A Beautiful Mind Vs Rain Man Essay

This analysis will compare and contrast the types of intelligence which the protagonists of ‘Rain Man’ and ‘A Beautiful Mind’ display. ‘Rain Man’ (1998) directed by Barry Levinson is about a selfish man, Charlie, who finds out he has an autistic older brother, Raymond. Charlie then kidnaps a willing Raymond from Walbrook Institute and slowly a relationship of love and understanding forms. ‘A Beautiful Mind’ (2001) directed by Ron Howard features mathematical genius, John Nash, who, after making a revolutionarily discovery in university, does secret cryptography work for the government. His life soon changes for the worse, with a diagnoses of schizophrenia.

Two different theories will be applied to compare and contrast the intellect shown by the protagonists of films. Spearman’s theory of general and specific abilities will be applied first. This theory states that people have two types of abilities, general and specific. General abilities underlie all intelligent behaviour and reflect on a persons inherited mental abilities. General ability is tested through a range of tests, such as verbal reasoning, arithmetic and general knowledge. If a relationship is found between various performances this indicates the presence and strength of general mental ability.

The second theory applied will be

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. This theory states that “people have multiple, distinct, intelligences rather than a general ability to perform all tasks.” The multiple intelligences which Gardner was referring to are linguistic, logical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal. Two key points of this theory are that individuals possess all these intelligences, however each person is made of a unique combination.
Raymond, the protagonist of ‘Rain Man’ is autistic and displays high levels of intelligence in different areas, yet simultaneously seems incapable of normal cognitive functioning. This can be explained by his general ability being extremely low, but having unusually high specific abilities. Evidence of this is when Raymond shows his inability to reason when he states that both a candy bar and a car cost the same price. “Ray do you know how much a candy bar costs? About a hundred dollars. How much does one of those new compact cars cost? About a hundred dollars.” While general knowledge would state that no candy bar and car cost the same amount of money, Raymond is unable to understand this concept. This relationship shows Raymond’s inability to verbally reason why the car and candy bar cost the same amount, as well as the fact that his general knowledge is extremely low. According to Spearman’s theory, this means Raymond’s general ability is poor, based off this relationship.
Raymond has extremely high abilities in the specific ability of numeracy. He displays numerical abilities beyond the average human intelligence in various scenes. The first scene where his numerical intelligence is displayed is when he and Charlie are in a café and a box of toothpicks falls on the ground. Within seconds Raymond correctly counted the number of spilt toothpicks. “82, 82, 82 … 246 total.” Raymond displays his numerical intelligence again when Charlie takes him to the doctor who asks him various math questions. Raymond correctly responds to all the questions, within seconds. “Ray do you know how much the square root of 2130 is? 46.15192304.” These scenes and various others clearly demonstrate the height of Raymond’s numerical intelligence.
Memory is another specific ability which Raymond possesses beyond normal intelligence. Raymond displays his ability for remembering things, when he reveals in the café that he memorised the phone book up to the letter g by simply reading it. ”You memorised to G? Yeah, G.” Various other scenes prove Raymond’s fantastic memory, such as when he memorised the songs on the café jukebox. Raymond also recites facts he has memorised about baseball when he is feeling distressed to calm himself.
John Nash, the protagonist of ‘A Beautiful Mind’ presents strongly in the logical intelligence which Gardner proposed. John is a mathematical genius who sees patterns in everyday occurrences. For example he maps out competitive behaviour in people and tries to find an algorithmic pattern in the way pidgins move. “I’m hoping to find an algorithm to define their movement.” John’s intelligence extends beyond mathematics and into logic as is shown when he breaks Russian code at the Pentagon just by spending a couple of minutes looking at it. Similarly he finds patterns, shapes and animals in the stars upon request for his fiancé Alicia. These displays of intellect show that John’s unique mix of intelligences, as described by Gardner, is extremely strong in logical intelligence.
John also presents quite strong in intrapersonal intelligence.

Intrapersonal intelligence is being aware of occurrences within your own mind and body. John exhibits this awareness when he begins to overcome his schizophrenia, by realizing the appreciations aren’t real. “Marcy can’t be real, she never gets old.” John continues to demonstrate strong intrapersonal intelligence when he regains a normal life, despite his schizophrenia. “I still see things that are not here, I just choose not to acknowledge them.” These demonstrations of control over his mind and actions display John’s intrapersonal intelligence as he is fully aware of what is happening within his

mind.
To balance for being unusually strong in various intelligences John is quite weak in other intelligences, such as interpersonal and linguistic. He is highly anti-social throughout the film, only bonding with a couple other key characters. “I don’t like people much, and they don’t much like me.” John has difficulty making small talk, and often directly expresses what he’s thinking. As a result he isn’t very popular with other people and was once described as, “two helpings of brain but only half a helping of heart.” A prime example of this statement is when John tries to compensate for his low interpersonal intelligence by defining love with logic.
John’s intelligences from ‘A Beautiful Mind’ are celebrated more than Raymond’s from ‘Rain Man’. Both characters are similar due to them having mental illnesses and numerical intelligence. However, John manages to overcome his schizophrenia to regain a normal life and use his intelligence to contribute to society. This is demonstrated when John is awarded the Nobel Prize, yet Raymond has to return to Walbrook Institution.
However, John is no more accepted in society than Raymond, as both are outcasts in the eyes of society. Raymond was put into the institute because he couldn’t function properly. When he leaves with Charlie he faces discrimination from the public, due to his low general intelligence. “This guy’s an f-cking fruitcake.” John’s logical intelligence allows him to see patterns which others miss, making him an object of mockery at university. “Nash is going to stun us all with his genius.” It is only when John begins working at the Pentagon and starts to use his intelligence for what people perceive as valuable work, that they begin to respect him.
Throughout this analysis it is proven that while Raymond and John are quite different, they are also quite similar in many ways. While they both display high intelligence in the area of numeracy, the way in which they exhibit and practice this intelligence is extremely different.