Will’s Aggressive Personality in ‘Good Will Hunting’ Movie

In Good Will Hunting , the main character Will is math genius with a high IQ that can solve any math problems in impressive time. Even though he is a math genius, he has had difficulties in his childhood and adulthood. Will worked as a janitor during his probation time at a MIT which gave him the opportunity to learn and solve math problems outside of the classroom. Will was continuously rebellious and was given a last strike of being out of jail when one of the professors that saw him solve a equation under a hour that took him up to 2 years to solve,save him.

Will worked side by side with the professor and went to therapy sessions that showcased his life changing childhood.

Will was in several foster care systems all of his life until he was 18 years of age. Will’s foster parents described in the movie was a authoritarian parent.A authoritarian parent is a parent that has high disciplinary parenting skills and low unresponsiveness or nurturance to their child. His foster care parents would discipline Will and would not give him any type of nurturance or responsiveness like parents are usually depicted to be. His foster parents would used positive punishments to decrease Will’s behavior. His parents would uses wrenches, stick and a belt to punish him which resulted in Will having several bruises on his body and mental damage.

Will’s personality throughout the film was very aggressive, rebellious, and kept to oneself due to his childhood experiences. Will’s aggressive manner was shown throughout his life due to his observational learning of watching his foster parent repeatedly abuse him. This trait made Will become very hostile to people he would encounter with. For example in the film, he saw a childhood bully at the bar and followed him so he could beat him up just like his childhood bully initially did to him. Will holds up built up aggression and lets it out on people that try to be in his life.

Will is rebellious by not being compliant in the situations throughout the film. Will not being compliant is showing the foster home mentality of not listening to foster parents and adults around him when he grew up. This was showcased when Will was in jail and had the deal of going to therapy and working with the professor. Will was solving the problems but was not solving the inner issues within himself.The math professor gave him job opportunities at large accounting firms, he would have a nonchalant, jokingly manner about the jobs because he did not care.Will even went to several therapists which he had tendencies of failing to not cooperate. When he met the previous psychologists, they tried to a make him think back to those days in the foster homes and let him express how he felt during the memory and he would act like the therapy was working until he would sarcastically start singing a song. The psychologists would appalled by his behavior and not cooperating by disrespecting their craft and would discontinue their sessions.Will met his match with his last therapists which was a psychology professor that told the truth about Will through his demeanor and actions.He was more forceful on Will’s past by reading his portfolio on Will’s past life and did not try to pamper him into revealing his feelings. He used reverse psychology on Will to gain his trust and let Will trust him compared to the other psychologist attempts to approach him.Will became intrigued in listening and relating to this psychologist which made him stop feeling like it was a obligation to go to his sessions.

Will kept to himself due the traumatic events that he has gone through growing up. Will would only hang out with his 3 friends because that is all he ever knew in life that would not use him. When his love interest is brought into the picture, he does not elaborate on his previous life and his life now such as where he lives, his brothers, and how to love his significant other.Will’s childhood has created antisocial effects that makes Will negative, deconstructive in relationships, and unhelpful.Will is known to have abandonment issues due to not knowing his mother and father which was foreign to him showing the expression of loving someone and keeping them in his life before they leave.

Will was independent throughout the film that described how he has been by himself since a child.Will had a job as a janitor and living by himself. This shows that due to him missing his mother and father figure in his life, he has created a safe haven in himself instead of others.Safe haven is mostly found in people that we trust the most which is mostly our parents when we are uncomfortable or scared. Will pushed Skyler away due to him not wanting to invest himself in someone, because of him being uncertain about people abandoning him.

Will’s treatments in the film was truth revealing to Will.The professor told Will about himself and how he perceived himself to be just by his demeanor and how he approached things through aggression and closing everyone out due to trust issues. The professor shared with him stories of his past wife that he fell in love with and how she changed his life to be better than his father which appealed to Will during their one hour therapy sessions.The professor even discussed about his abusive, alcoholic father and how Will could relate to it. The professor repeatedly stated to Will that it was not his fault that those traumatic events happened to him and stop blaming himself for them which made Will release those years of hurt.When the professor came along, he was not taking Will’s joking mannerism as a way to stop therapy sessions but motivation.

Will’s approach of his life in the ending was the way he treated everyone. He was more opening and appreciative of what he has. He became humble to the fact the Skyler, his love interest did not try to abandon him like the others have done. Will was more cooperative during his therapy sessions and let go of the events that happened to him in his childhood. Will also stopped being afraid of loving Skyler and went to go get her back. The impact of attachment development in a child is very important in determining if the child will be in positive or negative relationships with themselves and others in the future. The parenting styles that are most important to making a child having a positive aspect on life is authoritative parenting. Authoritative parenting consist of being highly responsive to their child’s needs and high demands when creating boundaries between the child and caregiver. This parenting style is known to have the the most positive outcomes in adults such as high self esteem, strong relationship bonds with others, and a positive approach of their work environment.

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