Forrest Gump And Odysseus Relationship Essay

Forrest Gump is a character who is intellectually disabled or as said in the movie “Retarded.” One of the first signs of his disability was in the scene when Forrest’s mother and he were in the principal’s office talking about Forrest IQ test scores (Zemeckis and Roth, 1994). He was below the average range and was suggested to go into special classes or into a special school itself. Forrest’s mother refused to let forest get the easy way out. He was unable to reach the expected goals at school just as one of the symptoms was recognized. Another example of his disability was his unstable legs. Forrest was put into leg supports to help him walk because of his condition he had trouble with some motor abilities. As well as being below the IQ range, Forrest lacked in language development and speech. He also lacked in social skills. Throughout the movie, Forrest didn’t have many friends. The girl he loved believed he/7 was unable to understand the feeling of love because of his disability. In another scene, Forrest was sent to Vietnam to serve his country in the war. While there, a bombing attack occurred. Forrest ran straight into a bombed forest to rescue other soldier’s (Zemeckis and Roth, 1994). His disability made him impulsive solider and lacked the acknowledgement of danger. Forrest was shot in the butt while doing so and thought it was a bug that bit him. Also in the movie, Forrest was recognized for his duty in the war he met the president and pulled down his pants on television, in the white house (Zemeckis and Roth, 1994). Because his Intellectual disability made it difficult for him to understand social roles and norms in

Everett explains himself and shows what true love is. For Odysseus it was much easier to get his wife. Penelope had just asked one question. That question was to her helper and

A major part of being a hero is trying to protect the ones you love from any harm, hurt, and danger. Odysseus, however, does not protect his family from harm because he leaves Ithaca for so long. In particular, Odysseus does not protect his wife from hurt when he cheats on her. Every minute of each day that Odysseus was gone, Penelope was mourning the absence of her husband, not knowing that he was deceiving her. Odysseus not only cheats on Penelope once, but twice. First, Odysseus is held sex captive by Calypso, a nymph goddess, on her island for many years. This means that at some point Odysseus had fallen for temptation. Odysseus then cheats on his wife yet again with another goddess named Circe. Although this affair does not last as long, Odysseus still sets

Forrest’s mother thinks an education is the primary source for living a stereotypical normal life. Forrest has a totally different outlook he sees school as a playground for bullies even though he seriously believes everyone, no matter their intelligence level, deserves and has the right to an education. Thankfully, in America we have many rights and freedoms. Yet, our freedom is not free. With much respect, our freedom is earned by the bravery of many men and woman. The effects of the Vietnam War can be considered a theme in the movie, Forrest Gump. This film portrays the Vietnam War with a child-like, simplicity outlook but contains much deeper meaning like thinking about life, death, and destiny. While at war, Forrest saved Lieutenant Dan Taylor’s life, yet Lieutenant was not satisfied. He believed it was his destiny to die which put many things into perspective for Forrest such as life and death, especially after Forrest saw his best friend, Bubba, die at war. Forrest Gump stated in remembrance, “My mama always said, dyin’ was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn’t.”

As he gets the Cyclops drunk he then says his name is nobody. He then pierces the spear through the sleeping Cyclops’s eye, blinding the giant beast. The Cyclops then tells everyone that nobody blinded his eye. Nobody is actually Odysseus who is king of Ithaca who can be very smart and cunning in the story. The author of this story is a man named Homer. Homer cannot be proven the author of this book because there is no proof he ever existed. Odysseus king of Ithaca set sail with his crew to fight at Troy, but Odysseus and his crew run into some problems returning to Ithaca. Odysseus’s character in the story shows he is very cunning, he is very cocky, and he is very brave.

He becomes an All-American, is present during the integration of his college, and is sent to Vietnam after being drafted into the army. Later, Forrest receives the Medal of Honor, is present during the anti-war movement, plays a crucial role in Watergate, and finally becomes a multi-million dollar business tycoon. Through all of this, Forrest holds one thing true in his mind: Jenny. Jenny is his first and only love. Next to his mother, she's the most important thing in his life, and the only thing he really wants. Yet, despite constant disappointments concerning Jenny, Forrest maintains his sweet-tempered, innocently naïve philosophy of life.

While traditional readers of Homer’s, The Odyssey, view Odysseus as a hero, they often reduce Penelope to Odysseus’s helpless wife, but Penelope is more than just a damsel-in-distress. Penelope proves to be Odysseus’s heroic equal, as through her resilient, witty and strategic actions she ensures Odysseus fighting advantages over the suitors.

In Epic Poem “The Odyssey” Odysseus is the protagonist. Odysseus’ over-the-top ego caused him to lose his men and his son’s childhood, but taught him a valuable lesson about humility. The Odyssey, written by Homer, tells the story of Odysseus and how he faced misfortune in his attempts to return home after the Trojan War. Odysseus is not famous for his great strength or bravery, but for his ability to deceive and trick. To his friends, he was a brilliant strategist. To his enemies, he was a deceiver and a manipulator of the worst kind.

This puts us as the viewers into a position to see what the time was like around his life. It gave us a chance in both the movie and the book to see more of the adventures that he was on and how they all affected him in his development as a character. It was used instead of creating many new events to just keep the idea of some of them and add Forrest into that event. Giles Hugo, a writer for the online site The Write Stuff, he talks about how the producers of the movie kept the idea of Forrest’s adventures in Vietnam saying “ Gump does save a bunch of his buddies in the jungles of ‘Nam” (Hugo 2). A lot of the events that happen to Forrest in the book are transferred over to the movie for major plot lines. Such as playing Ping-Pong in China or being a shrimp boat captain and meeting a few presidents. Without keeping these events as major story lines, the movie would not have had very much to go on.

Furthermore, Penelope is an important character as her identity “functions as a stable and unchanging reference point for the adventures of Odysseus” (Katz, 6). As Katz explains, Odysseus’ travels are interwoven with his lust for home and his desire to be with his wife again. As well, her identity becomes a parallel to Odysseus’ identity through her use of polutropus (tricks and turns). She proves, by the end of the poem, that she is the perfect match for Odysseus as both of them share the same skills with rhetoric and language to get what they want. Their like-mindedness is evident during the recognition scene between the two. Penelope tests Odysseus’ knowledge of their marital bed - before blindly trusting his claim of identity - by asking the slaves to move their immovable bed: “[putting] her husband to the proof-but Odysseus/ blazed in fury, lashed out at his loyal wife” (Homer, 23.203-204). In his angry response to Penelope’s test, Odysseus proves his identity to his wife as he explains why the bed cannot move. When she hears their familiar story of the creation of their bed, - which only the two and a slave know about - Penelope submits to her long-lost husband in an emotional reunion. Her caution, before accepting Odysseus’ claim, shows the wary protectionism stance that she had to adopt while her husband was gone so she could protect the kingdom from the suitors.

While Jenny repeatedly rejects Forrest as her lover, she is romantically attracted to him enough to keep coming back into his life. After Forrest’s mother passes away Jenny comes back, saying she misses home and is here to stay. Even after leaving again, she comes back into Forrest’s life with a letter, inviting him to her Georgia home, which brings Forrest to the bus stop where he narrates his autobiography.

In the movie Forrest Gump, Jenny is such a misunderstood person and in no way the evil woman many make her out to be. She is just a lost soul trying to find a place in this world where she belongs and can be happy. She has a hard time thinking she deserves to be happy and loved. Although she mistreats Forrest time and time again, it is not her intention to hurt him the way she does. The way she acts and the decisions she makes all stem from the abuse she went through as a child, then just continues to snowball from there.

Forrest had to deal with problems in his relationship with Jenny on a regular basis. Every time a problem would arise within the relationship he would try his best to work it out. He adjusted well when relationship problems arose.

As a young adult Jenny went to an all girls’ college while Forrest played football at the University of Alabama. This was the beginning of Forrest’s success and Jenny’s bad decisions. Jenny started messing around with boys and getting in trouble. Forrest rescued her from being with a guy, but Jenny could not let herself be close to Forrest even though her cared for her deeply. Her bad behavior caused her to be kicked out of school. Jenny decided that she wanted to become a famous singer, but somewhere along the way she ended up singing naked in a strip club. Again Forrest rescued her and again she was ungrateful and ended up leaving behind the one person in her life that cared about her most. The next time Jenny is seen she had been spending time with hippies at anti-war protests. Forrest tries to get Jenny out of another abusive relationship, but she doesn’t want to be saved and leaves Forrest again.

Despite his low IQ, Forrest Gump leads a truly charmed life, taking part in many of the most memorable events in his lifetime. Without trying, Forrest teaches Elvis Presley to dance, becomes a football star, meets John F. Kennedy, serves with honor in Vietnam, meets Lyndon Johnson, speaks at an anti-war rally at the Washington Monument, hangs out with the Yippies, defeats the Chinese national team in table tennis, meets Richard Nixon, discovers the break-in at the Watergate, opens a profitable shrimping business, becomes an original investor in Apple Computers, and decides to run back and forth across the country for several years. Meanwhile, as his life goes by, Forrest never forgets about Jenny, the girl he loved since a