Forrest Gump Intellectual Disability

The movie I decided to go with is Forrest Gump. This movie is one out of the many movies that portrays an individual with a disability. Forrest Gump had an intellectual disability which stems from a mental disorder. His disability is highly noticeable throughout the movie. According to, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, “Intellectual disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills.” Throughout the movie it is very evident that Forrest does not behave like a normal person. All in all, the overall message of the movie was such a positive one.
The movie starts off by showing

As the individuals who sat next to him came and went, he continued to speak to them. Forrest’s disability is definitely portrayed correctly. Forrest didn’t understand sarcasm and didn’t pick up certain things that a normal person would pick up on. There were many clips that portrayed this, in one particu-lar clip, Forrest imitated the principals’ noises after he was asked, “you don’t speak much, do you?” Forrest didn’t realized that that embarrassed his principal; he simply didn’t know how to reply. His communication skills were definitely low. Another scene in the movie which portrayed Forrest character perfectly would be when Forrest took off running for three years. People continuously wondered why chose to run, many had assumptions that he was running to fund raise for an event, and others had different assumptions but none were accurate. Forrest ran because he felt like it. He doesn’t act

The movie was surely based on luck and destiny. Luck and destiny fell into Forrests lap on numerous occasions. Typically an individual with a low IQ doesn’t get too far in life or doesn’t become as “known” the way Forrest did. The feather at the beginning and ending of the movie was so significant. A feather just flies and lands whenever the wind stops blowing it. It doesn’t have a specific destination which was similar to Forrests life, he was a simple guy; going wherever life took him he encountered many random experiences but none were ever planned. This wouldn’t occur to a person with a normal IQ, they would know exactly where they wanted to be at each point in life, and they would also have goals and dreams. A stereotyped disability is when someone puts an individual in a certain category because they are incapable of doing what someone without a disability can do. According to US Department of Education, “The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities that are like those provided to individuals on the basis of race, sex, national origin, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications.” Forrest had many experiences with being looked down upon. Many people underestimated his abilities and him as a