Smart Kids, Big Schools

In the movie Good Will Hunting, I have decided to analyze 2 different scenes. The First scene would be when will and his friends come across a Harvard student, Clark. This really brings out the stereotype that people that go to a good school have to look like they have money, act very smart and even have to be “stuck up” to fit in.

            When will and his friends, who are all blue collar, easy going guys, head to the Harvard bar, they are expecting to see stereotypical, preppy, and smart Harvard college students. In the movie, that stereotype proves to be true. While Will’s friend is talking to some Harvard girls, this preppy looking Harvard student, Clark, comes up to them and tries to make Will’s friend look dumb by doing what everyone thinks he would do and what every stereotype says he will do. He starts asking Will’s friend all of these questions and stating a bunch of facts to try and make him look dumb. Then Will comes in and outsmarts Clark and goes against the stereotype for the type of person Will is. Most people would not expect Will, a lower class young man that does not attend school, to outsmart a guy like chuck.

            The other scene I decided to analyze has much less to do with the actual movie, but it is the scene where it shows Professor Maguire teaching in his classroom at Bunker Hill Community College. The reason why I decided to analyze both scenes is because they both show the differences in stereotypes between the average community college student and the prestigious University student. While Clark, the Harvard student is able to throw all of these facts at you and talk very proper, the students in this scene at the community college almost seem elementary compared to him. For instance, the scene opens up and shows a girl chewing on her hair and then Professor Maguire asks another student “Why is trust the most important when making a breakthrough with a client?” and the college student (portraying the community college student stereotype) says “Um.. Because, uh, trust is, uh, trust is life.”

            Now that I have seen the differences between the 2 types of students, I can most closely tie this into Tatum’s ideas in the article “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” I say this because in both scenes you can see people that match the same stereotypes as the people around them. In the scene with Clark, his friends that are nest to him are dressed the same way and both have that stereotypical smart look. In the community college scene you have the kid that answered the question and the girl that was eating her hair and all of the other students that have a “dumb” look on their face. This relates to what Tatum said by saying similar people stick together.

Do you think the stereotypes between the different college students are true?