At the very end, when Hart makes a paper airplane out of his grades and throws it into the ocean, what does that mean?
Is he quitting law school, or does it simply mean he has put school in perspective and will continue but will no longer be “chasing the paper”?
I interpreted that he’s gained perspective, now that his first year is over, and realizes him growing into being part of the “upper echelon” and having a relationship with Susan is what’s important.
It’s been a few years since I saw it, though.
heh. Your memory is better than mine - I saw it last night and I couldn’t even remember Susan’s name!
At least Susan *had *a first name.
Yeah, the scene shows Hart has gained perspective and won’t let Kingsfield and his like, or law school, rule his life anymore.
I saw it only once, in a theater, and didn’t really understand it too well… I thought it meant he was dropping out of law school to find some other career.
Yeah, that’s the only way it makes sense to me. He’s just decided to quit law school, to throw it all away, and so he literally throws the paper away, too.
I haven’t seen the movie for a couple decades, but doesn’t he throw the paper airplane even before he sees his final grade? I seem to remember that the audience sees the professor give him an “A”, but Hart has already decided that there are more important things in life, and doesn’t even open the envelope.
If he had been planning to stay in law school, he would have at least checked his grades.
(also, very minor point: I thought it was weird that there was only one telephone on the dorm floor, and dozens of students stood in line to use it. Was life really that primitive at an ivy league college full of very rich kids? I saw the movie as a teenager,when it first came out in 1970(?), and some families already had two separate phone numbers for the house–one for the kids’ bedrooms, one for the phone in the kitchen.)
I don’t think he quit, mainly because I read the book before seeing the movie, and it seemed clear (at least to me) that he realized what he knew, and he didn’t need to look at the paper to see that he passed–he knew. And he has let go of his obsession, so he’s free to stay at law school or not, and the second year won’t drive him nearly as crazy if he does.
For the record, a lot of dorms at that time had only one phone. The ones I lived in had phones in all the rooms, but friends at other schools didn’t necessarily have that. Particularly in off-campus sorority/frat houses. BUT…I went to a college that had a law school. I don’t know of any law school students who were still in the dorms at that point. In fact most juniors and seniors had moved out into apartments. This was in the midwest, far from the Ivy League, so things may have been different.
FTR, the TV series had Hart continuing and graduating.
I’ve never read the book, but that was my interpretation too; it never occurred to me before reading this thread that it meant he was quitting, just that he didn’t particularly care about those external markers of achievement.
Well, since the movie was based on a novel by John Jay Osborn, and Osborn graduated from Harvard Law School, I’m guessing Hart didn’t quit.
He wasn’t worried that he’d failed, after all. I’m sure he knew he’d passed the course. He just wasn’t a grade grubber any more.
He probably WAS the kind of kid who dreaded bringing home a report card with anything less than an A. He’s not that kind of kid any more.
He doesn’t need to / care about such incidentals as the grade of one particular exam, nor the approval/disapproval of Prof. John Houseman.
HE PASSED.
Now he can move onto the next thing.
This was my take on it as well.
When I was a law student, common wisdom held that the hardest things about law school was getting in. The second-hardest thing about law school was surviving first year. By the end of the movie, Hart has done both. The rest of his studies won’t be a cakewalk, but they won’t be as difficult as the hurdles he has overcome; and he now knows how to deal with Kingsfield and the school.
I started college in 1977. Wasn’t an Ivy, but not a nothing college, either. There was one pay phone on the wall at the end of the hall. I think there was one on each floor. This was completely typical – everyone I knew at different colleges or universities had pretty much the same arrangement.
I transferred out of that college after my first year. The university to which I transferred had pretty much the same arrangement, although I remember that some of the newer dorm buildings had the wiring for phones in the rooms. A few students had their own phone. It wasn’t typical.
The student displays a “Hart.” The professor, though King of his Field doesn’t.
By 1968, Harvard Law School had phones in every dorm room or suite.