Finding Forester Reaction Questions and Essay

Composition -- Mr. Dawursk

Assignment:

1. We will be watching the movie “Finding Forester”

2. You are to answer each of the following 40 questions AND

3. Write a one page, typed response to the question:

Does the title, "Finding Forrester," refer more to Forrester’s helping Jamal become a better writer or to Jamal’s helping Forrester find him-self?

40 Questions DIRECTIONS: At the left of each question, mark: FO if the question is directly related Forrester helping Jamal, JA if the question is related to Jamal helping Forrester, and NR if the question is not related to either side of the issue.
	1.  During an English class on Poe’s "The Raven," why does Jamal refuse to recite by saying that he had not read the poem?
	2.  Why is Mrs. Wallace told by Jamal’s English teacher that her son is a C student with an A on the state assessment test?
	3.  Why did Jamal turn to reading and writing after his father abandoned his family?
	4.  Does Jamal’s peer acceptance depend entirely on basketball?
	5.  Why does the film contrast Trerral’s limited accomplishments with Jamal’s aspirations?
	6.  When Jamal finds his backpack in the street, why does he discover comments in red ink in his journals?
	7.  In one of his red-ink comments, why does Forrester ask Jamal, "Where are you taking me"?
	8.  By "constipated thinking," does Forrester mean that Jamal’s writing is not clear?
	9.  When Jamal first knocks on Forrester’s door, why does he take up the challenge to write 5000 words on why he should stay away?
	10.  After professor Crawford tells his students that William Forrester wrote a masterpiece at 23, why is his first assignment to find out why Forrester wrote only one book rather than questions about the book itself?
	11.  When Jamal asks Forrester why he is a legend at school, why does Forrester shout at him,  "The purpose of a question is to obtain information that matters to you"?
	12.  Why does Forrester tell Jamal he will go to Maylor because he wants to answer the question about what he will do with the rest of his life?
	13.  When Forrester asks Jamal if he had read his only book, Avalon Landing, why does Jamal say he couldn’t get past the first ten pages?
	14.  Why does Forrester not want anyone to know about Jamal’s visits to his apartment?
	15.  When Jamal asks if Forrester will keep helping him with his writing, why does Forrester agree only if Jamal asks no questions about him, his family, or why he wrote only one book?
	16.  What does Forrester mean when he tells Jamal, "People are always talking about my book but never saying anything about it"?
	17.  When Jamal tells Forrester that his book means that "Life never works out," why does Forrester reply that he didn’t have to read a book to learn that?
	18.  What does Forrester mean when he says that "The first step to writing is writing--not thinking about what you are going to write"?
	19.  What does Forrester mean when he says to write the first draft with your heart but then to rewrite with your head"?
	20.  How does Forrester’s having Jamal type out a copy of his "A Season of Faith’s Perfection" help Jamel to "discover his own words"?
	21.  Why does Forrester insist that whatever he and Jamal write must stay in his apartment?
	22.  Why does Forrester warn Jamal that "Bitterly disappointed teachers [of writing like Robert Crawford] are either very good or very dangerous"?
	23.  When Jamel gives Clare the unexpected gift of a signed copy of Forrester’s book, why does she ask if he had been trying to show her more than how to dribble a basketball?
	24.  Did Forrester write only one book mostly because he so profoundly resents critics who try to explain what he was "really" trying to say or because of his brother’s untimely death?
	25.  Why does Jamal take Forrester to a stadium on his birthday?
	26.  After Forrester tells Jamal about his brother’s drunk-driving death, why does Jamal quote Forrester’s words, "The rest of those who have gone before us cannot study the unrest of those who follow"?
	27.  What has Jamel learned from Forrester and Forrester from Jamel?
	28.  When Jamal realizes that Forrester will not defend him publicly, is he serious giving up writing?
	29.  Why is Jamal presented with the choice of winning a championship to retain his scholarship?
	30.  Why does Jamal ignore Forrester’s question about the missed fowl shots?
	31.  When Jamal goes to the writing contest awards, why does he tell Clare that Maylor will have to kick him out of school--that he will not just walk away?
	32.  Why does Forrester come out of retirement to defend Jamal?
	33.  How did Jamal’s writing contest entry, "Loosing Family," make Forrester realize that "the one wish that [he] was granted so late in life was the gift of friendship"?
	34.  Even after Forrester convincingly demonstrates that Jamal’s "Loosing Family" was his own work, why does professor Crawford still want Jamal disqualified?
	35.  Why is professor Crawford over ruled and Forrester offered a teaching job?
	36.  After his death from cancer, why does Forrester want Jamal to have his apartment?
	37.  In his final letter to Jamal, what does Forrester mean when he says, "I never imagined that I would realize my own dream once again"?
	38.  Why does Forrester credit Jamal’s coming into his life for realizing his dream so late in life?
	39.  Why does Forrester leave to Jamal the manuscript of Sunset with "the forward to be written by Jamal Wallace"?
	40. How does the story’s resolution imply that Jamel will become one day a successful writer?