve. As a result, the professor recommended him for a job that would provide him challenge. The professor described Will as having a gift of good memory. Professor Lambeau even asked Will whether he had photographic memory. Will could solve difficult math and science problems in under an hour. Will was able to analyze a painting that his therapist had done and he concluded that it meant that his therapist was suppressing his feelings about the death of his wife. He is very loyal to his friends. Will also has good survival instinct.
This led to Will joining the dog sled race. He was by far the youngest and the least experienced. However, he did it for his family, which motivated him throughout the entire race. He did not give up when people tried to stop him, or bribe him to drop out of the race, which helped him stay on the front page, making him famous. Will became widely known, because of the hardships he overcame, shining a beacon of light on the American citizens.
The moment that is most crucial to Will’s change was after he read the Book of Gramarye. The Book of Gramarye contained several verses and images and as Will read further and further, the book would take him on an actual experience of what the verses meant. With the experiences from the book, Will gained knowledge on things such as spells, survival against evil, the magic in trees, names of stars and planets, and the storyline behind the Old Ones. Using his new understanding of things, he starts to change by incorporating
Will has Traumatic and Stress Disorder. Rightfully so, he was in foster care all throughout his child hood and was beaten, stabbed, and burnt with cigarettes. He learned how to fight and be defensive with the abusiveness. No family gave him the time of day since he was so defensive and got into trouble often. Will throughout his life struggled with trust issues, anger issues, and not being confident in himself. Will was book smart and full of aggression, he allowed his past to overshadow his future. He used reading as a coping mechanism from his reality. He would get lost in the books and was starving for knowledge. Will used being smart as another defense mechanism. He talked his way out of court several times and talking back to therapist by reading their books, also to people that thought he was stupid. He would show them that he was actually a genius and made them feel stupid. However, as Will soon figures out that the therapist knows exactly what he is doing and that he can read all the books he