Forrest Gump - Discursive Writing

“You see the world as you are, not as it is”. When I first read this quote I had to think
about what exactly this means, our perspective shapes our world for us. Seeing the
world from a singular perspective can hinder our overall understanding of specific social
groups and/or issues. Forrest Gump, an award winning movie released in 1994 and set
in the 50s to the 70s, explored themes like child abuse, racism, discrimination and
more, mainly from the main character, Forrest’s perspective.

Discrimination in the movie was shown quite frequently throughout the movie, most
evidently, the discrimination Forrest Gump had to face all throughout his life because of
his mental disability and crooked spine. It was very upsetting to see such discrimination
in the ‘school bus scene’ happen to Forrest Gump where no one on his school bus apart
from just one child wanted to be seated next to him because of his leg braces which
may have seemed ‘weird’ to them. He was discriminated against because of something
he couldn’t control and something that wasn’t his fault.

Although I do not have such mental disability or physical disability, I feel as though a
number of us have lived a similar experience. I personally have. When I am new to
somewhere, I can sometimes feel like I am different or that people do not want me
around. Seeing that scene from the movie, my perspective has altered and my thoughts
on discrimination has slightly changed. In the school bus scene, when the entire bus
didn’t welcome Forrest, and only one person out of everyone did, that for Forrest was
enough. He didn’t dwell on it, he didn’t care much about the others although they were
being very disrespectful. And that’s what should really matter. Not the bad but the good.
This in no way means that there was nothing wrong with the other children
discriminating against Forrest. Forrest’s outlook on the situation was what was really
important. So this brings us back to the quote, “you see the world as you are, not as it
is”. In the end, Forrest’s outlook was what had mattered, now if I ever experience a
similar situation, I will try not to focus on the disrespect or discrimination I am facing but
more so the way I react to it and what I see as the most important.

Onto the second social issue I will be mentioning which is child abuse. In the movie
Forrest Gump, sexual and physical abuse was displayed by Jenny’s alcoholic father
(Mr. Curran) to Jenny when she was younger. We heard this through Forrest’s words,
“He was a very loving man. He was always kissing and touching her and her sisters.”
We can see here that Forrest has no idea yet what Mr. Curran was actually doing to
Jenny. After this was mentioned, Jenny was always spending time with Forrest and just
never seemed to go back to her home. This implies that she is scared of her father and
feels comfort being with Forrest, away from all the abuse.
Although we probably all despise Jenny for who she became and how she treated
Forrest, the abuse from her childhood made such an impact on who she became,
Forrest and the movie, and also it impacted our perspective as the audience on child
abuse. The abuse from her childhood led to her being a suicidal drug addict and a
prositute and someone who was never satisfied in life. The point is that before watching
the film my view on child abuse was simple, I didn’t think much about it. Once I watched
it, it made me think about and reflect on how complex and multifaceted child abuse
really is. The childhood abuse Jenny faced not only affected her entire life, but all those
people around her, including Forrest jr. and possibly even his children.

The film challenges the notion that, “you have to work hard and be smart to succeed”
because in the end, Forrest Gump proved that being an underachiever in school does
not necessarily imply or mean you will never get anywhere in life and how you handle is
a situation is what makes all the difference, it teaches us through Forrest’s perspective
that you shouldn’t focus to see the bad apple in the bunch, even if you’ve taken a bite of
it. Just look at the good side of the story/situation. The things Forrest faced during the
movie was not easy. He faced a lot of hardship and through all that he made it through
and faced them each one by one and sometimes faced a lot at a time, but by the end of
it, his outlook and view on the world was what made him make it through, and that’s
what I’m going to be focused on doing in my life, because in the end I see the world as I
am, not as it is.