Thaksaporn (May)
10-9
Finding Forrester
Theme: Friendship
Jamal Wallace is a fatherless 16-year-old boy. He lives with his brother and his
mother in a small dark room of a congested apartment in New York. He is a poor black teen
but he is intellectually and athletically gifted. At first, he is a normal boy who likes to play
basketball and tries to hide his passion for books from everyone until he meets Forrester, an
old man who changes his life. William Forrester is a white old man who spends his life with
guilty feelings and blames himself all the time. He stays in his house and does not allow
himself to go out of his room until he meets Jamal, the black boy who teaches him about the
friendship and encourages him to move away from his guilt.
This story of friendship begins when Jamal accepts his friend’s challenge to break
into Forrester’s house. He leaves his bag in Forrester’s room and when he regains his bag, he
finds that his writing was checked and edited in red mark ink. It makes him more suspicious
about Forrester. Later, he knows that this guy is William Forrester, a famous writer who won
the Pulitzer Prize. He wants Forrester to help him with his writing and also wants to know
that why Forrester stopped his own writing and keeps to himself in the room.
Forrester, who spends his life with the guilty feeling, does not want other people
know about his life, so he makes a deal with Jamal. If Jamal promises that he will not tell
other people about Forrester and will not ask prying questions about his personal life, he will
help Jamal with his writing. Although Jamal still wants to know about Forrester, he chooses
to promise Forrester and keeps this as a secret. This makes Forrester know that he could trust
other people apart from himself. This is the first time that Forrester opens his mind and
accepts helping another person. Even though at first Forrester feels annoyed by Jamal who
disturbs him, this is the beginning of their relationship because after that Jamal always comes
to Forrester’s room. They start to know each other better. Forrester advises Jamal about his
writing and teaches him many things. They talk and exchange their opinions together. Jamal
learns many new things from Forrester and Forrester also learns something from Jamal too.
Forrester starts to see Jamal like a friend. He tells Jamal about his family, his brother and his
feelings of guilt regarding his brother’s death. Jamal sympathizes with Forrester’s story; he
knows that Forrester is an old man who is lonely and isolated. Jamal feels closer to Forrester
because this is the first time that Forrester told him about his background. Jamal not only sees
Forrester as his friend and his teacher, but also see him like his parent and family.
After Forrester helps and advises Jamal’s writing, it makes his writing get better.
Professor Robert Crawford does not believe that a 16-year-old black basketball-player from
the Bronx could possibly accomplish this work. He suspects that Jamal has plagiarized his
work and he forces Jamal to begin another piece in Crawford’s room. Jamal remembers the
work that Forrester gives him to re-write, so he submits it to Professor Crawford without the
realizing that it was one of Forrester’s published pieces. Crawford finds that this work is
parallel with Forrester’s published piece, so he brings Jamal up on plagiarism charges. Jamal
has a big problem about this; he wants to keep Forrester’s secret as he promised, so he says
nothing. Jamal tells Forrester about what he has done and makes a request of Forrester to
defend him, but Forrester is very angry at Jamal, so he refuses to help him. Jamal is very
disappointed; he blames Forrester for being scared and selfish for not helping him.
After that, Jamal causes his team to lose in the basketball game, so he has a big
problem. Forrester receives Jamal’s essay from Jamal’s brother, he realizes that Jamal is his
good friend, who has helped him move away from his guilt feelings and encouraged him to
spend his life purposefully. Then Forrester decides to come out from his house, out from his
prison, to defend Jamal. Forrester announces that Jamal is the writer who writes this essay
that he presents at Mailor-Callow. He acknowledges publicly his friendship with Jamal.
Forrester thanks Jamal for helping him shed his guilty feeling by teaching him many things.
He also thanks Jamal for the good friendship that Jamal has given to him.
This story shows us about the friendship of different age people. Because of their
friendship; Forrester is able to be independent from his guilty feeling and also helps Jamal to
be very successful in his life. His writing is accepted widely and is offered scholarships from
many famous universities. Afterward, Jamal hears the news that Forrester died of cancer.
Jamal knows the truth that Forrester was terminally ill since they start to know each other but
Forrester never told him. Forrester leaves the keys for his apartment, a letter in which he
thanks Jamal for helping him rekindle his desire, and his final novel, called ‘Sunset’ with the
expect that his best friend, Jamal, will write the foreword. Jamal always remember this
memory and the kindness for the old man. The story teaches me that although we are not the
same age, same nationality, same skin color or same social class but if we choose to open our
minds, we can all be friends. Even if Jamal and Forrester are not the same age, the same skin
color or the same class, but they could be good friends. Although Forrester died, this good
memory and their friendships will continue in Jamal’s memory for ever.