Disability In Forrest Gump

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Forrest as America’s Hero and Jenny as Our Nightmare Forrest Gump is a film that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster with charming characters that warm your heart, life altering obstacles, and its love story. Mostly, the film exhibits how a modest man named Forrest becomes an everyday hero that audiences can relate to. As a child, Forrest had a low intelligence and leg crutches to walk. Both of these disabilities were reasons for other children to pick on him; but as he grew up, these issues were not seen as disabilities to Forrest nor as something that made him different from others and they most definitely did not stop him from achieving his dreams (Yang 222). In the opinion of Yang, his low IQ results in purer and simpler thoughts that end up making him successful later in life (222). The protagonist, Forrest, overcomes various obstacles to achieve aspects…show more content…
It was subtly mentioned that Jenny’s father sexually assaulted her by kissing and touching her at an early age and this abuse caused Jenny to keep Forrest at a distance instead of embracing their undeniable love and settling down (Yang 223; 225). Her and her father’s messy relationship later caused Jenny to drink and party her problems away into her adult years (Forrest Gump). Through these years Jenny embodied a wild-child spirit, who was a radical antiwar activist, promiscuous flower-child, addicted to multiple drugs and an presumed HIV positive woman (Byers 432). She also perpetuates the cycle of abuse by willingly dating an abusive man named Wesley, because that is whom she feels she deserves after having an abusive childhood (433). Jenny exemplifies a nightmare that no one would ever want to live through. For Jenny, recovering from childhood abuse is a lifelong nightmare that continues to create trust, intimacy and self-regulation
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