Into the World: the Story of Tom Brennan and Ort

Both the novel The Story of Tom Brennan by J.C Burke and the film Forrest Gump by Robert Zemeckis explores the experiences various characters have that result in change and transition in realistic way. Both Burke and Zemeckis explore these experiences by using a variety of techniques, particularly flashbacks and many forms of imagery that relate to their fears, the way people deal with crisis and friendship in a in which the viewer can relate to them making it more realistic.

In The Story of Tom Brennan, Burke explores the experiences many characters have that relate to fear and the various barriers in their lives that result in change and transition. Burke uses a metaphor when Tom describes his room as ‘a cave’ which strongly suggests the idea that as a result of his fear he changes by becoming isolated from everyone and finds it difficult to move into the world from past experiences. Burke uses an accumulation of negative memories from Tom’s perspective ‘the fear in Fin’s eyes, the empty stare of Luke, the way Nicole looked like she was sleeping’ to accentuate the negative experiences Tom has encountered and unsettle the viewer as well as to stress the difficulty he has in his transition in which the viewer can relate to. She also uses a flashback that was triggered from Tom’s memories to explore his past experiences of negative events on the night of the accident as well as create empathy in the viewer towards Tom. Likewise, in Forest Gump we are shown similar aspects of fear through the various experiences characters have had and how it results in the change and transition. In a similar sense to Burke, Zemekis uses a flashback to explore the negative experiences Jenny had as a child when she got harassed by her father. Like The Story of Tom Brennan, the flashback encourages a sense of empathy from the audience towards Jenny and explores her fear in a realistic way by allowing the viewer to connect their own fears with Jenny’s and create tension in the