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How Did Forrest Gump Influence Pop Culture

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Forrest Gump: Influencing pop culture “Run Forrest, run!” Forrest Gump is a classic American film filled with drama, humor, and romance. Forrest Gump, released in 1994, is directed by Robert Zemeckis. Winston Groom, the original author of Forrest Gump, and Eric Roth, wrote this adventurous tale of a man who does not realize the history he has been present for. Since Forrest Gump was originally a novel, many new ideas transformed the plot into what has become an Academy Award winning movie and an American classic. Forrest Gump recounts the birth of pop culture in America through the use of historical events, issues of human rights, romance, and advances in film technology.
Referencing to Historical Events Forrest Gump takes place between the 1950s and early 1990s when it was released in theatres. In this time period, many important events in history took place, influencing today’s …show more content…

Americans relied on slavery to maintain plantations and boost the economy. Although the issue of slavery was abolished, obstacles still remained for African Americans. Within the era Forrest Gump takes place, the civil rights movement flourished. However, this issue was not touched on in the film except for some racist and stereotypical depictions. For example, Forrest explains how he got his name. He was named after a “civil war hero” Nathan Bedford Forrest who founded the Ku Klux Klan. When mentioning this detail, the film cuts to scenes from Birth of a Nation, creating the presence of racism within the film. Not only is the KKK mentioned, but the lack of civil rights activists encourages the racist tone. One scene included the Black Panther Party, who believed blacks and whites should be treated equally. This scene included pictures of civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, however the scene regarding racism soon turned violent as Jenny was hit by her

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The Ku Klux Klan, more commonly referred to as the KKK, is a secret hate organization that operates on the basis of white supremacy, committing extreme acts of violence towards African Americans and other minorities. Although Forrest later quit from the position and attempted to disband the group due to too much publicity, branches of the organization continued to live on, and still exist even today. Despite his efforts to deny any affiliation with the KKK, this combined with his previous history of racism and aggression thoroughly cemented the way most Americans viewed him. Even in current society, there are still many protests advocating against (or, less commonly, for) Forrest, and multiple locations where he has been commemorated have been forcibly renamed (Glaze). However, as put by a recent biographer of Forrest, “The reality is that over the length of his lifetime Nathan Bedford Forrest's racial attitudes probably developed more, and more in the direction of liberal enlightenment, than those of most other Americans in the nation's history” (Hurst,

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In the 19th century, slavery and the Reconstruction was a sore subject for the South. Reconstruction forged civil rights for African-Americans, but once the North’s influenced waned in the South, the South terrorized African-Americans and blocked them from accessing their newfound rights. While Reconstruction may have brought civil rights, those rights were quickly squashed by the South’s racism. Even after certain freedoms were securely gained, every new attempt to make African-Americans equal to the white populace was contested. A large group of people were happy to see slavery ended and civil rights rise.

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As the Civil War represented the fight between labor systems and the shift of power, Africans Americans weren’t really free. As an immediate result after the war, they were subjugated to several laws and racism swept the

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Although race relations in the United States between whites and African Americans have significantly improved since the abolishment of Jim Crow laws, director Spike Lee’s socially conscious satire, Bamboozled shows that discrimination has only evolved. Released in 2000, the film sought to edify the African American population about the racist and stereotypical treatments blacks endured during the Jim Crow era when they were used to entertain the white masses. Moreover, it also shows how that culture is still propagated today, with African American film makers just as guilty. From the time the first African set foot in the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, race relations have always been whites’ superiority over blacks.

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Finding Forrester: A Cultural Synopsis Finding Forrester tells the story of Jamal Wallace, an African American high school student living in the Bronx and attending a low-income high school. He meets an extraordinary but extremely antisocial writer who helps him to learn life lessons. There are many cultural references in Finding Forrester, including cultural shock, cultural norms, social hierarchy, and counterculture.

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To Kill A Mockingbird Comparative Essay To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960, immediately grabbing the public by the ear and showing them the dirty and racist underbelly of the deep south. Only two years later, the movie is produced, showing even more people the uncomfortable truth. As you may have heard before by the reviews of so many stories, the book is better than the movie. This claim will not come as a surprise to many, for the book is taken as a godsend to a large chunk of the population, where the movie, despite the outstanding quality for the time, is not so well regarded when stacked up against one of America’s favorite pieces of classic literature.

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The History of Pioneer Black Musicians Music Influence on that of Michael Jackson Michael Jackson was a great singer in his time and one of Americas’ prolific singers to ever grace the music scene. From the time he graced the music scene, he would go on to become a great singer that inspired other great singers during his period and in the future generation. Music has got a unique element that is so unifying and touching depending on the type of music one could be listening. In the history of the United States, black musicians from way back in the early days of singers such as James Brown, Prince, and Smokey Robinson have had an influence on the music culture. There are many genres today that can be traced from black musicians who popularized

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After the Civil War, African Americans went from bondage into gaining liberty. Twentieth President James A. Garfield stated, “The elevation of the Negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the constitution.” However, the centuries of racism, prejudice, and devaluation took its toll on Southern society, and they would take another century before all Blacks could vote unhindered. The ratification of civil rights legislation created only a beginning of a change because the Emancipation Proclamation failed to free all slaves, Whites did not view Blacks as social equals, and most Southern Whites would not cooperate with the new laws. The Emancipation

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One of the biggest issues that called my attention is the presence of racism in the movie. Even though that presence did not surprise me, it was for me very obvious and very representative of the “American” society. For that reason, I am going to comment about the appearance of racism in the movie Finding Forrester. The first scene that really called my attention is the one in which a white man appears with his BMW and prejudices Jamal and black people in general.

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The war that was fought for the freedom of the slaves and for them to gain rights was a brutal war that lasted four long years. Even though the war was won and over, the African Americans still felt like their freedom was not fully there. They were free but had no way to start their own lifestyle. Without

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Forrest Gump takes place in modern history of the United States, emphasizing race relations between blacks and whites, disability and southern culture. Beginning in the south during the 1950’s, the movie highlights segregation, and ends with the way African-Americans are portrayed today. Forrest Gump begins with the main character sitting at a bus stop, and it isn’t until Forrest speaks that the audience realizes he has a disability. Throughout the movie Forrest is portrayed as a simple, white southern male from Alabama who has a below average intelligence. The movie takes places during a significant era between the 1950 's and 1980’s, and recalls different events of Forrest’s life, underlining how he surpasses the expectations society had for him.

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What Can “Forrest Gump” (1994) Teach Us About Scriptwriting? Forrest Gump (1994), an American comedy-drama film based on the novel by Winston Groom, with the screenplay adapted by Eric Roth, tells the story of a mentally disabled and very kind-hearted child that comes to lead an extraordinary life. The movie revolves around the irony that the protagonist, Forrest Gump, even though the most simple-minded character in the film, becomes the most successful, as his talents involve him in US history's most prominent historical events between the 50's and 80's. The storyline is very character-driven and resembles a ‘vignette into one's life' as opposed to having a traditional story structure. This is seen through the feather motif and the well-known

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Forest Gump (played by Tom Hanks) is a film about a simple man who never thought himself below anyone, due to the massive support of his mother, Forrest’s life was everything but average, from being a football all-American, fighting in Vietnam becoming a Medal of Honor recipient, and captaining a shrimp boat, he influences all that come by him. Although things seemed easy to him, his biggest challenge of all is to save his best friend, and childhood love Jenny. Its purpose is to illustrate, how one with disabilities can go on facing adversary, and coming out on top almost every time. The film Forest Gump is a great movie, because of its playful use of anecdotes throughout the plot, the simplicity of childlike optimism to influence those

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This was a period in our country where morality, and equality, had come to be questioned for the first time since our country broke away from its European roots, and winning its independence on July 04, 1776. The American culture and its society would be changed forever over this twenty to thirty-year course. Forrest Gump is very simple-minded man who lives his life by a set of values forever instilled in him by his mother, Ms. Gump. In many ways the preoperational stage given to us by Jean Piaget applies very strongly to the movie Forrest Gump, for example when he started playing football, and joined the Vietnam War. The Cognitive

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It is easier for the audience to possess these issues. The use of music or silent also helps convey the atmosphere of the film and highlight characters’ emotions. Symbolism also plays a huge part in this movie. One of the most prominent elements in the movie is the narration of Forrest Gump, who serves as a first-person narrator to tell his life story.

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