Argument Paper on the Movie Forrest Gump

• Describe the film in general terms. What subjects does it cover? Describe the plot and setting. What issues does it raise? What do you see as the main purpose of the film?

As a human, no one really likes to be the victim of stereotyped. No one wants to be looked at get judged because the different of their skin color, culture, religion or by the choice of their outfit. Finding Forrester is a great drama movie based on significantly of different racial situation. In the movie there are two main characters, William Forrester-an author who isolated himself from the world, and Jamal Wallace-a black teenage boy from the Bronx. They become great friends despite generation gap through their passion for reading and writing.

How does the film shown reflect the time in which it was made, and satirise American stereotypes, views, and society?

Forrest Gump is an All American, fan favorite, award-winning film directed by Robert Zemeckis that was released on July 6, 1994. Tom Hanks stars as the main character, Forrest Gump. The award-winning movie’s genre is best described as an epic romantic comedy drama. Many rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos are made throughout the entire movie. Pathos is used the most effecting the audiences’ emotions from beginning to end. The film is based on Forrest Gump’s life, in which he narrated as a historical story throughout the movie. Forrest Gump was born and raised in Greenbow, Alabama by his single mother. Forrest was mentally and physically handicapped. He had to wear medal braces on both of his legs. He also faced many

Forrest Gump is set in Georgia in the early 1960’s, when Forrest is sitting at a bus stop, with flashbacks recounting the time back to his birth in 1942. Because Forrest is sitting at the bus stop telling his life story to anyone who stops to listen, very little of the film takes place in the present tense; rather, the plot takes place in the past as Forrest recounts his life experiences. Throughout the film, many populist tropes surface within Forrest’s life, showing how Forrest lived in a time where he was unknowingly exposed—and even contributing—to a populist way of life that challenged the way average people viewed society in the United States. Forrest Gump integrates the tropes of populism with the genres of romance, war, and adventure, sending a powerful message to viewers of how they ought to view the world, at a time when corruption and impurity dominated society.

Although the intended audience of this film was for young adults, Gary approaches to the idea of demonstrating today’s society with the government-issue within the movie in such age-appropriate way. With such scrupulous structure of the rhetoric that Ross composed, Ross was able to magnetize these young audiences by bolstering boundless imaginations and explicit situations to purse today’s society with the seriousness of social

The Vietnam War divided the country and led to several americans searching for not only their identity and morals, but the morals of the nation as a whole. Many people questioned what good the fighting was for and saw more and more news coverage about the horrible failures of the War leading to a mistrust in the U.S. government. In Bobbie Ann Mason’s book, In Country: The Story of an American Family, Bobbie Ann Mason tells a coming of age story about Samantha Hughes who searches for understanding and meaning in a War that has affected her family and country greatly. Using dialogue and plot construction, Mason successfully examines the changes in morality towards violence and war.

The movie Forrest Gump tells the story of one man’s extraordinary life as he also participates in many of the key historical points of the latter half of the 20th century. The theme of rationalization is seen throughout this movie, because it has become such a big part of the American culture. Forrest stands out from the world around him, so he doesn’t usually conform to the pattern of rationalization himself, but he experiences it none the less.

However, the movie has a much deeper underlying theme that most people would not know about. Hidden behind the characters and the events in the movie is a political driven theme of the turmoil and debate that was occurring in the United States during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Each of the characters that are present in the movie represent a specific person or persons that would have been found

As political climates change, so do the themes found within cinema. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of change for America. Feminism, civil rights movements, and gay rights movements were all progressing, and liberal values were becoming more and more prevalent among the younger generation. For conservatives, the 60s and 70s were seen as a time of decline; as a low point in American history, and a time of regression in American society. The progressive and liberal values were not positive changes for all Americans, but the changes were coming about nonetheless. However, in the late 1970 's and the 1980 's there was a dramatic shift in the themes found in American cinema that reflected the neo-conservative political changes. With the

The 1960’s and the Vietnam War are not often regarded as one of America’s finer moments in history. The increasing popularity of the television set in the 1960’s allowed for a window into the war, and the brutality that the American people saw did not increase national pride, but rather implanted doubts into the minds of Americans as to whether or not our soldiers were really the good guys in this case. Where WWII had involved the Nazi’s, the epitome of the bad guys, the Vietnam War had no such case. The dark sadism of the Nazi’s had once been a stark contrast to America’s virtuous soldiers, but the Vietnam War was a confounding fusion of the good and the bad. As Ph. D. Leslie Gelb explains, “the morality of that [Vietnam] War was very confused” (Brokaw 137). This idea was reflected in the following decade, the 1970’s, when movies began to portray their protagonist as a complex character with flaws rather than the traditional faultless hero. In essence, the Vietnam War of the 1960’s led to the rise of the antihero in 1970’s American Cinema.

The 1988 film Mississippi Burning drew extensive criticism for its portrayal of the FBI's investigation of three murdered civil rights activists in 1964. As critics noted, the movie ignored the role of black activists who struggled for racial justice even as it graphically depicted the violence that activists and other blacks faced during the civil rights era. An analysis of the motion picture's narrative and its ensuing controversy illustrates how Hollywood films can simultaneously communicate misleading messages about the history of civil rights activism, and prompt additional discourses about historic racial atrocities within popular culture.

Forrest Gump has maintained its position as a classic American tale for decades, full of enlightening realizations of one’s self worth. Forrest Gump was certainly not a renaissance man at first glance; with a deficient IQ of just 70, he was qualified as an idiot by both society and, as he addresses, even himself. Despite this, he constantly sets goals for himself throughout his life, from working to start his “srimpin bidness” to reuniting with his longtime crush Jenny Curran. On the journey he embarks upon to accomplish these goals, both the reader and Forrest himself learn an important lesson regarding one’s aspirations guiding life. Despite challenging situations and unfamiliar territory, as long as one stays aligned with their original goal, the obstacles faced can be overcome.

Forrest Gump is a film based on a 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and produced by Robert Zemeckis. The film portrays several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a slow-witted, naïve but goodhearted man from Greenbow, Alabama. Gump witnesses these events and in some cases influences these events to happen (Wikipedia 1). In the midst of the film Jenny Curan, her childhood friend and lover, appears throughout the film also taking part in some of these events. Forrest Gump revises popular memories of the 1960’s and 1970’s through its representations of history (Wang 92).

The very popular, award-winning, Forrest Gump is known for many of its compelling themes: A man with intellectual disability who improbably succeeds at everything he attempts, the mother who shows eternal faith in him, and the ways in which we all become a part of history (though few as famously as Gump).