Forrest Gump (character)

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Forrest Gump is the fictional protagonist and narrator in both the novel and movie Forrest Gump. In the latter, he was portrayed as a child by Michael Conner Humphreys and as an adult by Tom Hanks, who won an Academy Award for the role. He is also the main character in the novels sequel, Gump and Co.

Contents 1 Film Biography 1.1 Early Years 1.2 In the Army 1.3 Washington D.C. 1.4 Ping-Pong 1.5 Shrimping Boat Captain 1.6 Home in Alabama 1.7 Running Across America 1.8 Back to the Present 2 Differences from the novel

[edit] Film Biography

The majority of the film consists of Forrest sitting on a bench waiting for a bus and recounting his life story to a succession of people.

[edit] Early Years

Forrest was born in Alabama in the mid-40's. His father was absent during his life, his mother saying he was "on vacation". His mother named him after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a noted Confederate general in the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. She intended his name to be a reminder that "sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense."

Forrest was born with strong legs but a crooked spine. He was forced to wear leg braces which made walking difficult and running impossible. He also had a relatively low I.Q. of 75 which nearly prevented him from being accepted into public school (his mother managed to get the principal to reconsider by having sex with him). Despite his physical and mental challenges, Forrest's mother told him not to let anyone tell him he was different, telling him "stupid is as stupid does".

Forrest and his mother lived in a large house just outside of the town of Green Bow. They made money by letting out rooms to travelers. One of their guests was a young Elvis Presley. Forrest liked dancing to his music and his leg braces gave him a peculiar dancing style that would supposedly inspire the young Elvis' famous "hip dancing" after he became famous.

On the bus ride to school, Forrest met Jenny Curran and was instantly taken with her. "I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life", he would later say of her. "She was like an angel". The two became close friends, often playing around a large nearby tree. Jenny was one of the few people besides his mother to accept Forrest as he was, helping him learn to read and standing up to bullies who harassed him. Jenny's home life was not nearly as happy as Forrest's, however. Her father was an abusive drunk (until Jenny was taken away to live with her grandmother) and Forrest's friendship offered her an escape.

One day a group of bullies was throwing rocks at Forrest and chasing him on their bikes. Jenny told Forrest to just run away. As Forrest struggled to run, his leg braces broke apart. Once he was free of them, Forrest was able to run incredibly fast. Forrest would never wear braces again and was able to run everywhere he wanted to after that.

Forrest and Jenny remained close friends up through high school, though he remained a target for bullies. One day, while running from some bullies, he caught the attention of Coach Bear Bryant, who was scouting football players. After his incredible running ability impressed the coach, Forrest received a football scholarship to the University of Alabama, where his speed helps them win several games. He was later named to the All-American team and got to meet President John F. Kennedy at the White House. When asked by the President how he felt, Forrest (having drank far too many bottles of Dr Pepper) gave an honest answer of "I gotta pee".

Forrest was also present at the University when it was desegregated and observed Governor George Wallace denouncing the desegregation. While several citizens jeered the black students entering the campus, Forrest, not entirely understanding the situation because of his low I.Q., simply walked up to a black woman and handed her a book she dropped.

[edit] In the Army

At his college graduation, Forrest was approached by an army recruiter who asked if he'd given any thought to his future. Soon after, Forrest would join the army. As he had on the bus to school, Forrest quickly made a friend on the bus: Benjamin Buford Blue, a young black man who went by the nickname "Bubba". Bubba told Forrest about his family history of cooking shrimp and how Bubba had planned to buy his own shrimping before he was drafted.

Forrest did well in the army as he followed instructions quickly and without distraction. Jenny, meanwhile, had been kicked out of school for posing in Playboy and had gotten work singing in the nude at a strip club in Tennessee. Forrest went up to visit her one night and beat up some patrons who were harassing her. Jenny was angry at first, but became concerned when he told her he was being shipped off to Vietnam. Jenny told him not to try being brave if he was ever in trouble and to just run away instead.

In Vietnam, Forrest and Bubba met their commanding officer Lieutenant Dan Taylor, whom Forrest would refer to as "Lieutenant Dan". While on patrol, Bubba proposed that he and Forrest go into the shrimping business together after their time in the army was finished. Forrest agreed.

After several uneventful weeks, their platoon was ambushed by the Viet Cong and several soldiers were wounded and killed. In the confusion, Forrest initially ran away as Jenny had told him to, but after becoming concerned for Bubba, he ran back to look for him. Instead, Forrest found Lieutenant Dan and several other wounded soldiers and carried them to safety before looking for Bubba. Forrest finally found Bubba badly wounded and managed to carry him away from the combat area before it was hit with napalm from an air strike. Sadly, Bubba died of his injuries soon after.

Forrest himself was shot in the buttocks during the incident and recovered in an army hospital. Lieutenant Dan was in the bed next to his, having lost his lower legs because of his injuries. Lieutenant Dan was angry at Forrest for supposedly cheating him out of his destiny to die in battle with honor (as several of his ancestors had) and leaving him a cripple.

[edit] Washington D.C.

Despite Lieutenant Dan's resentment, Forrest's heroism would earn him the Medal of Honor. While being awarded the medal by President Lyndon Johnson, the President asked him where he'd been wounded. When Forrest told him he'd been hit in the buttocks, Johnson joked that he'd like to see that. Forrest, much to the shock of onlookers and the President himself, then lowered his pants to show him.

Shortly thereafter, Forrest went out sightseeing in Washington D.C. and accidentally found himself among a group of veterans attending an anti-war rally led by Abbie Hoffman. While at the rally, he was reunited with Jenny, who had since become a hippie. Forrest was less enamoured with her new boyfriend Wesley, the president of the SDS at Berkeley, and beat up Wesley after he saw him hit Jenny during an argument. Forrest and Jenny stayed up all night while Jenny told Forrest of her travels. Before they went their separate ways again in the morning, Forrest gave Jenny the Medal of Honor he earned in Vietnam.

[edit] Ping-Pong

While in the hospital, Forrest had taken up ping-pong and found he was adept at the game as he was at running. Rather than returning to Vietnam, Forrest was assigned to the Special Services, entertaining wounded veterans with his ping-pong skills. He would later travel to the People's Republic of China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy period.

When he returned, he was a national hero "famouser (sic) than even Captain Kangaroo" and was invited on The Dick Cavett Show. John Lennon was also a guest on the show at the time and hearing Forrest talk about the Chinese having "no posessions" and "no religion too" inspired him to write the song "Imagine".

Soon after, Forrest was briefly reunited with Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter alcoholic, confined to a wheelchair, having lost his faith in God. When Forrest told him of his and Bubba's plan to go into the shrimping business, Lieutenant Dan only laughed and joked that if Forrest was ever a shrimping boat captain, he would be Forrest's first mate.

Upon visiting President Richard Nixon after his trip to China, he was invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex. He was awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, Forrest calls the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal, which leads to President Nixon's resignation.

Shortly after this, Forrest was honorably discharged from the army with the rank of Sergeant and returned home to Alabama.

[edit] Shrimping Boat Captain

Upon his return Forrest find the house filled with memorabilia capitalizing on his fame as a ping-pong player in China. He made $25,000 endorsing a brand of ping-pong paddles and used most of the money to travel to Bubba's home town of Bayou la Batre and purchase a boat. When someone pointed out it was bad luck to have a boat without a name, Forrest names his boat after Jenny (whom, unbeknownst to him, had descended into a life of prostitution and drugs at this point).

Sometime later, Forrest was visited by Lieutenant Dan, who as a man of his word, had come to be Forrest's first mate. For several weeks, the two had no luck catching shrimp. Things changed, however when the area was hit by Hurricane Carmen. Forrest's boat was the only one left standing and found themselves with a monopoly on shrimp. Under the name Bubba-Gump Shrimp Co. they soon became very wealthy. Lieutenant Dan, having faced his demons during the storm, made his peace with God and thanked Forrest for saving his life in Vietnam.

[edit] Home in Alabama

Forrest rushed home when he learned his mother was dying of cancer. His mother gave him some parting advice, telling him he needs to figure out his own destiny and that "life is a box of chocolotes; you never know what you're gonna get." She died soon after.

Forrest took up gardening (which apparently consisted only of lawn-mowing) soon after and never returned to the shrimp business, leaving it in Lieutenant Dan's hands. Lieutenant Dan wisely invested in the fledgling Apple Computers (which Forrest though was "some sort of fruit company"), making Forrest even wealthier. Forrest, having learned humility and charity from his mother, donated a good portion of his money to a church and hospital in Bayou la Batre. Also, though Lieutenant Dan said he was nuts, he gave what would have been Bubba's share to his family.

Despite his success, Forrest was lonely, often thinking about Jenny. One day, Jenny showed up at his home, trying to get past her troubled life. Forrest was happy to have her stay with him, telling her about his life since they'd last seen each other.

One night, Forrest abruptly asked her to marry him. She declined, telling him she's not someone he wants to marry. Forrest was hurt, believing she doesn't love him. He said he was not a smart man, but knew what love is. That night, however, she climbed into his bed, telling him she did love him. They made love and in the morning she left.

[edit] Running Across America

Forrest was terribly hurt by Jenny leaving. Trying to get over it, he went for a run; first to the end of the road, then the end of town, then across the county, and even across the state. He kept running all the way to the west coast. When he reached the ocean, he turned around and continued running until he reached the east coast, then turned around and ran again. Forrest continued running across the country, stopping only to eat and sleep.

His running eventually gained the attention of the press, and several people asked if he was running for some cause such as world peace, the homeless, the environment, women's right, or animals. Forrest simply said he "just felt like running".

Nevertheless, several people were inspired by him and joined him in his running. One man in the bumper sticker business was inspired to created the bumper sticker slogan "Shit happens" after Forrest ran though a pile of dog feces. Another man in the t-shirt business lent Forrest a yellow t-shirt to wipe some mud off of his face. The smiley face imprint left in the mud on the shirt and Forrest's parting words "have a nice day", would inspire another pop culture phenomenon.

Forrest would later say his running was about putting the past behind him, as his mother had once told him. Finally one day, after three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours of running, he stopped as suddenly as he'd started. Saying he was tired, he returned home to Alabama.

[edit] Back to the Present

Back in the present (the "present" in the film being around 1981, as seen from a car ad on a bus), Forrest tells his latest companion on the bench, an elderly woman, he'd recently received a letter from Jenny asking him to come see her. When he tells her the address and directions he'd been given, she tells him it's only a few blocks away, and he hurries over on foot.

Forrest and Jenny are happy to see each other. Before they can do much catching up, Forrest is introduced to Jenny's young son, a bright young boy whom she named Forrest after his father.

Forrest learns that Jenny is sick from some unknown virus (apparently HIV from her earlier drug use and prostitution). He invites her and Forrest Jr. to come home and stay with him. She asks him to marry her and he accepts.

Despite being a very wealthy and famous man, Forrest and Jenny's wedding is a quiet, intimate ceremony attended only by a handful of family and friends (among them, Lieutenant Dan).

Forrest, Jenny, and Forrest Jr. have a few happy months as a family before Jenny finally dies on March 22nd, 1982. Forrest has her buried under the tree they played under as children. Though he misses her terribly, Forrest becomes a good father to Forrest Jr.

Visiting Jenny's grave one day, he reflects on the idea of fate and destiny, wondering if his mother was right about people making their own destiny, or if Lieutenant Dan was right about there being a plan. He eventually decides "maybe it's both, maybe both are happening at the same time."

Forrest is last seen outside his home, seeing Forrest Jr. off on his bus ride to school, telling his son he loves him.

[edit] Differences from the novel

The portrayal of Forrest in the original novel is notably different to how he was portrayed in the film. Largely, in the the novel Forrest is shown to be somewhat cynical and abrasive, while in the film he is a more placid and naive person. He is also descibed as being an idiot savant and has extraordinary talent in numerical calculation.

The novel also provides additional backstory including clues to the fate of his father, and Forrest goes on a number of different adventures including being an astronaut, becoming a professional wrestler and running for political office.