Reflection Of Forrest Gump

synapses: The movie Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks) tells a story of a simple man and his journey through life. Forrest Gump’s story takes place during a time of historical significance in our country, The United States of America. His story begins in the 1950’s, and runs through the 1970’s. 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 won 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 a very simple-minded man who lives his life by a set of values forever instilled in him by his mother, Mrs. Gump who loves her son unconditionally.

However, as he progressed through life in the film, I saw that I was wrong in assuming what type of role he would carve out for himself in society. I was surprised how he reacted to people who wrong him, like Jenny. No matter how many times she did wrong by Forrest he would always look at her, and it was like he was seeing her for the first time. He would forgive her and love her unconditionally, leaving her to wonder why won’t he hurt me like the others before him? Another reaction was when the drill sergeant screamed “GUUUUUMP! What’s your sole purpose in this army?” I thought that Forrest would crack, and not know what to respond back to the drill instructor, but he responds with “whatever you tell me drill sergeant” These examples showed me that Forrest has grown into a fully functionally adult who understand the basics of society. He finally semi-left the preoperational stage, and developed cognitive abilities far surpassing what I could possibly imagine for him. I would strongly recommend this film to other psychoeducational purposes because it embodies so many topics covered in the film, and could potentially be a great learning tool to further our understanding to some degree of the possibilities of mentally challenge