Unmasking the Whiz Kid's Melancholic Life

Unmasking the whiz kid's melancholic life

The film started with some kaleidoscopic views of pictures of equations, books, and a man's face in an amber-lighted room. The protagonist of the film, Will Hunting, is a janitor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was from South Boston and is an orphan who had been to several foster homes. He is gifted with extraordinary intelligence in solving math problems and also possesses a photographic memory. One day, he solved the theorem given by Prof. Gerald Lambeau and the professor is shocked knowing that the proof written on the board is correct, so he finds Will. In his search, he ends up in a court trial where Will has a case for imprisonment because of hitting a cop. Lambeau then makes an arrangement with the judge to release Will from jail in two conditions: to continue proving theorems in advance mathematics and to see a therapist. But, Will insists that he doesn't need a therapy. And so Lambeau requests for his old friend's help Sean Maguire, who works as a psychology teacher at a community college. At first Sean is resistant but Lambeau managed to convince him. Sean and Will's first meeting tear Sean's life apart after Will interpreted Sean's painting.

However, this didn't stop Sean from counselling Will. On the other hand, Will and his friends go to bars. One night they went to a Harvard bar where Will met Skylar after defending his best friend Chuckie against from an all-knowing Harvard student who is trying to impress the girls with his knowledge in history. Skylar, a pre-med student at Harvard University falls in love with Will. On the contrary, they decided to choose separate ways after they argued. While Lambeau is setting up job opportunities for Will with famous institutions where he could use his genius mind, Will did not take the meetings seriously. And even Chuckie talked to Will to say that would like Will to have a better life. In the end, Sean is the one who changed Will's perception in life. His words touch Will's heart resulting to a courageous and dedicated person.

After watching the movie, several themes have caught my attention and these are: what it likes to be an orphan, education, street violence, and lastly is fear. However, poverty touches the first three. But I think the main reason of why Will became that kind of guy is due to his experiences of being an orphan. He became an orphan at an early age and experienced abuse with his foster father. There is a part of the film that Will and Sean compare their experiences on the abuses that they have encountered. This is one of the many issues in the society today. Most of the children who have foster parents experience such kind of abuse. When a child is exposed to violence it will affect him socially, emotionally and psychologically. It may change the way he socializes with people and lowers his self-esteem. It can also cause trauma and depression. Abusing a child will give him a feeling of negligence and being unwanted. This explains Will's behaviour. Instead of trusting other people like Skylar, he is the one who is withdrawing from a relationship with her because he is afraid to be left by the one he loves. This is because that is what he feels when he was abandoned by his parents who were supposed to love him first.

Eventhough Will didn't have a formal education and didn't manage to earn a degree, his knowledge about things is greater compared to those who were working to earn their degree. The fact that he was able to prove theorems that puzzled Lambeau and other mathematicians for years proves that he possesses incomparable intelligence on mathematics. Another is when he managed to answer with ease the problem in organic chemistry of Skylar just by reading books also shows that he has a photographic memory. This gives us the value that we must give importance to our education for we are lucky enough to be educated compared to those who want to go to school and yet they can't because instead of spending their