Finding Forrester
Does anyone really like to be stereotyped? Does anyone want to be looked at and automatically judged just because of the way they look, by their skin color, their hair type, or even the type of clothing they have on? Finding Forrester is a film that in my opinion perpetuates stereotypes. The entire film is based on significantly different racial opinions, opinions of different writing styles and stereotyping of different people in general. Race is a huge issue in the film and many stereotypes are made. Jamal Wallace is introduced in the film as a typical black teenage male who goes to a low class school in the Bronx and really excels on the court as a basketball player. Not too many people thought of him as being anything more than that, due to the fact that Jamal makes mediocre grades in his school in the Bronx, he does just enough to get by and to maintain a "C" average. Jamal did not push himself any harder in the classroom than he needed to. Jamal's passion is writing, you gather this information early in the film due to stacks of books and things that are shown collecting on his desk at home. His mother states " I always see him writing in those Journal's of his." Everyone that is involved in Jamal's life usually under estimates him. Jamal changes every ones perception of him by impressing his school and his family by scoring extremely well on his standardized tests given annually at his school. Jamal now offered a scholarship to the Maylord School in Manhattan was about to witness an entirely different perspective on stereotypical people. When arriving at this school, as an observer I could not help to notice that, there are VERY few African American students that attend school there. Jamal encounters characters in the film that would go to any measure to make sure