Finding Forrester Esssay

There are some people in this world who are too afraid to face reality, so instead, they hide away from it. They close themselves up from the world, and don’t even try to be happy. Instead, they drown themselves in misery. In the novel Finding Forrester by James W. Ellison, there is a battle of breaking out of a shell, letting people in one’s life, and learning to let go of one’s past.

In order to be happy, one must let go from their past, move on, and reach out. Learning to go out in the open with one’s shield only half way up, and living life how it’s meant to be to be lived, and letting go of what’s holding a person back. In the novel, Jamal is still angry at his father for leaving him and his family until Forrester made one simple action that erased the negative thoughts of his father. “Forrester squeezed his shoulder. It was the first physical contact the old writer had ever initiated, and suddenly Jamal thought of his father – and thought of him without bitterness or resentment. It was a good feeling to be free of the dark thoughts he had harbored for so long. The old writer’s touch meant everything”(Ellison 133). Jamal looked up to Forrester and saw him as a father figure. It brought a burst of joy in Jamal’s heart for being able to remember his father in a positive attitude all because Forrester squeezed his shoulder.

For many years, in the novel Finding Forrester, Forrester’s past of his brother kept haunting him, and overwhelmed him with unbearable pain and guilt. Many people carry a lot of pain and guilt because of something that happened to them in their life, so they just give up on themselves. Forrester gave up on his life because of what happened to his brother many years ago. The guilt stayed with Forrester until Jamal came to his