"FINDING FORRESTER”
Basic Question's
Does the title, "Finding Forrester," refer more to Forrester’s helping Jamal become a better writer and person or to Jamal’s helping Forrester to find himself?
If Jamal, then:
1. / Why does Forrester bother to write critical comments in Jamal’s journals?
2. / What does Forrester mean when he says that Jamal’s writing is “constipated thinking”?
3. / In one of his red-inked comments, why does Forrester ask Jamal, "Where are you taking me"?
4. / After he met Jamal, why does Forrester write a second novel, Sunset?
5. / Why does Jamal take Forrester to Yankee stadium?
6. / After Forrester tells Jamal about his brother’s drunk-driving death, why does Jamal quote Forrester’s own words, "The rest of those who have gone before us cannot study the unrest of those who follow"?
7. / After first refusing to help Jamal defend himself against the charge of plagiarism, why does Forrester change his mind?
8. / Does the story imply that Jamal would have giving up on writing if Forrester had not defended him against the charge of plagiarism?
9. / Could Jamel have become a successful writer without the help of Forrester?
10. / After his death from cancer, why does Forrester want Jamal to have his apartment?
If Forrester, then:
11. / 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?
12. / 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"?
13. / Why does Forrester emphatically tell Jamal he will go to Mailor because he needs to answer the question about what he will do with the rest of his life?
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. / Why does Forrester insist that whatever he and Jamal write must stay in his apartment?
17. / When Forrester warns Jamal that "Bitterly disappointed teachers are either very effective or very dangerous,” is he referring to himself as well as Professor Crawford?
18. / When Jamal goes to the writing contest awards, why does he tell Clare Spence that Mailor will have to kick him out of school--that he will not just walk away?
19. / How does 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"?
20. / In his final letter to Jamal, what dream is Forrester referring to when he says, "I never imagined that I would realize my own dream once again"?
21. / Why does Forrester credit Jamal’s coming into his life for realizing his dream so late in life?
Basic Question 2
How, specifically, does Forrester help Jamal become a better writer?
1. / Why does Forrester bother to write critical comments in Jamal’s journals?
2. / What does Forrester mean that Jamal’s writing when he says that Jamal’s writing is “constipated thinking”?
3. / What does Forrester mean when he says that "The first step to writing is writing--not thinking about what you are going to write"? (How is this possible? Is it possible?)
4. / According to Forrester, why are “the words we write for ourselves so much better than those that we write for others"?
5. / Why does Forrester require of Jamal that whatever they write stays in the apartment?
6. / What does Forrester mean when he says to write the first draft with your heart but then to rewrite with your head"?
7. / 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"?
8. / When Jamal realizes that Forrester will not defend him publicly when accused of plagiarism, is Jamal serious about giving up writing?
9. / Could Jamel have become a successful writer without the help of Forrester?
10. / How does the story’s resolution imply that Jamel will become one day a successful writer?
11. / Why does Forrester leave to Jamal the manuscript of Sunset with "the forward to be written by Jamal Wallace"?
12. / How does the story’s resolution imply that Jamel will become one day a successful writer?
13. / 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?
14. / In his writing, why does Forrester so object to critics who explain what he was “really trying to say”?