In the movie “Finding Forrester” , it’s main focus was to imply the word “Plagiarism” into the acts of the main character Jamal Wallace. This plays a role later into the movie in which he is assumed to have plagiarized the work of William Forrester a famous writer. Although the movie promotes the harms of plagiarism it also tells a good story about a friendship amongst two strangers. Throughout the movie Jamal Wallace developes a friendship with William Forrester that starts to become more than just writing sessions in an apartment. They begin to find a friendship within themselves due to their same abilities as writer, and begin to trust one another in keeping secrets solely just inside Forrester's apartment. Both characters really show the true meaning of what a friendship should be between two people no matter if they have the same interest or are different from one another. Jamal is a kid from the Bronx who is shown to be an African American student that seems to be an average student that receives C’s in his classes. From the town he is from many people believe that during this time a guy who is African American was not educated and would not go far in anything they do but to be in jail. For Jamal at the age of 16 he didn’t believe that he had a plan of what he wanted in life so he lived as if he was a regular kid going to school. Jamal lived up to the belief at that time that African Americans were not intelligent enough and lacked ambition to make something of themselves. He pretends to be much less than he truly is capable of being and doesn't feel like he needs to express how well of a writer he can be. Although he portrays this character of being an average student at his school his test results shows that anyone can be smart and can be there true self once they truly find what they want in there future. After Jamal gets to know William Forrester, and begins to learn the true meaning behind writing and he begins to find his true self through his writing and who he is as a person. He begins to love the passion writing has to offer after being taught the true meaning of why William Forrester wrote books. But through his passion for writing also came the setback of plagiarizing some of the work of
Richard Wright and Malcolm X are two African Americans that struggled so much in the pursuit of knowledge in other to gain power and figure. Richard wright is from Natchez, Mississippi; he was in the south around the year 1925 and worked for the white men helping them get books from the library. During the process of obtaining books for the white men, he wants to read and know of the black history. Malcolm X is from Omaha, Nebraska, he was in prison for burglary, during his time in prison then came the passion for knowledge and he wants to build his vocabulary on how to speak, and write letters appropriately to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. Richard wright becomes motivated when he comes across an article that made mention of H. L. Mencken being a fool and wants to know the reason for such a saying, Richard wrights’ difficulties was how to get a library card without cut reading the novel of H. L. Mencken. Richard Wright becomes transformed greatly not only has his vocabulary improved but had known a great deal of black history. Malcolm X is motivated to read so he can write good letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. His difficulties was learning how to read, write and himself not having enough time to read because the lights had to go off and they were watched by a moving guard, he becomes transformed by studying the dictionary to improve his knowledge of vocabulary in reading, speaking and writing good letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad.
Professor Crawford is a assertive human. He does not like to be corrected. The first time Jamal turned in an essay Professor Crawford doubted that he wrote it by himself. Crawford doubted Jamal because he was African American. Jamal is an extremely talented writer and Crawford knows, but he refuses to accept the fact and continues to bring Jamal down. Crawford wanted to see if Jamal can come up with his own words so he made Jamal write an essay with his supervision.
11. Forrest warns Jamal about bitterly disappointed teachers, like Robert Crawford, because some people like these teachers only see and believe what they think is right, and since Jamal came from where he did with a background like he has, there will be criticism and disbelief over his work, but Jamal is to stand by what he writes and feel proud over it.
Literature is a big part of all cultures. People acquire a vast amount of information from what is being read. The way they are written and the people who wrote them can change the manner in which values are being seen. Every culture and race is unique it includes language, art, rituals, beliefs plus a great deal more. With all the different race and cultures in the country, it has shaped the American perception and identity. When a person of a certain ethnic background, gender, sexual preference, even religious view writes it is only natural for their heritage, culture and racial influence to be present. This is what makes the work powerful. As in that of Claude McKay, because of him being an African American writer his work offers a new method of considering and appreciating what it entailed to be of a certain race or gender. Showing how culture and race affect the overall meaning in his writing.
On the other hand, Jamal is a sixteen-year old African American male who went to a private school on a scholarship and lives with his mother and brother. Unlike Forrester, he enjoys going outside, interacting with his friends from school and going to basketball games. Another difference between the Jamal and Forrester is his confrontational attitude. When harassed by another student from school on the basketball court, he handled the problem in his own way, proving his ability to do as well as the next person, which gained the respect from the coach and the other students.
The book shows the story about a black guy called Nat Turner and all the moments that he lived before starting his revolution against whites. He was a Black slave that became a preacher to slaves from farms and plantations, speaking against the slavery but carefully pretending be an obedient slave to his owners. When Turner was twenty five years old, he began to dream about a revolution because he
This book tackled many situations that people of color face on an everyday basis. For example, in one situation Coates and his son were faced with mistreatment. A white lady pushed Coates son, rushing him to hurry up, in an act of showing who was boss, the author tells how he became upset with the situation. What ended up happening was that because of the way Coates defended his child people began to scream at him and threaten to call the police for his behaviors. He states that he faced a state of shock, he was unaware, how cruel people could be and how much power white people attained. (94) This example shows how people misjudge a person of color it doesn’t matter if they did something right, they are being called out just by the pigment of their skin. It goes to show that the statement Coates said was true “not being violent enough could me my body. Being too violent could cost me my body.” (28) Either way one may look at a situation, for a person of color, it can go bad and seeing through the eyes of this author we become aware that social racism still exists in today’s
Jamal also has better resources to deal with the struggles of adolescence because he has a close friend. William Forrester, who helps him in his school. We can see that in the film, Forrester, being a writer, helps Jamal improve his writing skills. Forrester also helps Jamal against his teacher who believes that Jamal is plagiarising his work from someone. Forrester does this by coming to his school and showing them how good of a writer Jamal actually is by reading out his
James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” was a great tale of the struggles shared between two brothers in Harlem in 1957. This story is about two African American brothers who, unfortunately, grew apart as the aged. The plot shows the struggles the two brothers faced as they grew up in Harlem, and in return, the two drastically different paths they perused. James Baldwin was an African American who grew up in Harlem in the 1930s and 40s. Baldwin was the oldest of nine children, and grew up in a very poor family, having a very bad relationship with his stepfather. Baldwin followed in his stepfather’s footsteps in becoming a preacher, but as he was studying to do so, he realized that his true calling was to become a writer. Baldwin
The novel starts with Coates addressing his son, Samori.He begins recounting a time when he was invited on a talk show and the host asked him what it meant to lose his body, looking for an explanation as to why Coates “felt that white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence.” This turned out to be a very heavy, intense, and loaded question. Coates went on to explain to his son that America was built on the oppression, abuse, and exploitation of black people, of their bodies, which only intensifies the hypocrisy of the democratic foundation that America prides itself on. The recent murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, and other black people and “the destroyers who were rarely held accountable” prove that the disregard and mutilation of black bodies is embedded in America’s DNA, and no one gives it a second thought. The American “dream” that is built on the purity and innocence of wanting happiness was only ever made plausible by the oppression of black people, who still struggle to achieve that dream because they were abused into a life of silence and fear. “The Dream rests on their backs, the bedding made from their bodies.” Coates went on to explain how this history of exploitation and the fear that’s been rooted into the lives of black people in America followed him throughout his schooling and on the streets of his neighborhood. The schools that he was sent to discouraged black children, rather than encouraging growth and facilitating a healthy learning environment. The streets were carefully orchestrated for self defense. You had to protect yourself, because you knew the law wouldn’t. At Howard University, “the Mecca”, the excitement of witnessing the diversity that flooded the
In “Finding Forrester”, there were two main characters named Jamal Wallace and William Forrester. Jamal was an inner city teenager from Bronx, New York who had the gifted talents of being a basketball player and a good writer. While always a C student, Jamal received attention from a New York college prep school for his high standardized test scores. Even though Jamal wanted to partake this request, he was afraid of his 4 friends opinions. Unlike Jamal, his friends did not care about academics and thought of Jamal as being a nerd.
The setting of this story is placed in the mid-20th century in Harlem, New York. This is where James Baldwin is originally from. The format of the text allows the reader to see what life was like living in Harlem back then. During this time the United States was deep in the segregation of race. Harlem was a mostly an African American Project. A vast amount of its residents were either poor, homeless, or had drug related problems. At the beginning of the story, the Narrator’s brother Sonny, is arrested for both the use and distribution of heroin. The narrator whom is never named, is a public high school algebra teacher. He cannot help, but wonder what is in store for his students. He states, “These boys, now were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities.” (dfa) From the beginning of James
depicting the confusion that fills the mind of a young Negro man fighting an endless battle to survive in society; in which the fairer complexation manipulates the strings of the Black plight as their puppets. In his Writing Ralph Ellison, makes use of a character without name; reasserting
The story, for the most part, centers upon an African-American family, their dreams for the future and an insurance check coming in for death of the eldest man. Stirring into the mix later is the hugely oppressive,
Plagiarism in a movie can be identified by the theme of the movie and adaptations in story line. A close visual or a theme can also be called as plagiarism. It need not be that films have to copied scene by scene to be called plagiarism but even a small resemblance to another film can be called plagiarism. The role played by Tom Hanks in Forrest Grump is seen a copy by Shah Rukh Khan’s portrayal in My name is Khan.(Ashish Sinha ,2010) This characterization is so very similar that it is called plagiarism .When the original maker of the movie finds even a very close semblance of a copy in any other movie or even a very remote association of the original which is quite visible and clear is called as plagiarism .identification of plagiarism