Gonzalez 1

Susana Gonzalez
Sociology 1
Dr. Alvarado
21 September 2017
Project 1:Video/DVD Analysis

I chose a short clip from the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting. It has been one of my all

time favorite movies and it wasn't until now that I realized how much it relates to sociology. This

movie revolves around the life of a 20-year old Boston genius Will (Matt Damon) who hasn't

been living up to his full potential. He tends to find himself into trouble, unfortunately, one day

he was arrested and was going to have to do some jail time. Fortunately, a professor at the

college, where Will was a janitor, notices his potential and has agreed to pay bail, with the

exception that Will helps him with a mathematical problem and goes to counseling. Quite a few

counselors tried to help Will but were unsuccessful. It wasnt until one counselor, Sean Maguire

(Robin Williams), who took up this challenge and decided to keep with it.

Throughout the entire movie, it shows Will struggling to find his identity. It wasn't until

the end, with the help of his counselor, that he was finally able to be true to himself. This is the

clip I chose. This specific clip shows Interactionist Perspective/Paradigm. This particular

paradigm emphasizes the importance of a certain word rather than the word itself. In this clip the

counselor constantly repeats the four words "it's not your fault" to Will. In the clip you could see

the reaction of Will and how he tried to brush it off at the beginning but then began to be a bit

aggressive. In the end, he finally let himself break down. These four words carried so much

power, it brought back all the pain, sadness, and anger that he had been repressing his entire life.

It wasn't the words itself that made him cry, but what laid behind the words that did.
 Gonzalez 2

This movie was very interesting and I would think the three sociologists: Comte, Marx,

and Durkheim would have enjoyed it as well. Firstly, Karl Marx focussed on the issues like

relationships between culture, social life, and economy, economic exploitation, and inequality,

etc. He would have found the social life of Will to be very interesting, especially his upbringing

since he was put in many abusive homes as a child. Marx would have probably studied his social

status and the role he played in society. Secondly, as for Durkheims theory, he points out that

deviant acts may force us to recognize a necessary change. This is the case when Will changes

his daily routine by deciding to follow the love of his life. Durkheim would find this to be

interesting because it follows his theory of change. Lastly, since the sociologist Comte proposed

a religious order based on reason and humanity, he would of enjoyed viewing the way Will and

Sean (counselor) interacted with each other. Such as, the process it took for the counselor to gain

Wills trust and help him with his repressed feelings.

In the end, the short clip from the movie had a lot to show in sociology. As I previously

stated above, the paradigm that is most represented in this clip would be Interactionist

Perspective/Paradigm. It is very easy to see why I chose this paradigm. The entire clip is

consisting of the counselor telling Will "it's not your fault." These specific words are not the

reason as to why he broke down. He would have been able to hear these exact words from

someone on the street and would have no emotion towards it. However, since it was his

counselor, Will knew what he meant by those words. The phrase "it's not your fault" made all of

Wills memories come flooding back. This causing him to deal with all the emotions, from his

past, that he had he intentionally disregarded. The end result was his breakdown.