Social Factors Missing In the Development of Will Hunting and His Crisis of Identity - Essay Example

Social Factors Missing In the Development of Will Hunting and His Crisis of Identity “Good Will Hunting”directed by Gus Van Sant is a wonderful movie which deals with various aspects of human behaviour and development. It stars Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Minnie Driver and Ben Affleck in lead roles. This paper is aimed at identifying the social factors that are missing in the development of Will Hunting (Matt Damon), the primary character in the movie, and his crisis of identity. Storyline The movie revolves around Will Hunting who works as a janitor in the prestigious MIT. Will is a mathematical genius but trapped in a mind that is not aware of his capabilities and haunted by his past. He spends his life like any other guy in the neighbourhood working on an average construction job and picking up fights along with his neighbourhood friends. . He has numerous encounters with the law as other guys in the neighbourhood. He has an identity crisis and tries hard to adjust with crushing his genius and trying to mould his life with that of the society around him. The various social factors in his past have contributed to Will’s arrogant attitude. His genius is identified by a MIT professor who decides to polish and expose Will’s incredible genius to the world. In order to do so, he bails him out of the police station on a condition that Will work at his talent and see a psychologist. The movie continues with how Will with the help of psychologist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) overcomes his personal childhood experiences and discovers his true potential and genius. Social Factors There are various social factors that are missing in Will’s life which affect his development and leads to his identity crisis. Family Will growing up was an orphan and lived with his foster parents. The absence of his own family made an impact on Will and also family dynamics in the foster family was not an ideal one. Very soon he was left without a family. This experience contributed towards Will developing a negative attitude towards love and care. He believed that nobody would care or truly love him. He feared rejection and as a result of this he never had a consistent serious relationship as he used to get out of one before it could turn into a serious relationship. Will also tried to fill in the void, created due to the absence of a family, with his friends. But most of his friends did not recognise or understand him except for his best friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck). Will blamed himself for all miss happenings in his life and was trying to accept his mediocre life. But even after trying hard, he could not accept his true identity and would make up an identity. This is best portrayed in the movie when he lies to Skylar (Minnie Driver) about his family saying he has big family with 12 brothers. The following conversation in the movie between Will and Skylar is where Will lies to overcome his identity crisis: Skylar: Do you have lots of brothers and sisters? Will: Im Irish Catholic, what do you think? Skylar: But how many? Will: You wouldnt believe me if I told you. Skylar: Why? Go on, what, 5? 7? 8? How many? Will: I have 12 big brothers (Damon & Driver) Abusive Childhood Will was abused by his drunken foster father during his childhood. It was an unstable neighbourhood that Will grew up in and to add to it he had an abusive foster father. Due to this, Will had to face issues of abandonment and rejections. This made a serious impact on Will. As a reaction to his troubled childhood, Will indulged in numerous illegal activities such as burglary, assault, violence, etc. Also he distanced himself from his family and spent most of his time reading books in the library. This hindered his development and only communication that he had was with his friends. Following is an excerpt from the movie where Will describes his childhood: What do you wanna know? That I dont have 12 brothers? That Im a fuckin orphan? You dont wanna hear that... no, you dont wanna hear that. You dont wanna hear that I got fuckin cigarettes put out on me when I was a little kid! That this is cause the motherfucker stabbed me! You dont wanna hear that shit, Skylar. Tell me you dont wanna hear that shit isnt fuckin surgery! (Damon, Good Will Hunting) Identity Crisis Will due to the various negative experiences in his life which affected his development also battled identity crisis. He is not sure of what exactly he is or what he wants to be in his life. He tries to fit into the society by following and doing what his friends do, even though that is not what he wants to do. There is a scene in the movie where he gets into a fight for the only reason that his friends are involved. He sees himself as the part of the society (mainly friends) around him and like them works in menial jobs. He wants to work in the construction as all his friends do. He never held on to a job for long enough as he would succumb to even the slightest of pressure. He was low on confidence and never challenged himself or took any risk and went with the flow. Trust Nobody showed trust in Will and he too developed the same. Except for his few friends, he could not trust anybody. He could not just think that somebody would care for him without expecting anything in return. His belief was so strong that he would not trust anybody other than his friends. As a result of this, Will fears of getting too close with people and for the same reason he rejects both Skylar and Sean before they can reject him. Care Care was missing in Will’s life and even though he was close to his friends, there wasn’t much care shown towards him. Usually they would just hang out in the bars. So he would not understand and more over was not ready to believe that somebody could care for him. Hence, when the professor sees the genius in him and comes forward to help him recognise his potential, he does not co-operate. He thinks that then professor’s care has hidden motives. This only changes when Will overheard the conversation between the professor and Sean about his future. It is only after this that there is a change seen in his attitude. Poor Relationships Will did not have any proper relationship during his childhood. To start with he was an abandoned orphan and then his foster father physically abused him. All those who were supposed to love him had deserted him. Will’s self worth took a big hit and this set the tone for all his future relationships. Following is an excerpt from a conversation between Will and Sean, where Will sums up his life: Will: My father was an alcoholic. Mean fuckin drunk. Used to come home hammered, looking to whale on someone. So I had to provoke him, so he wouldnt go after my mother and little brother. Interesting nights were when he wore his rings... Sean: Your foster father? Will: Yeah. So what does it say? Will has an attachment disorder? Fear of abandonment? Is that why I broke up with Skylar? (Damon and Williams, Good Will Hunting) Conclusion The various social factors that were missing in Will’s life made an impact on his development and lead to his identity crisis. He had painful childhood wherein he was an orphan and was abused by his foster father. This made a huge impact on him and he believed that he was responsible for the way he was treated in his childhood. This affected both his personal and professional life as he could not stick onto a single job and never did have a strong steady relationship. He did not feel himself worthy of his talents and was confused of his identity. He did not want to use his exceptional talents and tried to lead a mediocre life. Works Cited Good Will Hunting. Dir. Gus Van Sant. Perf. Matt Damon. 1997. Good Will Hunting. Dir. Gus Van Sant. Perf. Matt Damon and Minnie Driver. 1997. Good Will Hunting. Dir. Gus Van Sant. Perf. Matt Damon and Robin Williams. 1997. Read More