Rujian, Zhou
Ms. Guarino
English II
2/14/2016
True Strength Occurs After Facing Your Fears
What is the true strength? The true strength is not just simple as a great power, but also having wisdom and intellect to use the great power. Even though there are many differences between a movie and a novel, the characters and the main ideas of them can be similar. Both Lorenzo in Me And You by Niccolo Ammaniti and Hank Palmer in The Judge directed by David Dobkin are the people who have great abilities in some ways, but they are antisocial and ruthless people who never show their real feelings. Fortunately, the people around them change them. Lorenzo is changed by his step-sister Olivia and Hank are changed by his family members. As a result, both of them become grown men who learn that true strength comes from wisdom and challenging themselves to help those they love. Generally, both of the novel and the movie try to tell that the true strength occurs when people overcome their fear and pain in order to connect with others.
Lorenzo is not an empathetic person, and he thinks only about himself. In Lorenzo’s mind, people around him are all “others”, in the book, he describes that “The others were anyone who wasn't my mom, my father and grandma Laura” (Ammaniti 24). Moreover, Lorenzo does not have true friends in school and he never opens his heart to any people. However, Lorenzo is actually a talented kid. For example, Lorenzo tells to his mother about going to a ski trip, but instead he is hiding in the basement where three floors below to his mother. Since Lorenzo has the ability to design such a precise and successful plan, it clearly determines that Lorenzo is actually a brilliant kid and an excellent actor. Moreover, when he tries to trick his mother, he thinks that “I had one last card to play” (Ammaniti 17). It proves that Lorenzo also has deep and scheming thinking in his mind. Even though Lorenzo has many great talents, he uses his talents to avoid contents with other, therefore, he will always in his comfort zone and never faces his fear forever.
After that, Lorenzo meets Olivia, who is his “half-sister” and the person who makes him change and inspires him the right way to use his talent. Olivia was a very beautiful girl when Lorenzo met her two years ago, Lorenzo thinks that “Instead she was incredibly beautiful, one of those girls that as soon as you look at them your face burns red and everybody knows you think she is beautiful”(Ammaniti 70). However, she loses a lot of weights and seems to have a heavy illness now. This is because Olivia is a heroin addict and she is suffered by the withdrawal of the drugs. Olivia seems to be the girl who also does not how to deal with other people like Lorenzo.
Lorenzo changes a lot during the time he stays with Olivia, it is not only about his attitude towards Olivia, but also Lorenzo as a person becomes aware of the true strength. At the beginning, Lorenzo thinks Olivia is very annoyed person and a block, because she vomits, scratches herself which is noisy as well as Olivia breaks his “perfect plan”. However, Lorenzo pities to Olivia after a few days, and he Finds out that he and Olivia share many things in common, such as both of them can not disagree with their parents. When Olivia keeps in poor health and seems she is dying. Lorenzo imagines his grandmother Laura who is dying in hospital from Olivia. Lorenzo feels helpless and powerless because he can not do anything for grandma Laura. Lorenzo thinks this is his chance to show his strength, and to prove his ability. Therefore, he decides to find medicine for Olivia to refill his helpless and powerless. This is the first time that Lorenzo cares about others. Lorenzo comes out from his comfort zone - his little world in the basement and tries to do something great - to save his sister’s life, even though his “perfect plan” about ski week maybe explode. When Lorenzo says “I’ll take care of everything. You stay here, I’ll be back soon”(Ammaniti 112) to Olivia, he sounds like a superhero who is going to save the heroine. In addition to this, Lorenzo also shows his strength wisdom strength in the process of finding medicines. After Olivia gets medicine from Lorenzo, she becomes much better. Lorenzo knows that he has the ability save someone’s life, and this is the right way to use his strength. Therefore, Lorenzo’s change deeply because he is able to connect with his sister and overcome the fear of being together with other. because he is able to connect with his sister and overcome the fear of being together with others.
Ten years after that, Lorenzo becomes much more talkative and mature. When he meets with Olivia in Cividale del Friuli, he talks and treats to other people elegantly and politely, like a gentleman. Lorenzo says to the waitress very politely, like “Thank you” (Ammaniti 5), as well as to the man at the last “Can I stay with her” (Ammaniti 152). These significant changes determine that Lorenzo is not the merciless wired boy anymore, he is a responsible grown up man now. As a grown man Lorenzo knows the true strength is not used to fool his mother, it is used to take care his family, the people who he loves. Lorenzo’s courage and passion on save the person he loves in the story are the true strength, and it is very brave of him to save his sister.
On the other hand, Hank Palmer is a gifted lawyer in Chicago, but he also fears to face his family. Hank feels not shameful about being against to the law, he helps guilty people to get away from their punishment. In return, he gets big money and he says about his life is “I sleep on a Tempur-Pedic bed, in a Highland Park home with a Ferrari, next to a lovely wife”. Moreover, Hank and his father Joseph Palmer, who is the judge of Hank’s small hometown Carlinville alienated each other for over 20 years. This traces back to an accident happened when Hank was 17 years old, which makes Hank’s elder brother Glen Palmer lose his bright future in baseball. Because of this, Hank feels shameful and guilty to his family and he runs away from them. In total, both Hank and Lorenzo has gifted, but they fear about to connect with others.
In the movie The Judge, it mainly discussed how Hank’s family change him, and let him open his heart to them. Firstly, Hank’s father is an honorable judge in the town, he lives honest and believes in law deeply. He teaches Hank that everybody deserves a second chance, the law is the dustiest of the earth, so he should believe in law and depend on the law. Second, Hank’s older brother Glenn is the person who has to give up his baseball career because of Hank. But he has no compliments to Hank, instead of that he supports the whole family in 20 years. Lastly, Hank’s little brother Dale who has a mental problem. Dale behaves like a child, but he knows what he should do. He records videos about Hank and others, and he is the man who encourages Hank to help their father at first. Because of these people, Hank is able to face himself. Hank does not want to have a great deal of money, the true thing he wants is a family who supports him. After the judgment, Hank does not define for the guilty people anymore. Moreover, Hank overcomes his fear of coming home. He realized that the small town Carlinville will be his home forever, where have people who he cares and care about him. He will not run away from his home again. As a result of these people, Hank transform to a just, honored and kind person at the end.
In conclusion, both Lorenzo and Hank are transformed when they are thrown into the situations that they have to overcome their fear; as a result of that, they discover their real strength and have confident as well as brave to make connections with others. Whatever a novel or a movie, if they can tell a truth that can infect people's lives - like encourage people to become better, then it is a meaningful work. The novel Me And You and movie The Judge are excellent meaningful work without a doubt. It is a pleasure to read and watch both of them, and I can not wait for reading the new novel Pobby and Dingan!
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