Author: flowers.393

Text Review: Forrest Gump

by

 

(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.

 

 

DSI Showcase- The Rise of Anti-Semitism

by

The town I grew up in was 90% Jewish at the time of the last census. Myself, being one of the very few Christians in the town, but it really did not affect me. Instead, this just gave me a very unique perspective. Every weekend, mostly on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, you would see many Orthodox Jews crowding the streets and sidewalks, walking to temple. I always admired the Orthodox Jews, they were so strong on traditions, were extremely kind to everyone, and wanted to live simply. Recently though, the town and their world were rocked. Prior to five years ago, I can’t recall a single anti-Semitic attack on my town. Sure, I’ve heard the common phrases and slurs during sporting event, but they were always brushed off. But then things starting changing, a swastika was spray painted on local Jewish businesses in my town. The community was strong, tons of families had connections to the Holocaust. They knew what discrimination was, but they have done a great job preventing it in past generations. It was not the swastika itself that hurt everyone, it was the idea that anti-Semitism was in the air. It put a huge cloud of nervousness over the city. This one incident affected the entire community. There was someone who wanted to attack them. The system allowed this to become regular. Anti-Semitism is seen differently than other types of discrimination. I have no idea why this is, but its commonly over looked. As of recently, anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise. This needs to stop, people are becoming way to comfortable with their anti-Semitic remarks. This comfortability allows these actions to happen, and unless something is done at a top level they will continue. In Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham jail, Dr. King says Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” We can not ignore something like this. A marginalized group being targeted affects everyone in the community. The people that are committing these anti-Semitic attacks are committing other hate crimes as well. We need to do what we can to end this. Anti-Semitic attacks are often overlooked, for whatever reason. Since it’s overlooked, it continues to happen. Justice was found, as the person who committed the hate crimes was arrested. This is a small win in a huge battle in the fight against anti-Semitism. If an attack like that can affect the whole community negatively, then a small win for justice can affect the community positively.

https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2020/08/beachwood-man-charged-in-painting-swastikas-anti-semitic-images-on-university-heights-businesses.html

Context Presentation – Martin Luther King, A Letter from Birmingham Jail

by

The civil rights movement in America in the early 1960’s was a time of change in society. The main catalyst for change was Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King wrote his legendary Letter from Birmingham Jail after receiving a letter from clergymen stating it wasn’t right to pursue. The main message behind his letter was that we need to keep fighting for civil rights in America. In Dr. King’s letter, he mentions the Jewish people and their struggle in the Holocaust. Dr. King says “It was ‘illegal’ to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal.” (MLK page 3) What people may not realize is that the Holocaust was only about 20 years prior to the American Civil Rights movement. The horrors that occurred were fresh in people’s minds and Dr. King was heavily influenced by it. In 1964, Dr. King directly said, “It would be impossible to record the contribution that the Jewish people have made toward the N*gro’s struggle for freedom — it has been so great.” (Dreier) Dr. King saw the Jewish people as an important group of people to learn from because they had just gone through so much. Dr. King wanted the Jewish and Black community to come together because of the oppression they have gone through, and Dr. King once said, “there is virtually no anti-Semitism within the n*gro community” (Jewish Virtual Library) Having two groups of people bond over oppression is what makes the cause greater. Not only does it boost their cause, but it also allowed Dr. King to learn from the Holocaust and what different Jewish leaders were doing in a time of trauma and genocide. King used these philosophies to greater advance the Civil rights movement.

 

Dreier, P. (2020, January 18). Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement, and American Jews. Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/martin-luther-king-jr-the-civil-rights-movement-and-american-jews/.

Black-Jewish relations. Martin Luther King & Israel. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/martin-luther-king-and-israel.

King, Martin L. Letter from the Birmingham Jail. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1994. Print.