Narrative Structure in A Beautiful Mind
Sylvia Nasar, a story of John Forbes Nash Jr., the mathematics genius who formulated the concept of game theory, which became a foundation for
contemporary economics. During the Cold War
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, Nash develops schizophrenia and he becomes delusional and paranoid. Finally, he recovers and wins a 1994
Nobel Prize. A Beautiful Mind DVD’s cover features a picture of face of a man with tense, curious, and in sharp looking into the window see Appendix 3.
It is important to analyze the structure of the story in A Beautiful Mind. Phillips 1996 said that the structure of the story is important to understand
narrative film. The writer applies the structure in fictional film that Phillips has explained in the book Film: An Introduction, they are “characters, goals, and
conflicts”, to understand the narrative in A Beautiful Mind. The protagonist in A Beautiful Mind is John Nash, who is also the main
character in the film. The film begins in 1948 when Nash arrives at Princeton University as a recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Prize for mathematics. He
meets his roommate
Charles, a literature student, who soon becomes his best friend. He struggles to find an original idea to get his doctorate. He becomes
obsessive in the competitive academic environment. He keeps to himself for the most part—an intensely unsociable man—and only occasionally finds himself
interacting with a group of other promising math and science graduate students, Martin Hansen, Sol, and Bender.
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Cold War is the term used to describe the state of conflict, tension, and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union USSR and their respective allies from the mid-
1940s to the early 1990s. Throughout this period, rivalry between the two superpowers was expressed through military coalitions, propaganda, espionage, weapons development, industrial
advances, and competitive technological development, e.g., the space race. Both superpowers engaged in costly defense spending, a massive conventional and nuclear arms race, and
numerous proxy wars.
The first conflict happen when Nash challenged to play Go by Hansen. During the game they are talking about Bender and Sol who correctly completed
Allens proof of Peyrots Conjecture. Hansen has got two weapons briefs under security review by the D.O.D., while Nash has not published his paper yet. The
game end with Nash’s lost. To find his original idea, Nash spends days on end in the campus library,
works out dense calculations on the leaded-glass windows of his dorm room and library, and dismisses classroom instructions. Another conflict happens when
Nash flubs a conversation with an attractive woman in a bar. However, the experience is what ultimately inspires his fruitful work in the concept of
governing dynamics , a theory in
mathematical economics . Later, he is rewarded a
job with an important defense company, where he eventually works for high-class government operations at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, along
with his friends Sol and Bender. While taking a research and teaching position at MIT, Nash meets a
gorgeous physics student named Alicia. He is also approached by a mysterious government recruiter named William Parcher, who persuades him to work as an
enemy code-breaker. Nash and Alicia begin dating, and despite of his lack of his social skills, their relationship grows and soon they marry.
Nash’s job becomes increasingly dangerous. After being chased by the Russians and an exchange of gunfire, Nash becomes increasingly
paranoid and
begins to behave erratically. While giving a lecture, Nash realizes that he is being watched by a hostile group of people. Although he attempts to flee, he is forcibly
sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility
. Nash is convinced that he has been hallucinating
. The Department of Defense agent William Parcher and Nashs secret assignment to decode Soviet messages was in fact all a
delusion . Even more
surprisingly, Nashs friend Charles and his niece Marcee are also only products of Nashs mind. He is paranoid schizophrenia. He realizes that a split has occurred,
that what seems real to him is not. The mind that served him so well and so brilliantly is now betraying him.
Nash observing the ways in which he copes with his illness together with Alicia as the wife who always forgave, always encouraged and ultimately brought
her husband back to life. He recovers and wins a 1994 Nobel Prize The structure of the story in A Beautiful Mind use standard pattern. In A
Beautiful Mind John Nash as the main character tries to reach his goal by finding
his own original idea. At same point he does not realize that he is schizophrenic. He faces all the problems and finally reaches his goal. He overcomes
schizophrenia and attains a true sense of accomplishment by winning a Nobel Prize.
The plot and story is in chronological structure although there is a flashback. The story is ingenious way because it manages to keep the viewer as
much in the dark as the main character, John Nash. The viewer will not realize that Charles, Parcher, and Marcee are not real because the filmmaker utilizes the
cinematic techniques to support the narrative the cinematic techniques of A Beautiful Mind
will be explained in details later.