Summary
Will Hunting, a talented and genius mathematician, finds himself scrubbing floors at MIT for a living. Gifted with intelligence, he can extraordinarily memorize facts and intuitively formulate mathematical theorems. As a janitor, he can afford so much from the capitalistic world. He lives alone in a poorly furnished apartment in an improvised South Boston neighborhood. From a background of psychological abuse, Will was raised in a foster home. To date, he still blames himself for the predicaments he had encountered growing up. Subconsciously, he hates himself for an unhappy upbringing. And the self-hatred turns into a form of self-sabotage throughout his life and career.
A chance floats during the first week of classes at MIT. Professor Gerald Lambeau brings forward a mathematical challenge. The professor, a renowned Field Medalist, and combinatorialist write down a challenge for his students. Hoping that one of them might solve it by the end of the semester. Will secretly solves the question. Leaving everyone wondering. The professor again floats another challenge, a mathematical problem that took his team two years to solve. Will courageously solves it. Only to be chased down the hall by the professor thinking he was a cheap vandal. It turns out Will had got it right. The Professor tries to track him but in vain.
One night after work, Will and his best friend Chuckie head out to a bar near Harvard University. There he meets with a British woman – Skylar. Skylar is a graduate of Havard University and plans to attend medical school at Stanford. He hits on her claiming he too was a student. After a fistful encounter that night, Will ends up with Skylar’s phone number. Later, Will encounters youths who had bullied him back in kindergarten. They engage in a fierce fight, and after police officers arrive, Will assaults one officer. Trouble. Lambeau intervenes on Will’s behalf and gets him released under his own supervision. Will is to see a psychologist and pursue a carrier in mathematics. The encounter between Will and the psychologist doesn’t turn out well.
Lambeau has no choice but to call out on his old friend Sean Maguire. Sean can deal with Will’s psychology and cracks his hostile, sarcastic defense mechanism. The encounter is definitely filled with drama; to a point, Sean grabs Will by the throat. This is after Will’s insensitive analysis of Sean’s water painting. Sean only asks for one thing, Will’s hard look into his life, and streamlines his life-defining decisions. Lambeau pushes Will to excel, arranging job interviews, all in vain. Sean believes that Will is not yet ready, and Lambeau is pushing him too fast. This results in a quarrel, which Will overhears. Setting Will to trust Sean better. Will relates to the conflicted human Sean is.
Skylar persuades Will to move with her to California; she expresses her understanding and moral support concerning Will’s past. Will is unable to control himself and gets into an emotional outburst. He storms out of the dorm. Later, after a series of job interviews, he only attends some and sends Chuckie to others. Sean admits to will that he is also a victim of an abusive childhood. He reassures Will that one day he shall move past the issue. After a series of reassurances, Will can reflect and decides it was time for his inner demons to go. On the day of his 21st birthday, his friends gift him with a rebuilt Chevy Nova. He decides to ride it to California. Leaving aside his lucrative government job to be with his love.
Economic Concepts Demonstrated
The movie demonstrates different economic concepts. The scarcity concept is demonstrated by the lack of successful mathematical students to adequately challenge and live up to Professor Lambeau’s definition of the ideal student. Even as the mathematics students at MIT are provided with education empowerment, there exists a gap to fit into the next generation of mathematicians. The Professor tries to stimulate their critical, problem-solving minds by providing them with challenges, but this does not yield much. Will is also a great case of scarcity. Bred in abuse, he lives in a world where there is a scarcity of opportunities to thrive. In foster care, he could not afford the privilege of a good upbringing and could hardly tap into his intelligence. This life-long scarcity of life-defining opportunities negatively affects his person, growing to be bitter and carefree. Economic deprivation informs of the lifestyle Will assumes. Due to financial scarcity, Will can only live in a poorly furnished house in a rugged neighborhood.
The concept of supply and demand is clearly outlined throughout the movie. Due to the scarcity of brilliant students, the demand for the next generation mathematician is high. As a result, Will takes numerous job opportunities for granted. He feels special and entitled. He is arrogant and rude. All factored by the uniqueness he is endowed with. The demand for a caliber such as that one of Will sends a handful of opportunities to him. As his demand shots, then are his potential income.
As the scientific fraternity struggled to reform will, a cost and benefits concept is founded. The will and the unwavering effort to make the best out of Will is the cost. Professor Lambeau is certain that will is the next generation genius. He struggles to locate him, convinces the judges that he shall take care of will and sufficiently keep him on the right side of the law. Professor Lambeau focused his time and resources on Will and further went to find him a psychologist to address his emotional damage. Not being stopped by failure, Lambeau goes on to procure the services of Sean. Lambeau also arranges for interviews and strives ceaselessly to make a man out of Will. The university students in the movie are also (presumably) engaged in a moment of cost-benefit analysis. Their choice to pursue a mathematics course might be attributed to the fact that mathematics has a career advantage. Will leaves behind a well-paying job to be with his love. He is certain that the benefit of his action would bring great happiness to his life.
The concept of incentives is broadly displayed. Throughout the movies, Lambeau tries to provide incentives to Will. These rewards are provided to help Will reflect and modify his character appropriately. With the prevailing scarcity of genius, Lambeau cannot easily let Will go. Will is difficult to deal with, but this does not stop Lambeau from struggling to sharpen his form.
Analysis of the Concepts
The concept of scarcity seeks to express resources as a limiting factor to unlimited human needs. Time and material resources are never enough. This reality informs our decisions and influences our character concerning material. To amass adequate resources, one has to own a unique commodity, which is of great economic value and is willing to exchange it.
The concept of supply and demand is founded on scarcity. Human wants are unlimited, and as a material is used to satisfy the want, scarcity of the material provides for its demand. This drives a market system. When the demand for a certain commodity is high, and the supply is limited, the commodity’s economic value rises. The vice versa is true.
Cost and benefits are concepts basic to economics. As humans strive to satisfy their wants, they are faced with a rational issue of cost and benefit. Fulfillment of these wants and desires takes a benefit-cost approach. The cost of the want is incurred with the hope and guarantee that the procured commodity will certainly provide the best value.
Incentives are economic avenues for commodity differentiation. In an economic ocean of similarity of wants and commodities to satisfy the wants, the supplies have to be created to maximize the market. The most basic incentive is money. As the demand for commodities to satisfy human needs increases, economic incentives for supply are founded. An increase in the consumption of market commodities increases the pressure on raw materials. As raw materials decrease, the commodities’ cost increases, giving rise to the incentive to reserve the commodity by the consumer.
Conclusion
These economic concepts have been demonstrated throughout the film. They have influenced, action and reaction of the character in the economic life premise. The concepts have been demonstrated in character and have revealed the role of material capital in the lives. Throughout the life of will, constraints arising from material scarcity have shaped the person and character of him and the people he interacts with
Endowed with a resource of genius and intelligence, Will is caught up within a ferocious psychological battle with his lifeline choice. His life is driven and influence by the variety of economic concepts working in the background.