Beautiful Mind Essay
Misty Thompson
Mr. Foster
English 111
8 June 2013
A Beautiful Mind The Academy award winning movie “A Beautiful Mind” is a truly inspiring film that demonstrates triumph over schizophrenia. The main character is played by Russell Crowe who is portraying John Nash a mathematical genius who suffers from schizophrenia, who later went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economical Sciences. This film describes the disturbance in thinking, emotion and perception that characterizes the disorder. This film also contributes to society’s understanding of schizophrenia. It argues the stereotype of this disease as being dangerous and unable to function and emphasizes the importance of treatment and support. The movie also communicates the importance of these factors that contributed to Nash’s recovery and achievements from the disorder and how it greatly affects the life of others around.
The thinking and emotional symptoms of schizophrenia that John seemed to portray are called “negative” because they are an absence as much as a presence: inexpressive faces, blank looks, monotone and monosyllabic speech, few gestures, seeming lack of interest in the world and other people. In the movie John struggles with his lack of communication with others, which leads him to bluntly express his emotions or feelings. An example from the movie is when tells the student that there had to be a mathematical equation for how bad his tie was. Also when he was at the bar with his friends and approaches the girl. He sits quietly for a few moments and she tells him he should buy her a drink and he says to just skip all that and go straight to the sex. John’s hallucinations of people also impacted his life greatly. At the beginning of the movie we met Charles, his roommate. To John, Charles is not a hallucination he’s very much so real. You see them getting into a physical altercation when John can’t come up with a theory and Charles is trying to explain that it’s not him, it’s the outsiders.
Mr. Foster
English 111
8 June 2013
A Beautiful Mind The Academy award winning movie “A Beautiful Mind” is a truly inspiring film that demonstrates triumph over schizophrenia. The main character is played by Russell Crowe who is portraying John Nash a mathematical genius who suffers from schizophrenia, who later went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economical Sciences. This film describes the disturbance in thinking, emotion and perception that characterizes the disorder. This film also contributes to society’s understanding of schizophrenia. It argues the stereotype of this disease as being dangerous and unable to function and emphasizes the importance of treatment and support. The movie also communicates the importance of these factors that contributed to Nash’s recovery and achievements from the disorder and how it greatly affects the life of others around.
The thinking and emotional symptoms of schizophrenia that John seemed to portray are called “negative” because they are an absence as much as a presence: inexpressive faces, blank looks, monotone and monosyllabic speech, few gestures, seeming lack of interest in the world and other people. In the movie John struggles with his lack of communication with others, which leads him to bluntly express his emotions or feelings. An example from the movie is when tells the student that there had to be a mathematical equation for how bad his tie was. Also when he was at the bar with his friends and approaches the girl. He sits quietly for a few moments and she tells him he should buy her a drink and he says to just skip all that and go straight to the sex. John’s hallucinations of people also impacted his life greatly. At the beginning of the movie we met Charles, his roommate. To John, Charles is not a hallucination he’s very much so real. You see them getting into a physical altercation when John can’t come up with a theory and Charles is trying to explain that it’s not him, it’s the outsiders.