(WARNING: If you haven’t watched Forrest Gump, I highly suggest you do before reading because there are many spoilers in this) Forrest Gump is one of the greatest movies ever made and is my personal favorite movie of all time. The story of Forrest Gump revolves around a highly functioning special needs man named Forrest Gump, who was born in raised in Alabama in the mid 1900’s. The story revolves around Forrest finding himself in many historical situations, and the entire movie gives possibly the greatest representation of America through the 1900’s. One of the most overlooked aspects in the movie though, are what each of the main characters represent. The four most important characters to analyze are Forrest, Forrest’s mom, Jenny, and Bubba.
What Forrest Gump represents, is the spirit of America, the American dream. Forrest Gump was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a confederate general, who was largely responsible for the creation of the Ku Klux Klan. This symbolic reference shows the racist past that America has and how it’s forever involved and rooted in the spirit of America. Forrest consistently finds himself in different situations that require different opinions and reactions, but Forrest being special needs, he is unable to react accordingly and instead just acts polite like nothing is happening. Forrest is more like a ‘control’ in this movie, every other piece of symbolic references revolves around him, but to be fair he is the main character.
Forrest’s mom represents the old customs of America, that we once were. Her most important line in the movie is at the beginning when she’s asked about Forrest’s racist name, she says “sometimes we all do things that, well, just don’t make no sense.” This is a clear reaction to the racism that was instilled in American society long before. Forrest’s mom eventually dies in the movie. Metaphorically it means that’s the end of old-fashioned American customs and values. The only remnants of them are what’s left and instilled in Forrest.
The next important character is Bubba. Bubba clearly represents the African American dream. Bubba had aspirations of becoming successful in the shrimp business. He dreams about it and tells Forrest constantly while they are together in Vietnam. When Bubba dies in Vietnam, it’s hard to hold back tears. Bubba’s death symbolizes the hardships that African Americans have felt. When Bubba dies, Forrest creates ‘Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.’ it becomes super successful. Forrest does what’s right and gives half of his profits to Bubba’s family. His family is overjoyed, and becomes their masters master, ending the line of their struggles. This is symbolic of the hardships the African American community had to face in order to reach a successful point in history.
The last character that has a huge symbolic representation is Jenny. She’s the counter revolution to the 1900’s, becoming a hippie, being involved in politics, experimenting with drugs. When Jenny dies of AIDS, she symbolizes the death of the counter revolution. She was the resistance yet was killed by the lack of control the government had over the AIDs pandemic.
Forrest Gump has a lot of symbolic meanings behind the representation of American history and the problems that raised, and how they ended, and what the lasting effects of them are.
