A Beautiful Mind

by Kendra Lorin                                                                                                                STS X3

2012-20855

            Schizophrenia is a mental disorder in which a person loses his grasp of what is real from unreal because of delusions and hallucinations, affecting his personality and feelings like, being paranoid over something that didn’t really happen.  This is the condition of John Nash, a mathematician known for his theory, Nash Equilibrium, which won a Nobel Prize in economics in 1994.

            The movie “A Beautiful Mind” is about the life of John Nash, on how he still pursued on being a mathematician despite his condition. In the movie, it was shown how Nash thought  the Pentagon invited him to crack encrypted enemy telecommunication. Towards the end of the movie, however, it was revealed that everything was not real, including his best friend and college dorm mate, Charles. As Nash learned this, he tried to figure his way out his condition on his own, refusing to take medication for it makes his brain fuzzy and prevents him to study math. He wasn’t able to get better, however, but he was able to ignore his hallucinations. This aided him to continue on being a mathematics genius and work on his different theories. One of his theory, the Nash Equilibrium, won a nobel prize that in the end of the movie, Nash was given pens by his fellow professors which symbolizes their respect and appreciation of Nash’s contribution to mathematics.

            For me,  John Nash is a real genius, not only in Mathematics, but also in life. Despite his condition, he was able to come up with a solution even it seemed impossible to do so. At first, Nash really had a difficulty in doing so, but towards the end of the story, he successfully did.

            I think this is the most important thing that I learned from the movie. There is nothing impossible if you commit and dedicate yourself into it. Sometimes we think that there is no solution in our problems, but sometimes, we just see these problems larger or more complex than it actually is. Sometimes, we give up without even trying. Like John Nash, we must believe that we can do anything. It is normal when we fail from time to time, but what’s not normal is not trying again. We have to try however absurd the idea is or else we’re not going anywhere. Besides, success is not all about the result, it is about how you tried your best to reach that point because you won’t really appreciate success if you didn’t put an effort on it. Also, just doing it is not enough. You should really do it; you should put all of yourself into it.