Comparison between Good will hunting and professor Lambeau Essay Example
Comparison between Good will hunting and professor Lambeau Essay Example

Comparison between Good will hunting and professor Lambeau Essay Example

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  • Pages: 5 (1196 words)
  • Published: September 30, 2021
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Good will hunting is a drama film which was released in 1997 and based in the American society. The director of the film is Gus Van Sant. This film addresses quite a number of ideas which are brought up in an open and vivid manner. Any individual who has love for mathematics or hates mathematics ought’s to watch this film which addresses two different worlds of people. Throughout the film, the interest of mathematics is highly the main theme. The society in the film views mathematics as a hard subject which always poses a challenge to everyone who stands its way. There is this notion and believe in everyone`s mind that professionals are the only ones who have explored the field of mathematics hence the only individuals who can solve the so said unsolvable mathematics problems.

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All this ideas on mathematics are proved a fallacy by a character in the film introduced as will(Szabados & Tamás 40).The whole of the film rotates around the issue of a university professor known as lambeau trying to make will a different man after realizing that he had a special talent and interest in the field of mathematics despite him having grown up in the street as an orphaned boy. Will is a jonitor at MIT and is not even expected to have any interest in mathematics because it doesn’t involve him in anyway. This film not only addresses the idealism behind mathematics as a subject but also the idea of personality and interest. This paper will address a kind of comparison between two of the most outstanding characters in the film, will and Lambeau. These two guys ha

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some similarities but also had differences which always kept their interests at bay (Clarke & Laura175).

When it comes to having the knowledge of solving any arithmetic challenge, many people tend to believe that this knowledge is either acquired naturally from birth or it is gained through hard reading. This assumption is barely true from the perspective in which we find the two individuals. Professor Lambeau is a well learned man who has gone through all levels of education in the field of mathematics to qualify him a position of a job at the university as a professor. Lambeau`s knowledge is said to be learned and he has struggled through book reading to acquire it (Szabados & Tamás 49). That day you will come out of the bathroom and find your illiterate house help solving chemistry equations well enough you are definitely likely to get shocked because you don’t expect such a situation to happen. This is what happens when professor Lambeau gives a very hard mathematics question to his students. He gets shocked the next day to find it well solved but no student claimed to have done it. The next day he finds will solving a similar question. He wonders how it was possible for a twenty year old illiterate man like will would be capable of solving the problem while his own students who are training to be professionals in the field of mathematics cannot even make a step to the question. Lambeau realizes that will has a gift in solving mathematical problems yet he never went to any class to have any sturdy or training in mathematics(Szabados & Tamás 47). The two

individuals are seen to share common interest in the field of mathematics which in some way brings them closer and professor Lambeau is interested in changing the life of will from being a jonitor at MIT to a better position where he could explore more on what he was interested in.

Having a close view on the kind of world will and professor lambeau live in, we note that the two characters exist in diverse worlds. Will is a young man who does not have the intention of showing off his skills in solving mathematical problems. He prefers living in a life where he can do what he wants provided that he feels busy and enjoys himself(Clarke & Laura 32). He at a time with his friends go pout for some beer and he gets involved in a fight which leads to his imprisonment. Will does not seem to have the thought of being a professor in mathematics; all he knows is his busy work of bricklaying which he seems to adore more than anyone else. Professor lambeau having enjoyed the fruits being a professor in the field of mathematics has great interest in working harder in this field because he knows the knowledge he has in mathematics is good enough to earn him a living and help students who are under him through his knowledge. This kind of perception towards mathematics creates the entire differences between will and professor lambeau(Szabados & Tamás 43).

Will never wishes to approach mathematics as a profession. After he gets involved in some fight with his friends, he is arrested and therefore has to face a jail term. Professor Lambeaucannot just

stand and watch this young man spoil under his own knowledge in mathematics so he bails him out (Clarke & Laura 45). Professor Lambeau faces the desire will has in living his normal life when he arranges several interviews which he intends to help will secure a better job position in his life. Will turns down all this offers proving how unwilling he was to take mathematics as a profession that he has enough knowledge on. Through the incidences that take place in the film, we are left undecided if will was better in mathematics than professor lambeau.

In conclusion, this film Good will hunting not only gives us the diverse difference between will and professor lambeau but also emphasizes on the issue of talent and opportunity. It is evident that whenever an individual has no intention of doing something then he will never work towards making it better. At a time in the film, will`s childhood friend, Chuckie, tells him that “you are sitting on a winning lottery ticket. It would be an insult if you are still around here in twenty years” all these advice aimed at transforming the life of will seem to fall in deaf hears because he seems already decided with the fate of his own life. He claims to be interested in living under class pride but not the profession side of his knowledge for mathematics. At some point in the film, we get to a thought that will is being driven by the kind of hard life he has passed though in his childhood when he narrates his experience to his girlfriend. The direction and intention of the film

in some way seems to be two sided in that there is some passion and moral in the decisions made by will by sticking to what he wants and not making his knowledge a profession just because he has what it takes. The other approach to the film is the fact that every individual should make maximum use of his talent and knowledge to live a better life.

Work cited

  • Clarke, Laura. "Good Will Hunting." (2004).
  • Szabados, Tamás. "Good Will Hunting." Philosophy Now 112 (2016): 48-49.
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