Student Name: _____________________ Period ___________
40 Questions about “Finding Forester”
Directions:
1) Answer each question.
Write the short answer in the space BELOW the question or use another piece of
paper.
2) Choose the Correct Helper.
In the space to the LEFT of the question, put the appropriate two letters:
“FO” if the question is directly related to Forrester helping Jamal (Forrester  Jamal)
“JA” if the question is related to Jamal helping Forrester (Jamal  Forrester)
“NR” if the question is not related to either side of the issue. (Not Related)
IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS ASSIGNMENT
IS A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT worth many points!!!
Sample:
NA
1. During an English class on Poe’s "The Raven," why does Jamal refuse to recite by
saying that he had not read the poem?
Because he doesn’t want his friends to know how smart he really is.
2. Why is Mrs. Wallace told by Jamal’s English teacher, that her son is a C student with
an A on the state assessment test?
3. Why did Jamal turn to reading and writing after his father abandoned his family?
4. Does Jamal’s peer acceptance depend entirely on basketball?
5. Why does the film contrast Terrell’s limited accomplishments with Jamal’s
aspirations?
6. When Jamal finds his backpack in the street, why does he discover comments in red
ink in his journals?
7. In one of his red-ink comments, why does Forrester ask Jamal, "Where are you
taking me"?
8. By "constipated thinking," does Forrester mean that Jamal’s writing is not clear?
9. When Jamal first knocks on Forrester’s door, why does he take up the challenge to
write 5000 words on why he should stay away?
10. After professor Crawford tells his students that William Forrester wrote a
masterpiece at 23, why is his first assignment to find out why Forrester wrote only
one book rather than questions about the book itself?
11. When Jamal asks Forrester why he is a legend at school, why does Forrester shout
at him, “The purpose of a question is to obtain information that matters to you"?
what does Forrester call this type of a question?
12. Why does Forrester tell Jamal he will go to Mailor-Callow because he wants to
answer the question about what he will do with the rest of his life?
13. When Forrester asks Jamal if he had read his only book, Avalon Landing, why does
Jamal say he couldn’t get past the first ten pages?
14. Why does Forrester not want anyone to know about Jamal’s visits to his
apartment?
15. When Jamal asks if Forrester will keep helping him with his writing, why does
Forrester agree only if Jamal asks no questions about him, his family, or why he
wrote only one book?
16. What does Forrester mean when he tells Jamal, "People are always talking about
my book but never saying anything about it"?
17. When Jamal tells Forrester that his book means that "Life never works out," why
does Forrester reply that he didn’t have to read a book to learn that?
18. What does Forrester mean when he says that "The first step to writing is writing-not thinking about what you are going to write"?
19. What does Forrester mean when he says to write the first draft with your heart but
then to rewrite with your head"?
20. How does Forrester having Jamal type out a copy of his "A Season of Faith’s
Perfection" help Jamal to "discover his own words"?
21. Why does Forrester insist that whatever he and Jamal write must stay in his
apartment?
22. Why does Forrester warn Jamal that "Bitterly disappointed teachers [of writing like
Robert Crawford] are either very good or very dangerous"?
23. When Jamal gives Clare the unexpected gift of a signed copy of Forrester’s book,
why does she ask if he had been trying to show her more than how to dribble a
basketball?
24. Did Forrester write only one book mostly because he so profoundly resents critics
who try to explain what he was "really" trying to say or because of his brother’s
untimely death?
25. Why does Jamal take Forrester to a stadium on his birthday?
26. After Forrester tells Jamal about his brother’s drunk-driving death, why does Jamal
quote Forrester’s words, "The rest of those who have gone before us cannot study
the unrest of those who follow"?
27. What has Jamal learned from Forrester and Forrester from Jamal?
28. When Jamal realizes that Forrester will not defend him publicly, is he serious
giving up writing?
29. Why is Jamal presented with the choice of winning a championship to retain his
scholarship?
30. Why does Jamal ignore Forrester’s question about the missed foul shots?
31. When Jamal goes to the writing contest awards, why does he tell Clare that MailorCallow will have to kick him out of school--that he will not just walk away?
32. Why does Forrester come out of retirement to defend Jamal?
33. How did Jamal’s writing contest entry, "Loosing Family," make Forrester realize
that "the one wish that [he] was granted so late in life was the gift of friendship"?
34. Even after Forrester convincingly demonstrates that Jamal’s "Loosing Family" was
his own work, why does professor Crawford still want Jamal disqualified?
35. Why is professor Crawford over-ruled and Forrester offered a teaching job?
36. After his death from cancer, why does Forrester want Jamal to have his apartment?
37. In his final letter to Jamal, what does Forrester mean when he says, "I never
imagined that I would realize my own dream once again"?
38. Why does Forrester credit Jamal’s coming into his life for realizing his dream so
late in life?
39. Why does Forrester leave to Jamal the manuscript of Sunset with "the forward to
be written by Jamal Wallace"?
40. How does the story’s resolution imply that Jamal will become one day a successful
writer?