A Beautiful Mind Summary Essay
The protagonist, John Nash, of the movie “A beautiful mind” suffers from the mental illness called ‘Schizophrenia’. It is a mental disorder or illness characterized by the breakdown of thought processes and by a defect of typical emotional responses. The common symptoms include auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized speech and thinking and it is occupied by significant social or occupational dysfunction.
In the case of John Nash, his mind created fiction harassers by the name Charles Herman, who h thinks is his roommate during his stay at Princeton, William Parched, a mysterious supervisor of the United States Department of Defense who assigns John the task to find hidden codes and makes hi believe that a conspiracy is undergoing and that the country is at threat and Charles’ young niece Marcel whom he adores from the very moment he meets her when he goes back t Princeton and meets Charles again and Charles introduces her to John.
In the movie, when John is first diagnosed with his disease, he reacts very strongly against it but his wife and doctors manage to bring him under control and slowly he is able to restart his family life but soon becomes very frustrated as the medication caused his mind to lose focus and also brought differences between him and his wife. Due to the medication and the sudden shock that he was suffering from Schizophrenia his career comes to a standstill and he loses his Job.
When he stops taking his medication out of frustration he again starts to believe in the fictional characters he built up in his mind, and only when his wife started to run away cause of fear from him, that is when he realizes and accepts his illness and makes up his mind to find a solution to his problems and live a normal life again. When he starts to go back to his normal life and decides to start teaching again, he asks for help from his old rival and friend Martin Hansen, to allow him to teach at Princeton.
Even after knowing his condition he allows him and helps him in his battle to live a happy and normal life. Initially he is mocked by the students at Princeton for his outbursts and illness but slowly steadily everyone starts seeing the intelligent person behind everything and began respecting him. He is approached by young minds and is finally able to make friends and communications with other people.
He is honored and respected by his fellow professors for his achievements in mathematics and in the end he goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. The society initially showed resistance towards John due to his condition but as the story progresses the society starts accepting him and respecting him for his dedication ND instead of becoming a hindrance, becomes helpful in his battle to fight himself.
He is not able to cure his illness and still sees all the three characters he imagined and created but they no longer bother him and he is able to ignore them and live a healthy and happy life. He, despite his medical condition and different attitude toward mathematics and life, is respected and accepted and considered and important person and human being by his students, fellow professors, his friends, his family and finally by the society.