Finding Forrester is a movie focusing on a boy in search of a role model and finds it in a place he least expected and also in a person he least expected. The movie revolves around the story of Jamal Wallace and William Forrester with the most focus in his last days of life. The story presents life from the beginning and in its ending making an intertwined relationship between the two stages. The life of Wallace begins as that of Forrester ends.
In a way, they came across each other and standing side by side at one time, they contemplate the crossroads they need to face and realize that the settlement is on a similar plateau. That plateau is in their meeting, interaction and parting at the death of Forrester. In an evaluation of conflict in Finding Forrester, there is evidential conflict between Jamal and Mr. Crawford. They have differences shown throughout the film. Mr. Crawford had multiple problems against Jamal. Most of the problems between the two characters rose from racial differences and in the intelligence of Mr. Crawford.
The initial conflict is in the classroom. It begins with a question from Mr. Crawford to another student and Jamal gets into the conversation. In his opinion, Jamal wants to help the other student and he hints to the students to say his name as the answer to the question asked by the teacher. This instant makes Mr. Crawford very angry and he rebukes Jamal making certain quotations. However, each time he starts a quotation, Jamal jumps in to finish the quotation for him and he gets very mad at the boy. It is an embarrassing situation for Mr. Crawford and he orders Jamal out of his classroom. Apparently, Mr. Crawford is not ready to accept that Jamal know the quotes he was using and that intelligence proves to be something he cannot accept on the part of the boy.
There is a second conflict that the boy has with the teacher is in the disbelief about his completion of an assignment. The teacher does not believe that he wrote a paper assigned to him and he orders Jamal to make a rewrite of the paper from his office. As much as Jamal makes the effort to convince Mr. Crawford that the input on the paper was his effort, the teacher refuses to accept that fact and the boy writes the essay afresh.
A teacher should encourage the performance of his student but Mr. Crawford only discourages Jamal in the efforts he makes to present excellent work. When Jamal presents an essay that looks outstanding, the teacher should not limit his capabilities by not trusting that it is his work as that can demoralize Jamal from working hard in future assignments.
The title of an essay Jamal uses also produces conflict between Jamal and Mr. Crawford because of a similarity with the work of William Forrester. This makes Mr. Crawford very angry that he forces Jamal to write an apology, further, forcing him to read the apology to the class. He asks Jamal where he got the permission for using the title of Forrester and being that he cannot prove that Jamal has any sort of permission for using the title, he makes it a point for Jamal to make his apology. On his part, Jamal does not reveal his knowledge of William, but he also refuses to write the letter and to read it to the class. Instead, Jamal goes to William for advice and informs him of the options the teacher gave regarding the situation.
William asks him to make an apology but the boy in his stubbornness refuses and asks William to go to school and inform the teacher that he cannot make the apology. In his plea, he tells William about the possibility of a suspension if he fails to make the apology and requests him to go to school and plead on his case. Since William read the essay written by Jamal, he decides to go to the school to make clarifications that the writing was for Jamal.
However, Mr. Crawford still thinks that the writings were far beyond the capability of Jamal and starts praising William for his great work. When William tells Mr. Crawford that the work was by Jamal, the teacher could not believe it and the students clapped for Jamal annoying Mr. Crawford. The incident makes the teacher angry, as his greatest intention in the process is to send Jamal out of school.
The cases in Finding Forrester present a weird scenario in the professional actions of Mr. Crawford. In normal cases, the role of a teacher is to help students in understanding issues in the classroom instead of discouraging them whenever they make efforts to succeed in their classroom activities. The case between Mr. Crawford and Jamal showed a different situation because instead of supporting the boy with his education, he becomes the threat in his life.
It is the role of the teacher to encourage a student to continue with education but, in this instance, the opposite takes place by the teacher looking for reasons to kick the boy out of school. This jealousy is illogical on the part of Mr. Crawford. A teacher should not be jealous and unhappy because of the intelligence a student shows in his work like in the case of Mr. Crawford regarding the performance of Jamal. On the contrary, intelligence gives teachers pride and that could be the case of Jamal at school. He was to be the pride of the class though the teacher made it very hard for him to excel regardless of the efforts he put in his performance and participation in the classroom.
The life Jamal experiences in his education after transferring to Mailor-Callow, shows instances of prejudice making his life difficult in the elite private school. The teacher limits his writing capabilities and does not appreciate his performance in the classroom and the teacher maliciously acts with a lot of arrogance towards the boy. The teacher looks down on him because of racial stereotypes, which affect his life within school and even in the outside world.
These are occasions, which place the boy at conflict in his education. Without his resilience, he can be out of school for mistakes he does not commit. His meeting with William presents a new avenue for expressing his writing passion with confidence to his teacher and classmates. William helps the boy to realize his writing process and once the boy finds his writing capacities, he strives to make the best out of it and even asks Forrester to help him in proving to the teacher that he is indeed capable of writing a wonderful essay.