Sociological concepts in Forrest Gump

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

3 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

07/15/2009

Category :

Arts & media

Sub category :

Film studies

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Summary :

Introduction
Forrest's relative level of intelligence
Child abuse in the US
Forrest Gump and the portrayal of racial tension in the 1950's and 1960's
The roles of men and women in society
Depicting of the military
Conclusion
Works cited

Abstract

The movie forrest gump tells the story of a man's life, from his childhood days in Alabama to his later years aboard a shrimp boat. This movie has many sociological ties and presents a limited picture of the culture and society from the 1960's up to the present-day. The movie follows forrest through his exposure to poverty, racism, government, politics, and mass media, to name a few, and it is told from the first person perspective of the generally impartial forrest gump. The themes to be discussed in this paper will deal with those of family violence and child abuse, how the film depicts racism in the 1960's and 1970's, how it deals with gender roles and the counter-culture lifestyles of forrest's female friend Jenny, and also the film's depiction of the military as an institution.

Born into a rather wealthy and loving family, forrest himself has no direct ties to a life of poverty or family violence. It is not until forrest begins school and meets his lifetime friend, Jenny, that he is first truly exposed to a life of poverty and the hardships that can go with this lifestyle. As Korbin points out, "Child abuse and neglect...have been linked with poverty," (433) and Jenny's family life serves as an example of this link. There is evidence that abuse is existent in her home, particularly in the scene in which Jenny and forrest flee from Jenny's father, who stumbles drunkenly after them.