An Analysis of Forrest Gump, from a Social Work Perpective.
Forrest Gump
Assignment 2
The movie Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks as a considerate, yet somewhat simple man, who sits down on a bus stop bench and tells his fascinating life story to basically anyone
who will listen. This movie is much different then the typical box office hits, which is why I chose it to analyze, it addresses many different social issues from Forrest Gumps innocent yet, matter-of-fact point of view.
In the movie Forrest deals with some private troubles that had impact on Forrest's life were his low IQ, and having a physical disability in childhood. Having a low IQ, Forrest
had to deal with many different obstacles that a person of average intelligence would not experience, Forrest was faced with verbal abuse from many of the people that he
interacted with including his peers, authority figures, and strangers. One of the most common phrases in the movie "Are you crazy? Or just plain stupid?" demonstrates that society views him as stupid.
When Forrest was a child, he was told that he needed to wear leg braces due to his back
being extremely crooked, this so-called "disability" forced him to endure physical and emotional anguish at the expense of classmates and the community, in fact the phrase
"Run Forrest run" stemmed from his "need" to wear braces. On Forrest's first day of school he was immediately identified as being different, and therefore he was shunned by all but one little girl named Jenny. Jenny and Forrest quickly became good friends, Jenny knew that Forrest was different and took it upon herself to protect him from bullies, Jenny yelling "Run Forrest run" was a key phrase in Forrest's life, allowing him to shed the disability label and gain empowerment at the same time. From that point on Jenny played a large important role in Forrest's life, with Forrest being somewhat of a support for system for her too. When Jenny was young her mother died, leaving her Father to raise her, she endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse
Assignment 2
The movie Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks as a considerate, yet somewhat simple man, who sits down on a bus stop bench and tells his fascinating life story to basically anyone
who will listen. This movie is much different then the typical box office hits, which is why I chose it to analyze, it addresses many different social issues from Forrest Gumps innocent yet, matter-of-fact point of view.
In the movie Forrest deals with some private troubles that had impact on Forrest's life were his low IQ, and having a physical disability in childhood. Having a low IQ, Forrest
had to deal with many different obstacles that a person of average intelligence would not experience, Forrest was faced with verbal abuse from many of the people that he
interacted with including his peers, authority figures, and strangers. One of the most common phrases in the movie "Are you crazy? Or just plain stupid?" demonstrates that society views him as stupid.
When Forrest was a child, he was told that he needed to wear leg braces due to his back
being extremely crooked, this so-called "disability" forced him to endure physical and emotional anguish at the expense of classmates and the community, in fact the phrase
"Run Forrest run" stemmed from his "need" to wear braces. On Forrest's first day of school he was immediately identified as being different, and therefore he was shunned by all but one little girl named Jenny. Jenny and Forrest quickly became good friends, Jenny knew that Forrest was different and took it upon herself to protect him from bullies, Jenny yelling "Run Forrest run" was a key phrase in Forrest's life, allowing him to shed the disability label and gain empowerment at the same time. From that point on Jenny played a large important role in Forrest's life, with Forrest being somewhat of a support for system for her too. When Jenny was young her mother died, leaving her Father to raise her, she endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse