Finding Forrester Stereotypes

“Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover”

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is an overused cliché that has been analyze by many people. The movie Finding Forrester, by James W. Ellison, shows this theme in a more analytical manner. The movie focuses on an unusual relationship between a young man, Jamal Wallace, and a famous writer, William Forrester. Jamal is expected to fail in school and only excel on his basketball career, except he excels in both and never stops trying to achieve his dreams. He is faced with several obstacles, including racial comment and stereotypes assumptions by his teachers, peers, and mentor.

The characterization of Finding Forrester is the key to help the reader understand more of each character and how they battle through

the stereotypes. “When something is a complete puzzle, we come up with our own assumptions” said by Forrester. This quote exposes Professor Crawford’s shameful personality, “cookie cutter” ways, and racial views. Crawford, a failed author and teacher at Mailor-Callow, accuses Jamal of plagiarism. The fact that Jamal could be an aspiring writer with remarkable talent is not acceptable to Professor Crawford. Through the eyes of the professor, Jamal is a young black boy who should only dominate at sports, yet be dumb in his studies. Jamal battles through these perspectives throughout the whole movie. Professor Crawford assumes that the success of a person is determined by physical traits of the person. But on the other hand, Jamal and Mrs. Wallace contradict his assumptions. Jamal is a relax boy and has a very determined personality. Mrs. Wallace, a single mother of two raised her children and went beyond the expectations to give them their best. Neither her personality nor her future has changed because of the level in society she stands on.
On the other hand when Jamal is given the opportunity to study at a prestige’s school like Mailor-Callow, a school in Manhattan, he comes across a total different world. Completely different than what Jamal is used to. They were well dressed students and came from high class homes compared to Jamal he would wear casual clothes and had a dark complexion. His team mates would make fun of him and even though they were the same race they looked at him as he was less than just because of where he came from. He was expected to win the games and be one of the best team players for his school. He came across an internal conflict when he had to choose between letting his team down and sacrificing his passion for writing. Jamal was tired of battling the stereotypical assumptions walked out the game. He was no longer going to hide his talent.
Lastly, Forrester, a recluse novelist, develops an unusual friendship with Jamal. Forrester first tries to see how strong Jamal is by pushing him to his limits. Showing his how the real world is going to treat him when he shows his real talent for writing. He judges Jamal and is really rude to him at first by making races remarks. Later on Forrester wisdom opens Jamal’s eye to different myths and the fear of the unknown. He helps him break down obstacles of people and the world whole unmasking the prejudice of others.
Ellison uses different situations to show how Jamal faces prejudice and stereotypes by his teachers, peers and mentors. Jamal has to move to a different school which he considers to be a different world. His professor expects him to be dumb but be really good at sports because he is black. His peers look at his to be less than because of his complexion and background. And the one person he really appreciated taught him how to be strong and how to overcome the stereotypes. To all of this, Jamal overcame every obstacle and the stereotypes to become a successful writer.