Good Will Hunting Theme

The book Hunter in the Dark written by Monica Hughes was a story about tragic accident that happened to a boy that took him by surprise causing his life to change. This book being published in 1982 reflects on the style used, as well as being written in a genre of a young adult literature. This book was published being a Canadian book but reached out across many countries.

The movie Good Will Hunting exploits many points of psychology in the character Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT who has a knack for math. Some of the points of psychology include how a character develops after a lot of child abuse during his childhood. It exploits the idea that a child who becomes secluded may never allow an attachment, or when an attachment finally starts to occur, pushes them away. It also exploits the idea that Will Hunting has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Because of the post-traumatic stress disorder it seems that Will is unable to function normally in society, and because of this, carefully plans out his future as to not have to worry about encountering many people.

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

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

Good Will Hunting is a story about Will Hunting who works as a janitor at MIT cleaning classrooms. Will is an orphan who grew up in various foster homes and was physically abused as a child. Will is also an extraordinary mathematical genius with a photographic memory, who enjoys solving math problems. Will blames himself for his unhappy upbringing and turns this self-loathing into a form of self-sabotage in both his professional and emotional lives. Because Will blames himself he is unable to maintain a steady job or a steady relationship. Will must learn to overcome his fear of abandonment in order to learn how to trust and love people who

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.).

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.

Good Will Hunting is a good example of how someone with psychological disorders can overcome their issues through therapy. This is a classic film that was released in 1997. It was directed by Gus Van Sant, and written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The key actors of this movie include Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver and Stellan Skarsgård, with Damon being the main character, Will. In the movie Good Will Hunting, director Gus Van Sant shows that Will suffers from psychological disorders through the use of the characters of Will and Sean, as well as the film’s color selections, and angles and shots.

The movie Good Will Hunting an American Drama Film was directed by Gus Van Sant, and starring Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver and Stellan Skarsgard in 1997. This movie is about a man named Good Will Hunting who was a genius but chose not to live as a genius because of fear of past experiences and the ill treatment he received when he was in foster home. Some of the other characters in the movie were supportive and some were not supportive of him. This essay discusses Good Will’s personality traits and his interaction with the other characters in the movie. Good Will Hunting possessed the following personality traits, namely: independence, intense interest in a problem, and the need for stimulation.

“...you dropped a 150 grand on a fuckin’ education you could have gotten for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library,” Will states while looking Clark in the eyes. He has started looking beyond Clark pestering Chuckie and is now evaluating Clark’s life. Since Will completed Clark’s recitation of, “Work in Essex County,” it can be assumed that he did check it out at the public library. However, Clark went to an expensive college for many years just to recite the same material. When Will compares the expenses of college tuition to late charges from the public library, he is telling Clark that they learned the same thing at drastically different prices. Will is trying to target Clark’s morals by showing him that even though they came from different backgrounds, and that Clark obviously displays more wealth than Will, that Will is still capable of knowing the same material as him for a much smaller price. Clark may have thought earlier that his higher education would uprise his status, but Will wants him to know that is

Will Hunting had anger issues and was very oppositional to authority figures. He also had abandonment issues. He was arrested for fighting and beating up another

Good Will Hunting is a movie about a boy that is extremely book smart, his name is Will. He grew up in not the best environment and was a janitor for the college MIT. Will does nothing with his smartness until he is caught solving a problem. After being thrown in jail he is forced to see a therapist and work on math problems with the professor. The movie shows the walls and psychological problems Will has built up and the process that he goes through to knock them all down.

Though the film fails to delve into the specifics of his childhood, it does become evident that Will bounced between foster homes and was often a victim to physical and emotional abuse. These childhood factors play a huge role in behavior as an adult. A recent study concluded that, “Toxic childhood stress alters neural responses to stress, boosting the emotional and physical arousal to threat, and making it more difficult for that reaction to be shut off” (LaBier). An inability to rationalize and control emotions and responses after abuse would indeed be seen as true in this film. This can be seen in the numerous fistfights Will found himself in. Despite the fact that Will could typically weasel his way out of convictions, he was convicted of assaulting a police officer. His conviction would turn out to be life altering. When Professor Gerald Lambeau saw potential in Will, he was offered a life that could include more than beers with friends and janitorial work. The arrangement Lambeau worked out