Understanding Of The Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a novel written by Winston Groom 1986. It’s a story about a man called Forrest Gump. Forrest is a stupid boy and his IQ is below average. He lives alone with his mom in Greenbow Alabama. He was born on June 6 and he was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a noted Confederate general in the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. His mother was a very special person for him. She had an ability to explain thing to Forrest in a way he could understand and when Forrest get older and tells stories about his childhood he often quotes what his mother used to say. She did everything for her son to make him feel no different from the other kids. After a lot of circumstances about Forrest going to special school because of his low IQ he finally got to go to the regular elementary school and that is where he was going to find the only real friend he would ever get, her name was Jenny Curran. Despite his low IQ he managed to accomplish things under his life which normal people would ever dream of. In school he became a football star because of his ability to run very fast. He joined the army and went to war in Vietnam and became a war hero and got a Medal of Honor. He meets two of the United States of America’s presidents. In the army he also learned to play ping pong and soon he started to play ping pong in China representing USA and he became a champion, he also got the opportunity to meet the chairman of China, Mao. He also made a promise to a friend in the army that after the war they would start a shrimp business, sadly the friend of Forrest died, but Forrest kept his promise and he started a shrimp business. He sold everything he owned so he could afford a shrimping boat and then he sailed out on the seas trying to catch shrimps. He ended up being a millionaire and then he gave all his money away for charity. Yet the most amazing haven’t been told, he ran all the way through America a few times and if you would ask him why, he would have answered, I just felt like running. All those things he accomplished was because of his honesty.

In my opinion Forrest always managed to end up as the winner in everything he does, for example when he went into shrimp business, he did it for his friend bubba and he ended up being a millionaire. He never does things with profit as goal. And it pays off. How a boy with such low IQ can accomplish those things is unbelievable. Others in the book sees him as an fool that can’t fulfill things, but later in the book he shows people they are wrong. Without knowing it, when he ran all through America he gave hop for people.

The book is taking place in the 50’s-80’s over his life time. Most part of the book it takes place in Greenbow Alabama where he was born. It also takes place on places like Vietnam during the war and in China while he played ping pong. And the people in Forrest’s environment is quite supporting because they always like to hear his stories and help him out when he needs help, at least a few people does that.

The book is written in first person. Forrest often talks about himself and he is always a part of the story, not a line goes by without Forrest being linked to it. Most of the book Forrest sits on a bench waiting for the buss to come and meanwhile he tells the story of his life (almost same as I wrote in the beginning) to people who comes and goes waiting for other busses.

The book can be hard to understand some times because Forrest often uses slang words and that I believe is because of his low IQ. The language that is used gives a feeling, that Forrest is very free in what he does, he lets his imagination control.

It’s a fun book to read and it’s a comic book to read because u laugh a lot about how stupid he is but how he still can accomplish the things he does.

It’s very hard to come up with something that I can link to my own life, since this is a made up story about an stupid boy making unbelievable things. It also takes place in USA and in USA they live quite different from us in Sweden.