Blog #75 Forrest Gump as Nostalgia Trip
The movie, Forrest Gump, takes viewers on a ride through the 1950s, and tumultuous 60s and 70s right into the mid 1980s. Along the way, Forrest and Jenny represent two different paths that Americans traveled during the time period (albeit, for white people).
The movie also represents a way of interpreting that time period of history, and it brings to mind this quote from Joel Achenbach:
“History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added, others forgotten, myths invented, causes imagined, facts debunked. History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning.”
Your job is to apply this quote to FG and explain how the movie is trying to tell a story about history, doing the things that Achenbach said.
Minimum of 300 words. Due Monday, May 18 by the beginning of class.
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/when-forrest-gump-stumbled-into-the-90s-culture-wars-90475343717.html
I think what the quote is saying is that history isn’t actually what has happened in the past, but peoples experiences and interpretations of what has happened. One event could mean one thing to one person and something totally different to another person. History is just the attempt to put together millions of different interpretations, and who knows truly how accurate any recorded events are. I think the movie Forrest Gump connects to this quote very much especially through the main characters, Jenny and Forrest. I see them as two very contrasting examples of what I’ve said before, that people experience events and history differently. We can see Forrest, and how he has a very simple point of view on almost everything that happens. He is involved in some very serious events himself, like the Vietnam war, yet he still has a very light interpretation of some horrible things. His character shows this in how he was able to still be happy end enjoy small things even when he was in a horrible situation (for example in Vietnam he said it wasn’t so bad at night when the stars came out). Jenny, on the other hand, is very disillusioned to life at a young age and takes seriously/deep meanings and interpretations of the things going on around. She embodies this in how she often seems sad or lost and has to be enveloped in all the fads going on (like being a hippy and doing drugs/being In peace movements). She, as opposed to Forrest, morphed to fit the time period and things going on. She wasn’t really happy with her life or identity so she changed herself with the times instead of noticing that times were changing. Forrest always stayed the same and doesn’t really change himself too much. He might go out and embark on something new like joining the army of starting a shrimping boat but he always wanted to and did go back home after very event. It is clear to see how history can be different for different people in the movie Forrest Gump because of the juxtaposing main characters.
The quote from Achenbach directly relates to the movie Forrest Gump in many ways. In the quote from Achenbach, (I’m paraphrasing) he says that history is a changing story overtime that has new additions, lost parts, and falsities as well. This is seen in the film as the world is seen through Forrest’s perspective, how he, like many young men, went to war in Vietnam, came home with a loss of a friend, and has flashbacks of his time. We can see that the film is trying to create a more personal approach through a loveable main character who became a Medal of Honor recipient and national hero. First off, Forrest Gump, the movie, is told primarily from Forrest’s perspective so the events in it are somewhat unreliable and you must make assumptions connecting what you saw to your knowledge. For example, when Forrest is staying at the Watergate hotel he calls the police unknowingly reporting a robbery which became the Watergate Scandal involving Nixon’s “Plumbers”. Forrest just thinks that the people are walking around in the dark building with flashlights to find a fuse box. The movie is great at showing current events of the time with the two opposite lives of Forrest and Jenny. They both show culture of the periods they lived in but Forrest lives more of an American dream, while Jenny represents the craziness of the times. They both started in the same town but Forrest did what people told him, went to college, fought in Vietnam, started a shrimping company then became rich off stock. Jenny grew up being abused by her father then went to a girls college, was a model, was a singer, experimented with drugs, was a part of Anti- war movements and never really settled down until it was too late. Through these two fictional characters we have a brief understanding of the history of the time period. At the end of Achenbach’s quote, it explains that history is a mess of events but it’s a process of finding what we can learn from it. The movie showed that in the more crazy path, like Jenny, could lead to disaster, like her death caused by AIDs. We can learn and take notes from history to assure a better future.
The movie Forrest Gump applies to the Joel Achenbach quote given that the entirety of both Forrest’s and Jenny’s lives were influenced by the time they lived in and the subsequent state of society and culture. As new elements were introduced to society, it shaped the characters’ lives. For example, the hippie movement of the 1970s had a major influence on the otherwise obedient and normal Jenny, who was swept up in the rebellion of the decade and brought along for all it encompassed. This same element was later removed, as Jenny left behind the free-spirited life at the close of the decade, when she became a mother and got a steady waitressing job. The protest and peace 1970s were thus left as a relic to time, and causes and ideas were forgotten. Along with the passing of time comes the introduction of meaning to events that, in the moment, were not applied at all. For example, when present at the integration of schools, Forrest didn’t realize that he was present at anything significant in terms of history, yet later it was realized that the integration of schools was a major turning point in American history. The meaning was only applied later when a better view could be taken of the decade, once history had moved far enough past it. The fact that we can clearly see decades defined by music, clothes, events, and other societal norms only goes to supplement the claim in the Achenbach quote, that history is about imposing order. The time periods in Forrest Gump, such as with the news reports and advancements in fashion, such as the 1940s dresses to the hippie styles, to the 1980s hairstyles, delineate each decade for us watching now, looking at the times in historical context. By contextualizing and organizing the time periods shown, it helps us regard history as a story being told in sequential order, and classifies the time periods for us, allowing us to understand what is going on on a deeper level for the characters, the story, and the world in context.
The movie Forest Gump truly represents the quote from Joel Achenbach. It states that history is a story we tell, and it changes. Most of the time, when we learn history, it is told through the ideas of textbooks and documentaries. Forest Gump is different because it puts a face to people during this time period. You can see how history affected an individual or individuals, in this case Forest and Jenny. The quote also states that “History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process.” I think the movie did a great job of organizing everything that was going on during the time period. We saw the different paths that people took. For example, Forest decided to join the military, he got a job, and participated in the ping-pong diplomacy. On the other hand, Jenny became a hippy and died of AIDS. There was so much going on, and we got to see all aspects of it. The quote also states that causes were imagined. In Forest’s case, he never really knew the causes of anything. In some ways he did, but he mostly just did the things he was told, and did what he had to do. He didn’t really thing about why he was doing it. For example, when he played football for Alabama, he didn’t really understand why he was there or the cause for it. He knew he was a good runner, so he did it. He never really thought about the causes. Jenny, on the other hand, did understand what was going on, but she always seemed to get herself into situations where the causes led to bad situations (like when she got AIDS). Forest Gump really tied into this quote, because it told the story of the 1960s-1980s from different perspectives, and and addressed forgotten elements (such as the ping-pong diplomacy), and found meaning to this time period by putting faces the the effects that arose during this time.
The quote by Joel Achenbach is true and is shown in Forrest Gump very well. When Achenbach says “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added, others forgotten, myths invented, causes imagined, facts debunked. History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning.” All of these are seen in Forest Gump. The story that is told is a love story between Forrest and Jenny where as a kid she is the only other kid to have seemed to care about him. Forrest for the rest of the movie goes down this “All- American” path where he goes to college and plays football, goes to Vietnam and is awarded the Medal of Honor by President Johnson. After the war to remember his friend Bubba’s death he became a shrimp boat captain like he promised Bubba he would do and after a hurricane knocked out all of his competition he became a captain of shrimp and food industry as a whole. He became extremely wealthy and then invested in Apple, one of the highest grossing companies of all time. Everything just seemed to right for Forrest seemingly because he followed the “All- American” path. Jenny on the other hand did not follow the “All- American” way with being a hippy and involved with the Black Panthers at the end of the movie ended up dying of AIDS, which subliminally sent the message that if you follow the “All- American” way then good things happen but if you don’t you die of this horrible disease. Some new elements that were added to this story is that Forrest was responsible for a lot of popular American fads that were popular during the 70’s and 80’s. With the last part of the quote with inventing causality and finding meaning is the feather. The feather is causal but also has meaning. Forrest being the feather just going with the flow and singing where things take him, but Jenny being like the wind that pushes him because he is always effected by her throughout the whole movie.
I believe that Joel Achenbach is truly saying that history is different for each individual. It isn’t concrete. People that experience the same event, feel and tell the story completely differently. I think Forrest Gump represents this through the contrast in Forrest and Jenny’s characters. They live through the same time period and events, but both feel and experience these events differently. Forrest is a character that has a simple way of thinking, and this leads to his optimism and ability to look at situations in a positive way. Jenny is a very complex and insecure character, which leads to her negative outlook and conflicts throughout the movie. Although people look at Forrest’s intelligence as a negative characteristic, it allows him to get through difficult situations. Vietnam was obviously a terrible situation, but Forrest was optimistic and found happiness through the stars and remembering Jenny. Jenny was less sure of herself and what she believed in and stood for, which caused her to change with the times rather than allowing the times to change around her. The viewer sees this in Jenny when we watch her change from college with Forrest to a hippie jumping into cars with weird men and doing all sorts of drugs. Forrest never participated in the societal norms of the time period he was living in, which helped him to accomplish many things and be successful in many different fields. The movie really set Jenny and Forrest up as a great comparison between the different outlooks during the different time periods. I’m sure if they were to sit and write down their view of the same event they would write completely different things. That is what Joel is implying, that history holds value because everyone experiences it differently, and that’s a great aspect of history. Everyone has their own story and the goal of history is to learn and understand all the different sides and complexity of events and periods.
Forrest Gump represents Achenbach’s view of history because of Gump’s involvement in various aspects of the time period. Gump helped out African-Americans entering a school building, not understanding why people were angry with the integration of the building, entered the army; eventually meeting the President, was the face of the ping-pong diplomacy team, and began a large shrimping business and making several news headlines because of his running across the country; all of which are new elements added. People around Gump revered his achievements and created myths and exaggerations and expectations about him, the old man sitting next to Gump telling his story seemed to have thought a lot more of what Gump would be like because Gump owned a famous business in shrimp. Reporters and the media said much about Gump and inquired much about his running across the country, but none of them could truly know exactly why he was running, for none of them were in his position. Gump shows his experience in the military, why he felt how he did about it. Jenny’s experience with the peace culture in the latter half or so of the film represents the experience with 60’s and 70’s counterculture against Vietnam but showcases bad experiences with it, Jenny had been abused, and had experimented with drugs, and found herself lost, not knowing what she wanted. Gump’s story represents a rather linear and seems to attempt be a largely encompassing story of the chaotic and turbulent 60’s and 70’s. Gump covers many facets of the social and political time period, such as integration, Vietnam, peace counterculture, and diplomacy.
Joel Achenbach’s quote brings to mind the movie Forrest Gump for many direct reasons. First, Forrest finds himself in the middle of all of these mahor events in history and he seems to be just bumbling through his life. This is where I believe the feather analogy throughout the movie comes through, in that Forrest just goes wherever the winds of change take him and sees life through. He never really fully understands that he is a part of the history making events such as the Vietnam War or the integration of the University of Alabama. All of the major historical events that Forrest comes upon throughout the movie are as Achenbach mentions is really society trying to bring order to the unruly societal ways. Forrest is a lovable character and can easily be empathized for throughout the film. The entire movie is trying to say much as Achenbach said, moving with the ebbs and flows of society can sometimes work out perfectly fine. Most of the movie through the final 20 minutes is just a long recollection by Forrest while he is sitting at a bus stop, and he talks to the people that come by and sit even if they don’t really listen he still talks. Forrest’s recollection of his life events is very similar how history is recollected every day by people who have lived through it and through textbooks. Also much like history, how it ebbs and flows, the movie has it’s high points of Forrest going to college and becoming a star football player, to the lows of Jenny dying of AIDS in the final minutes of the film. Coming full circle with the movie at the end with the feather coming out of the Curious George book and flying away as it did at the beginning really tied up the whole movie in a great way.
I think what the quote is saying is that history isn’t actually what has happened in the past, but peoples experiences and interpretations of what has happened. One event could mean one thing to one person and something totally different to another person. History is just the attempt to put together millions of different interpretations, and who knows truly how accurate any recorded events are. I think the movie Forrest Gump connects to this quote very much especially through the main characters, Jenny and Forrest. I see them as two very contrasting examples of what I’ve said before, that people experience events and history differently. The movie is great at showing current events of the time with the two opposite lives of Forrest and Jenny. They both show culture of the periods they lived in but Forrest lives more of an American dream, while Jenny represents the craziness of the times. They both started in the same town but Forrest did what people told him, went to college, fought in Vietnam, started a shrimping company then became rich off stock. Jenny grew up being abused by her father then went to a girls college, was a model, was a singer, experimented with drugs, was a part of Anti- war movements and never really settled down until it was too late. Through these two fictional characters we have a brief understanding of the history of the time period. At the end of Achenbach’s quote, it explains that history is a mess of events but it’s a process of finding what we can learn from it. The movie showed that in the more crazy path, like Jenny, could lead to disaster, like her death caused by AIDs. We can learn and take notes from history to assure a better future.
This quote represents a really interesting way of looking at history. I never really realized that history was just stories that were being told again and again, and that different people could have the different views of what happened at the same event. The way this quote applies to Forrest Gump is that forest took literal events from history, and put them into a story he was sharing with different people. When it says “imposing order on a chaotic process” I feel as though that applies to the fact that there was a lot going on in history during those time periods but Forrest put them into a simpler and easier understandable way that everyone could comprehend. When the quote talks about adding new elements, causes imagined, and facts debunked, that is also represented in the movie. In the sense that while both Jenny and Forrest were living through the same events, they had completely different views on it. For example, during Vietnam, Jenny was at home protesting the war, while Forrest was actually in Vietnam doing the fighting. So even though they both went through the same event, if you asked either one about their experience in the Vietnam War, their answers would be completely different, and some facts may be skewed because they weren’t involved in each other’s aspect of that time. All it would take would be one person who added a new element into a story from history, and then that part of history will be different for the certain people who hear that adapted story. Also history is very interesting in the sense that the same event can be interpreted so many different ways. The people who were at home, protesting the war, had a much different view of the war than the people who were actually fighting in the war, and that is why the quote relates to the movie so much. People can just add different facts and some people will believe it, and in the end history is just an ever-changing story.
I believe that Joel Achenbach’s quote is saying that history is far from concrete, but instead, is made up of pieces from each individual’s experiences. Similarly, as history is passed down through people and generations, stories change, myths are created, and elements are added. I think the movie Forrest Gump encompasses this quote through the two main characters- Jenny and Forrest. The two main characters have very different takes on their time period because of the way their personalities affected their experiences. Where Forrest is more of a laid back, go-with-the-flow kind of guy, Jenny is more aware of everything going on around her and has a stronger need to fit in. Forrest had the same point of view as many of the men of his generation. He was shipped off to fight in Vietnam, and experienced the tragedies of war that many people can only imagine. He also experience the integration into University of Alabama. These are both huge events as well as turning points for U.S. history, but because Forrest is such a free spirit he doesn’t even process this. Jenny, on the other hand, who was more insecure, allowed the changing time periods to sweep her up and she changed herself to fit the time period. You can really see this in hippie movement of the 1970’s where she completely changed who she was to fit in with everyone else. Forrest Gump is a perfect example of Joel Achenbach’s quote because it shows the 1950’s through the 1970’s from an uncommon point of view, and touches on forgotten events of the time period. By using two very different characters, we can see that the best aspect of history is that everyone experiences it differently and everyone has their own experiences to share and stories to tell.
The quote, “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added, others forgotten, myths invented, causes imagined, facts debunked. History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning,” by Joel Achenbach, applies to Forrest Gump. This movie shows how history isn’t just facts and dates; it’s people who have different perspectives and memories of events. Everyone reflects on things in diverse ways, such as the ways Forrest and Jenny viewed the Vietnam War. Forrest, as a soldier, saw the war as an opportunity to free the Vietnamese and meet new friends. Jenny, as a hippie, saw it as the tyranny of the imperialistic United States. People also remember different things about certain occurrences. Another example of this would be that Forrest looks at his stay in the military hospital after being shot in the buttocks as a positive time period, as he got the chance to cultivate his passion for Ping-Pong. Lieutenant Dan Taylor saw it as the worst time of his life, as both of his legs were amputated. Forrest Gump also shows how history can be modified and romanticized overtime. People can make things up about history, in the manner that the quote described. The reporters that covered Gump’s three year run kept attempting to create reasons why he was doing it, attempting to romanticize it and add to the story. History is a way of finding meaning and imposing self-perceived order on the world. This is shown in the movie through the different ways that Jenny and Forrest react to events and participate in their time periods. In the 1970s, Jenny found meaning in this time period by joining the protest movements and traveling all over the nation with a band of hippies. Forrest dealt with this time period differently; he became a mega-rich ship captain. The movie Forrest Gump adds a comical edge to the message that history is more than just facts and dates; its people.
Forest Gump’s life through the 50s-80s can be accurately summed up with a quote said by Joel Achenbach said, “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added, others forgotten, myths invented, causes imagined, facts debunked. History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning.” Tom Hanks in Forest Gump lived through these chaotic time period but, he also created the story that we cal history. Starting off in Vietnam, Gump accurately represented Achenbach quote by telling us about every single detail during the war. Later in the movie Jennie asks him if he was ever scared in Vietnam and he said no because at night he would have the stars to look up at. History is made up off 1st source documents and people who EXPERIENCED the events. Although Forest was fictional, our history of Vietnam is told through stories of veterans, wives at home, government officials and many many more people. The movie Forest Gump basically covers all the large events, nationally and internationally, during his life time including ping-pong for diplomacy,the desegregation of University of Alabama, Hurricane Carmen, the start of Apple, the start of the AIDS/HIV outbreak, accidentally starting the Watergate Scandal case, and of course, sparking John Lennon’s idea for his biggest hit, Imagine. All of these events are intervened into a love story between the two main character, Forest and Jennie. Forest Gump applied his experiences with the chaotic time period to tell his beautiful story. I don’t know if Forest found meaning in his life but on the other hand, Jennie did. After taking a whole different life pathway then Jennie, she was apart of the first ‘Hippy’ movement. She was used by men, had thoughts of suicide, and did Heroine, the drug of the time. Doing Heroine most likely caused Jennie to die of AIDS by the re-using of needles with other people. I’m sure that Jennie and Forest had different perceptions of the time periods. Example: while Forest was fighting in the war and saving Lieutenant Dan, Jennie was marching across DC participating in anti-war movements. The two had different experiences but both are included in their love story, and OUR story of history. This shows that history isn’t only taken from one person or one event but, a whole group of people. History is only the stories of our forefathers, who knows if its even remotely accurate.
As Achenbach states in his quote, the story of history changes depending on the individual as well as how each event affects them. Essentially, history is different for each person and their situation. This is seen in Forrest Gump as Forrest was involved in major events like the Vietnam War and what turned out to be the Watergate Scandal, involving Nixon and his administration, while Jenny tended to lean towards the more liberal side of history, becoming a hippie, doing drugs, and being involved in Anti War movements. Forrest went along with history and never questioned the changing times. Jenny, on the other hand, was constantly questioning the changes taking place. Forrest’s “story” Achenbach relates history to, follows the desired path of a white male throughout the 1950s and into the 1980s. He joins the army, receives a Medal of Honor for his service, becomes a Ping Pong star, and opens Bubba Gump Shrimp which makes him incredibly successful. Jenny’s “story” follows the hippie side of history. She goes where life takes her, which ends up getting her into trouble as she gets AIDs which became a growing epidemic throughout the 70s and 80s. Jenny and Forrest had contrasting lives with contrasting paths. The quote tries to get at the fact that each person may forget or remember certain events because of how they were affected by that event. One event could be significant to one person, but completely meaningless to someone else. History is one big story composed of countless smaller stories based on how certain people reacted towards them. In Forrest Gump, liberals, like Jenny, are portrayed in a bad light as it showed Jenny’s struggle with drugs and her unfortunate battle with AIDs. People like Forrest Gump were what conservatives wanted the 50s through 80s to be shown as, but there was also a completely different story of this time that is not as glamorous.
I believe that it was the intent of Joel Achenbach to say that history is not the events that have previously occurred, but rather how we interpret the events and weave them together to tell a story of the past. Due to the fact that there is no one correct way to look at history, many different interpretations of a single event or set of events can arise. This philosophy on history can be seen very clearly in the movie Forrest Gump. The two main characters of the movie, Jenny and the titular character Forrest, live through the same the period but have very different involvements with the events that transpired. Jenny has a very serious view of the world around her and actively tries to influence what she does and where she ends up with her life. In trying to get things to go her way, she often finds herself dissatisfied with her current situation and, on more than one occasion, contemplates suicide as a way out. On the other side of the spectrum is Forrest. Forrest has a very laid back view on life and takes things as they come. Over the course of the movie we can see that he gets involved with the war efforts in Vietnam, meet the Black Panthers, becomes a ping-pong diplomat, and even starts his own shrimping business. Forrest, for the most part, is much happier and content with his life than Jenny is with hers. Ultimately the two of them end up together and their stories converge for the last time. Both of them have lived through the same events, but the perspectives that they have had about them are radically different and yield some very different results. Forrest becomes a single father of his and Jenny’s child. Forrest is a single father because Jenny died of AIDS. Two more characters show this contrast between Forrest and Jenny; Lieutenant Dan, and Forrest’s mom. They each have their own philosophy on life, being that everyone had a destiny and that everyone is just floating around with everyone else, respectively. Jenny aligns more with Lieutenant Dan’s beliefs and Forrest aligns with his mother’s. This is what I think about how the movie is trying to tell a story about history.
I think that this quote represents the movie “Forrest Gump” in many different ways. I think the quote is saying that history isn’t just a bunch of dead people and former events in the past, but is a long going story that people have lived through and told for centuries. Forrest Gump, who lived through some pretty heavy stuff, did not see things like the Vietnam War or the ping pong team, viewed it as present events in the present time, not as history, even though; those certain events he lived through did make history. All the movie is is a big gigantic story about Forrest Gump’s life. You can see this story especially when he tells the descriptive narratives at the bus stop. He tells stories about his childhood and meeting Elvis Presley to telling the war stories of Vietnam. The Vietnam stories especially got to me because he tells them with such detail and passion. The part of the story where he save his platoon from being blown up, disobeys Lieutenant Dan’s orders to leave on the ground to die, and saves Bubba only to watch him die could be made into a book. If every detail about Forrest’s experience in Vietnam was told and written down, it would just be another story about a soldier’s experience in Vietnam as Forrest had told us in the movie and that story would be a piece of history. Another thing mentioned in the quote is the fact that you find meaning throughout history. For example, in the movie, there is this conflicting reason between destiny and floating around in the wind throughout your life. In the movie, we see the “found meaning” through Lieutenant Dan’s destiny of dying in the war, but he doesn’t. He finds a new destiny and meaning in life by being with Forrest on the shrimp boat and finding a new wife. We see the floating around the wind view on life through Forrest living his life and floating around through certain events in history. Jenny’s story is her struggle to find meaning in life and makes decisions in the counterculture of the 60’s against the social norm and does not find her meaning in life until she has a kid and marries Forrest. The movie also mentions stereotypes and how they changed throughout history and in Forrest’s life.
This quote really ties in with the movie and everything it stands for. Many times throughout the movie Forest tells events that happened in the past not necessarily how we have learned them but how he remembers them and interprets them in his head. This basically shows that history isn’t a concrete thing that is all the same. Many people account for different stories that make up our opinions and ideas about what has happened in the past. We often base much of this off books but even those can be biased if you will because of who may write them. The feather in the movie also symbolizes a huge thing for Forest in his life because he goes where life takes him but also makes good decisions he knows he will benefit from or feel fulfilled from in life. Whereas Jenny lets events shape her and doesn’t truly make decisions for herself that often lead her down the wrong path and it is hard for her to go in a positive direction once again. The movie is trying to tell a story of Forest’s life but also give us context clues to what is happening at this time and how it is affecting him. As a class we knew all the events that had taken place but it was interesting seeing Jenny take a radical path in that time and Forest staying traditional with his values; going into the army, helping wounded veterans, and then starting a business of his own. Another thing that the quote states is how we often eliminate or “forget” facts and put an order to the ones we feel are important. This means that often we only take in and remember things we know are important and that will help us in the future and we often group it in a way so others can understand as well. In Forest Gump this happened because although they didn’t give us every detail we knew the basis of what was going on and we only were informed of major events that shaped everyone in the movie’s lives.
The movie, Forrest Gump, relates to the quote from Joel Achenbach because the story of the movie keeps changing based on what is going on in the rest of the world. The movie is trying to tell a story about history because you can see Jenny following many of the new trends in America. In the movie, you also see Forrest just going with whatever happens and many things that happen to him are a part of history. An example of Jenny following a trend in America is when she became a hippie and started traveling across the country. When the movie shows this, it tells a story about how someone could have become involved in many historical events in America. Another example of how the movie tells a story about history is when a single person, Forrest meets three presidents, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. It tells a story because he was able to meet the presidents from many different smaller stories that he did like being an All American football player, saving lives in Vietnam, and playing ping pong for the U.S. Army team. When Forrest meets all of these presidents it shows even more history like when he stayed in the Watergate Hotel and exposed the Watergate scandal not even knowing what he was doing. The story in the movie also includes Forrest meeting many other famous people and influencing them like Elvis and John Lennon. Another way the movie shows history is when Forrest and Dan’s shrimp boat was the only one to survive the hurricane and also when Dan invests money into Apple which Forrest thought was a fruit company. Lastly, the movie shows a story because of at the end when it showed Jenny had AIDS. The AIDS epidemic in the movie told a story when Jenny had it because it also showed her life decisions before and AIDS tied in with many of her life choices. The movie, Forrest Gump, told a story about history because it followed Forrest’s life including many important historical events.
Forrest Gump
Caty Hemming
3rd
The quote by Achenbach relates to the movie Forrest Gump in many ways. Both the quote and movie are about learning about yourself and how you affect things and how things affect you. Achenbach says, “History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning”. This can be seen in the two protagonists of the story, Forrest and Jenny. Each of them took a different path through history exploring and becoming a part of history. Forrest who was mentally slow, led this amazing life caused by a series of events. For instance, because he had a problem with his spine as a child he learned he could run after being teased about his spine issue. His running skill led him to be on the football field; which gave him a scholarship to college. He then enlisted in the army and fought in the Vietnam War, where he met his friend Bubba with whom he promised to go in the shrimp business after the war. While in Vietnam, Forrest won the Congressional Medal of Honor while trying to save Bubba’s life. While in Washington D.C. after getting his medal, he noticed some flashlights in another building that were keeping him awake. He called to complain about it. Those flash lights were Nixon’s plumbers. Forrest had caught the plumbers responsible for the Watergate Break-in! After his success in the army, Forrest kept his promise and became a shrimper; a very successful one too. His shrimping partner (who was his commanding officer in Vietnam, whose life he saved) invested the money they earned from their business in Apple and they didn’t have to worry about money anymore. While all of these crazy and incredible things were happening to Forrest, Jenny was living a much different life. She got kicked out of her college and while Forrest was in Vietnam she became a stripper. After a bad encounter with Forrest where she worked, Jenny hit the road and became a hippie. During this time of her life, Jenny continually made bad life choices and those choices eventually killed her. Each of these characters took two different paths in history affecting and changing history more than they knew. History is often seen as a series of random events, but when you take another look at it, you find patterns, where a chain reaction can be seen and the seemingly randomness is taken out. The movie “Forrest Gump” is a perfect example.
I think what the quote is saying by Joel Achenbach is that history isn’t really about the facts or about what happened, but it’s more about the stories and your own interpretation. History is about piecing stories together which could mean one thing for one person, and a different thing for another. Forrest Gump is an example of this quote. Throughout the movie Forrest was describing what the Vietnam War was like for him and the events going on in his life, which was probably different from Lieutenant Dan’s POV. Lieutenant Dan thought it was his destiny to die in the war, while Forrest thought everyone should’ve lived. This event explains Achenbach’s quote because Dan would’ve seen the war as a horrible thing and an eye opener. He had lost his legs during the war and he would see the war as cruel and unforgiveable. Forrest had seen the war as an eye opener but in a different way. It led him to the sport ping-pong and his best friend. Forrest and Jenny are also an example of this quote. They lived in the same time period but they both had different perspectives. Jenny changed herself as time kept changing leading her to drugs, being a hippie, and the peace movement. Her rough childhood also had led her to be more serious and see things more symbolic; while for Forrest he had a very light interpretation and stayed the same throughout the entire movie. Another example would be Forrest going on his long run with people trailing behind him. Forrest was running only because he felt like it, but the people following behind said it gave them hope. This shows how the stories and events going on are interpreted by the people around. Even though it was only a run to Forrest, to others it was hope.
The movie Forrest Gump gave different, interesting perspectives on history. On one hand, you have Forrest, who just floats through life, doing what he thinks is right and inadvertently causing huge changes in American history. On the other hand you have Jenny, who is lost for much of the movie and trying to find her way, trying different things as the times change, many of them bad. The quote basically said that history is a story that the people change through their actions, and I think that that is supported in the movie. When you look at Forrest you see a guy who is very simple, and instinctively does what he thinks is right, and doesn’t really change with the times. Instead, he causes the times to change through his actions, many times on accident. An example would be when he reported the plumbers at Watergate when he saw flashlights in the room across from him and thought they had blown a fuse box. Throughout the movie, Forrest accomplished many things, such as earning the medal of honor, starting a multimillion dollar shrimping business, and being named all American in football, and witnessed several pivotal events in American history firsthand. Yet, through all of the changing times, he stayed true to his values and did what he thought was right, and influenced American history, creating his own story as he went through life. Jenny was a very different character. Through most of the movie, she was messed up. This can be traced back to her troubling childhood, which caused her to get involved in things like the hippie movement, and also made her make very bad choices, such as taking drugs and living a wild lifestyle, eventually leading to her getting aids. In the movie, she kept changing, trying to adapt to the times, before realizing what really made her happy was living back home with Forrest. In conclusion, the movie gives two different perspectives on history from the point of views of very different main characters, showing how the story of history can be changed by individuals.
Forrest Gump is movie that focusses on the political and social changes of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, but, of course, can not include everything. The movie is a story about the history of America during that time, as chaotic as it may be. Achenbach states in his quote that history is a story told and the story changes. I believe he means that the story changes from person to person. For example, Forrest and Jenny remember the 60s, 70s, and 80s very differently. Forrest remember the war, desegregation at his college, and the hurricane while Jenny remember fighting for world peace (as a hippie) and being as wild as possible through drugs and alcohol. But these things were happening at the same time. History is not defined by one thing, it is a mesh of stories put to gather to try to find meaning and make sense of the times, as Achenbach explains. In Forrest Gump, as Forrest returns from war he is thrown into an anti-war rally as a veteran and did not know what was happening or what had gone on in America while in Vietnam. This relates back to Achenbach’s quote as he says, “a story we tell,” because Forrest would tell this story very differently that the others at the rally. Finally, the “forgotten elements” of history are in Forrest Gump as well. Such as the hurricane that ruined all the boats, except Forrest Gump’s. Also, the ping-pong tournament between America and China to restore relations is basically lost in history. Yet these elements are in the movie and show a different side of the time period. Through all these examples, the most prominent is the different stories taking place at the same time though Jenny and Forrest.
This quote is saying that history is a big story told from different points of view. One person may tell it from one side and another person may tell it from another. He makes a point that since this happens history is being told differently and changing is all the time. Forrest Gump is telling history from one man’s point of view. Its showing that many people believed certain things happened one way while Forrest told them differently. For example, people were told that Elvis Presley was the king of rock and he introduced a new form of dancing, but in fact Forrest was the one who taught how to dance. Each time history is told there is always something added or subtracted to how it was last told. Further, there are different points of view on how history is portrayed. For instance, the movie uses Forrest an innocent mentally disabled person to tell the story of his life. He tells us about how he joined the army and fought in the Vietnam war but he did not feel the same way as others did. He simply went to help his country not even knowing what the journey entailed. In addition, most people who went struggled mentally after being through all of the fighting but none of it really affected him. It shows us that while others saw all of the tragic things as terrifying and horrible he just moved on and told the story as it was. Other people may have dramatized all of the events that occurred but Forrest just told them the exact way it happened. This shows us that history is always changing one person’s point of view may be completely different from another. This changing view of history is the point that Achenbach is trying to make.
A common theme that pervades the entirety of Forrest Gump is the question of whether an individual has a destiny that is laid out for them at birth or whether the events in their life occur at random, as if they were being blown around by a breeze. In essence, the film asks the viewers whether they think life is ordered or chaotic. Joel Achenbach also addresses this concept in the quotation, “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added, others forgotten, myths invented, causes imagined, facts debunked. History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning.” Here Achenbach combines both views debated by the movie: life seems chaotic while we’re experiencing it, but we can organize it and order it when we look back at it all. This idea can actually be seen in Forrest Gump: Forrest witnesses several events that seemed insignificant to him at the time, but at the end Forrest is able to look back on all of these events and understand their importance. In fact, the entire movie is an example of Achenbach’s idea. For the majority of the film, Forrest is telling his life story to random strangers who happen to sit down with him; while he does this, he makes several realizations about the things that he experienced and about the people that he met along the way. If we take a step back and look at the film as viewers, we see yet another example of Achenbach’s quote: while Forrest doesn’t realize that the things he witnesses are significant, the viewer does because they have historical awareness that Forrest does not. The viewer is able to look back and understand the impact that events such as the desegregation of schools and the hippie movement had on American society because we have the benefit of time. The story of history is constantly changing, and sometimes the elements that are added cause new elements to be added later down the line, and then you can really see the method in the madness.
This quote can be applied to Forest Gum in the way that it talks about how history and what we believe to be true in it is constantly changing. When I first saw this movie when I was little I thought it was a true story because of the videos with Forest and the president and all that. This relates to the quote because that’s what I thought was actual history until I grew up and learned that CGI and video editing was a thing and Forest Gump is not an actual person. This leads to the whole “myths invented” part of the quote. Who’s to say that there isn’t a Forest Gump? He may not have the same name or experienced the exact events that Forest did, but one could say he is real. The actual Forest Gump in the movie is a fictional character, a myth, but in a way all of those who grew up in that era and witnessed the same things he did are Forest. This goes along with “inventing casualty”, especially in regards to two of the biggest losses in the film, Bubba and Jenny. Neither of them were real people, but they could have been. Jenny died during the AIDS epidemic, Bubba was one of the thousands of black men killed in Vietnam. It is unrealistic to say that there wasn’t one person with a similar story to Jenny’s or Bubba’s. Forest Gump, the movie not the character, is trying to tell as many stories and show as many points of view in history as possible. In the movie we see almost all of the important events in history happen from different points of view. We hear Forest’s opinion on assassinations, and sometimes the opinion on people on the bench with him. We see Forest meet the Black Panthers in the midst of the Black Power movement. We see PTSD and the pain of war in Lieutenant Dan and basically every aspect of an ever changing culture in Jenny.
The general meaning of this quote is that history is based on the beliefs and interpretations that people have documented about the actual events, not the events themselves. This is evident because throughout the time periods of America, there has been different schools of history that add, take away and manipulate the occurrences at said events to a specific belief. As stated by Joel Achenbach, “history isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell,” this is the basis of Forrest Gump. Throughout the movie, many important parts of our history are shown, yet some of these historic moments require inference. This is because of Forrest’s lack of intelligence mostly, considering how he referred to many presidents and political leaders as “that nice man” after news of their assassination. In a more plot related note, Forrest Gump depicts two different pathways that one would be subjected to take during that time and how each pathway shows different views of history. The most obvious example of this is the Vietnam War. While Forrest gets drafted and serves in the war, he believes that fighting for his country is most likely the right thing to do. However, when Forrest returns home, he becomes exposed the the path that Jenny took, the hippie/anti-war protestor path which goes against everything Forrest fought for and did. This contrasts both Forrest and Jenny as well as both pathways because it depicts two different views that is held by Americans and those views are represented by Jenny and Forrest. We can also see which pathway is the supposed “better” pathway in a sense. At the end of the movie, Jenny was infected and eventually died of AIDS after following her path and experimenting with drugs and associating herself with bad or the wrong people. Forrest on the other hand, chose the other pathway and made choices like playing college football, fighting in the war and receiving the medal of honor and becoming a very successful shrimp company owner. With this pathway, there were no setbacks or consequences, just positive things and the development of historical occurrences throughout the movie.
Jacob Bejune
Forest Gump Blog
The Forest Gump movie tells a message about how humans interpret history. Throughout the movie we see Forrest in many famous events; Vietnam, integration of Alabama university, meeting the president, etc. Forrest always finds a way to interpret the situation differently than many people do ad in turn show the significance of the event. For example, while playing Ping-Pong for the Army Forrest is happy to do what he enjoys and doesn’t really care why, while in reality he is playing in china so that Nixon can talk with china. Additionally, while visiting DC, Forrest witnesses men looking through a building with flashlights across the street. He calls the white house to tell them the power is out. Unknowingly, Forrest just caught the Watergate scandal. Achenbach claims that history is shaped by our perception. This is certainly true for Forrest Gump, whose perception of the world is radically different than the majority of other people. Jenny represents the normal view to contrast with Forrest. Before forest leaves for Vietnam, Jenny tells him to run away from the fighting. Ignorant of the danger, Forrest reply’s that he will miss her. Forrest see’s many important historical events simplistically and doesn’t understand their complexity. This portrays the human aspect of history. The opinions and views of the each individual impacts the way an event is seen. Southern racists might view the civil war as “The War of Northern Aggression”, while northerners might see the civil war as “The War of Southern Rebellion”. There are always more than one side to an issue. Another thing to consider is how the winners get to write history. The opinions and morals of the losers become the epitome of hated. Forrest Gump represents truly exemplifies the Joel Achenbach’s belief that history is an ever changing tale of the past.
I think that this quote is saying and explaining that history is just a concept that consists of stories and is only told thought those who lived the events. History didn’t just happen on its own, and their isn’t one certain way it’s ment to be interpreted. When Achenbanch says, “History isn’t the thing itself,but rather a story we tell, and the story changes…” it’s proven in Forest thought the way that he remembers and Tells his story of the war in Vietnam. For forest, he describes his experience as one that almost comes off very nonchalant about the air strike in the forest and him running back in to save the lives for four of the men he fought with, but if it was someone else, like on of the men that where saved, the story of that event in history would have been told much differently, definitely more of a sense of fear from those who where saved. As the quote explains, it’s not on exact way history is told, but rather thought the perspective in which it’s seen from. Another aspect of the quote that is shown and various parts of the movie is this idea of “forgotten elements” of history as a whole. Now, yes in the movie we see some of the biggest events that have shaped our world to wha it’s become today (I.e. Vietnam War, Watergate, the peace movement of the seventies and the assassination of MLK, Kennedy and John Lenon), but as we see in the movie, some of the most important things weren’t the war or the movements, but the history that made up Forest and Jenny’s lives. These are the miss elements of history. The stories or individual people that are never told to the public because they are over shadowed by the bigger picture event. Big or small, everyone’s story is what makes out history what it is, but often times the small parts that give perspective are over looked by the events that offer concete answers to what happened.
This quote about sums up quite well the life stories of Forrest Gump and Jenny Curran. To paraphrase this quote from what I think, I think its saying history is something that people experience and is retold by people from their perspective, and also the people that experience history, do it through trying to live their ordinary lives, and are oblivious to what they are doing, until many years later. This is exactly what Forrest Gump’s life story is about. He indirectly and directly influences and witnesses important events in history and is completely oblivious to all of it. But Forrest isn’t purposely trying to witness or influence history, he’s just trying to live his life. For example, he indirectly influences pop music in America in the 1950’s. This is because he meets a young Elvis Presley who stays at his house, and he shows him some dances that he enjoys while Presley is playing on the guitar. Elvis is inspired by the way Forrest dances and he begins to dance that way at his shows, and his style of dancing increases Elvis’ popularity, and makes Elvis’ music more popular, and sets the tone for the music of the decade. Basically what Forrest says about Elvis is that he was just a nice young man and Forrest just really enjoyed listening to his music and danced to his music and saw him on TV doing the same stuff he was doing in his room when Elvis was over. Another example of Forrest just trying to live his life and him witnessing history in the process is his decision to join the army after college. He is not sure what to do with his life at the moment, so he thinks joining the army isn’t such a bad idea. He joins the Army around the time that the Vietnam War is beginning to heat up and Forrest is sent to Vietnam as soon as he is done with Boot Camp. He lives a typical, not comfortable soldier’s life and even loses one of his best friends in the war. From Forrest’s perspective, he says the Vietnam war was just patrolling the jungle, looking for something called Charlie (Viet Cong), a bunch of bad rain, and becoming great friends with his commander, Lieutenant Dan, and a fellow infantryman, Bubba, and unfortunately, the terrible day that he lost Bubba. Forrest’s Vietnam experience was not that bad but the death of Bubba left an emotional scar in his memory, it was somewhat positive in some respects because of his connections he made with other people, but also a lot of negativity because of all the death. Jenny, although not featured as much as Forrest in the movie has her own unique experiences as well. In terms of her Vietnam experience, she disagreed completely with the war because she was surrounded by peace loving hippies and was even apart of protests of the war. Both Forrest and Jenny, in terms of the White American experience during the 1950s-1980’s, offer 2 different perspectives of history, one being conservative (Forrest Gump), and one being liberal (Jenny Curran).
The story of Forrest Gump is a perfect recreation of the quote supplied by Joel Achenbach. The entirety of Forrest’s life is an exaggeration of the dreamed causations of historical events that are fabricated in the movie. The sad fact is that we cannot ever be able to truly discern what actually happened in the past outside of recordings. Even our memories plague us with fallacy. Historians often try to place historical events in neat lines with clear causes and effects when in reality, it is not always so simple. Sure, you can get the occasional direct cause and effect action every once in a while, but most of the time, historians go beyond the thinking of those who actually perpetrated the historical event. Often these historical events we learn in schools and a surprising amount through the internet we discover are quite false. A prime example of this is the debunked story of Napoleon Bonaparte being short when he was actually quite tall for his time period, yet still short for this time period. Or how people tend to believe that Christopher Columbus thought the Earth was flat during his voyage when in actuality he just thought it was considerably smaller, yet still spherical. In terms of the Movie, Forrest was a big historical player that caused a huge ripple in American and foreign History without being entirely aware of what he was doing at all. He goes to Vietnam, becomes a millionaire, helps with Chinese diplomacy, Meets multiple presidents without even trying.He was a feather on the wind that is our history textbook. Perhaps this entire movie served as a criticism toward our modern day interpretations of history through our cause and effect view and rampant speculation. Or perhaps, I am the one who is speculating about the film.
Forest Gump is viewed through the pathways of forest and Jenny. Forest seems to take a more optimistic and curious path of life which is represented during the time period. We see the emergence of rock and roll when forest teaches Elvis how to dance. He then makes the journey to college and plays under Bear Bryant. We see him take advantage of the opportunities he had, and even had a role in civil rights, such as when he gave the student her notebook she dropped. He joined the Army, then receives a medal of honor and even becomes an American ping pong celebrity. During the war, the movie takes the view of the war being horrible for the United States, with Bubba dying. Forest saved many lives during the war as well, and this is seen as positive. Forest even exposes Watergate with Richard Nixon. He then goes on to create his own multi-million dollar business. Forest pretty much personifies what it means to be an all- American guy, and in essence chose the right path of life. Jenny, however, chose a different path. The movie portrays the teen delinquency of the sixties and seventies, when jenny gets kicked out of college. She shifts from job to job then becomes a hippy that is anti- Vietnam War. The film also displays civil rights issues and Black Nationalism with the “black panther party”. This lifestyle is seen as bad and subjects her to a life of sex and drugs. It even pushes her to the brink of suicide. In the end, Jenny dies because of the aids epidemic in the eighties. I interpreted this film through a pro government, pro ‘merica lens. However, the writer if this movie definitely portrayed issues facing America and its citizens from different aspects of life during some of the most controversial decades in our nation’s history.
The movie is trying to tell the story of history through the characters of both Forrest and Jenny. History is all about what two paths were taken; go with the flow or ‘Good God man, make a decision!’ We see that Forrest just takes whatever life hands him and he goes with it. Jenny is always about making decisions, granted bad ones, but it was still a decision. For the first half of the movie, we see a literal interpretation of the quote. Forrest is telling the various people at the bus stop about his story, as actual history. When Forrest and Jenny meet up later, Jenny adds new elements that Forrest didn’t know before or on his own. Both of their stories change when they tell it and how they tell it each time. You could ask different people to tell their view about the same event, but end up with completely different stories. In the Vietnam War, Forrest sees it as trying to find his friend, people being obstacles in his way. Bubba, and the other soldiers he saved, saw this as an angel sent from God moment. His general saw this moment as the worst thing to have happened. He was meant to die in this war, so he should have, but Forrest saving him messed everything up. Each person has their own story to tell, none of which is entirely made up of cold hard facts. Forrest’s story is nothing but chaotic, as he was thrown into every situation he came across, going with the flow as it came. But through all, there were common threads, such as Jenny, which made him keep going, and then to find meaning in the end, as with his son. True history is all about the story; some things can be verified as fact, while others should just be for the sake of a good story. Life is history; we see that with Forrest and the symbol of the feather. He puts order, by his various situations he’s thrown into, into the chaotic process of life, which is symbolized by the free falling feather.
This quote refers back to the debate over “true history”, where all facts are non-biased and every ethnicity is equally represented and respected in a description of a historic event. It opposes this theoretical way of recording history, saying it is a necessity to “invent casualty” and “find meaning”. This makes history more of a massive collection of individually unique perspectives compared to a singular master point of view. Two of said unique perspectives are shown in Forrest Gump, as Forrest and Jenny have 2 very different stories and lifestyles shaped by the different forces of the time period. Forrest is very narrow-minded, and simply adapts to whatever comes to him while remaining rather happy, not getting deeply involved or invested in many things. He fought in Vietnam, describing it in terms of what happened to him, overlooking and not even realizing the dark things occurring around him. For example, he treated Lieutenant Dan as if he had never had lost his legs, and when Dan was sent home, got introduced to ping pong and became a national celebrity. Jenny is the polar opposite, being deeply involved with the changing trends in society. Due to her abusive relationship with her father she becomes lost in a world of drugs, leading her to become a stripper and later on an advocate for peace (a hippy). While both main characters change to fit an image, Jenny fits into the big picture, the American society. Forrest changes to fit minor yet numerous actions brought to him such as running, Vietnam, ping-pong, Bubba-Gump Shrimp, and Forrest Jr. Jenny’s way of life can be compared to a more truthful way of telling history, as it is reflective of a large majority of people from 1950-1990. Forrest, who tells of events as he sees them, while not necessarily biased, had a version of history that was shared by very few people.
People often misunderstand history as one standard subject. Like Mr. Achenbach explained, history is a continuing process, an evolving story that adds and changes depending on what is brought into the light and what is left out. It is not a finite subject, nor is it a simple required school subject or just another section of a report card. History is also a complex life form, like a strand of bacteria. It is the same for everyone in clear light, but also different based on how people interpret it and how it affects them.
Departing from the cheesy philosophical stuff, I am going to explain an interesting part of the film. Forrest and Jenny both live through the same time periods, but they experience them differently. We see this for the first time when Forrest goes to Vietnam, and when Jenny travels the country practicing a liberal, free thought lifestyle. Both characters are connected to the Vietnam conflict, but Forrest experiences his friends dying and the tragedies of war and stateside, Jenny represents the domestic social issues with the war, including the widespread opposition of it.
Another notable historical event that these two characters experience is the AIDS epidemic. Due to Jenny’s wild lifestyle, she likely has numerous sexual encounters during her life and eventually gets the virus. And she dies! On the other hand, traditional homestead Forrest does not engage in this type of life and does not suffer from AIDS. Conservative Americans love this movie because this part manifests the lethal result of the poor choices Jenny made. After she leaves college we see this life begin and from the start of it she goes against tradition. The Conservatives that express those feelings try to show how successful Forrest was for being ‘normal’ and how much of a failure Jenny was for not.
I would like to bring my arguments together to conclude. Earlier I mentioned Jenny’s and Forrest’s different lifestyles and how people view them. This is interesting and proves my point because even though they are so different they both share the same time periods and just interact with them differently. That shows how history can be some black and white physical text you can remember, but you truly will not understand it until you apply it to yourself and look at alternate viewpoints. To tie this into Achenbach’s quote, history is a complex process that is always changing through myths, facts, and personal stories.
PS I did this on google docs and couldnt find a word count so i hope this is 300+ 🙂
This quote by Achenbach can be directly related to the movie Forrest Gump in more ways than one. Yes, people love Forrest Gump because of the lovable personalities and inspiring story of hard work paying off, but if you watch it from the perspective of an APUSH student (or any good US history student) you see that there is so much more to the story. This is what Achenbach was talking about when he said: “History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process.” The touching story that is Forrest Gump came from these chaotic events happening just at the right time. The points in history like Vietnam, Watergate, etc. all were key changing components in the story that effected Forrest’s decision altering his amazing story. These events help people to “find(ing) meaning” because they have tough choices to make when these chaotic events occur. History is a compilation of all the people of the world having a difference crisis. There were different crisis’ thrown at Forrest and Jenny as they went through their journey. The discovery of aids was unknown and that obviously took a toll on them. F G is putting together a heartfelt story with changes, added historical elements, forgotten elements, invented myths, imagined causes, and debunked facts to make the viewer feel for the character. People don’t just want to learn what happened it the past, they need a reason to care. F G gives people that reason. The viewer falls in love with his big heart and courage. When Achenbach says: “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell,” he is talking about this feeling for F G. He is telling a historical, factual explanation, with a deeper story. F G teaches us about the real people who were effected by these situations and how they all come together to create what is American History.
The movie Forest Gump takes us through history by telling the story of Forest Gump and Jenny. The movie reflects the quote because in the quote, Achenbach explains that history is not just chapters in a book, but a story that people tell about things that happened to real people. This is reflected in the movie because in the first part of the movie, Forrest is telling different people at the bus stop about his life. Forrest is also telling people about thing that happened to HIM, not just things that happened. Forrest puts the events of history into perspective by telling them through a first person lens. His story reminds people that history is a story about real people who actually lived and were affected by events, not just something we read about.
The movie also reflects the quote because in the quote, Achenbach explains that history is not set in stone. He explains that history is constantly changing because of facts that are debunked and myths that are being created continuously. This idea is reflected in Forest Gump because throughout the movie, Forrest directly affects different historical events. The fact that we do not learn about Forrest Gump affecting historical events in school despite the movie saying he was there shows that legends can be added or forgotten in history. Even though Forrest Gump is fictional, the same thing could happen to a real person or event. There could have been a person who affected different historical events, but they could have been erased from history. The moral of this movie and the quote is that you cannot think of history as something static; you must continue to search for the truth of history. This moral can be broadened to say that you cannot just accept everything people tell you as untainted truth. You must continue to research and make breakthroughs in science and art and all other fields. You must stay curious and continue to question.
The quote from Joel Achenbach is showing how history is just a story described from many different viewpoints. Every event has multiple viewpoints and this is shown very well in Forrest Gump. The contradicting viewpoints of Forrest and Jenny are a great example of this. Every event throughout history from the 60s-80s they each take a different viewpoint to. Each event they go through just adds on to the history, like Achenbach’s quote says. The movie starts off with Jenny and Forrest meeting and telling each other their “history” or their life story as Achenbach puts it. A great example of this quote applies is during the Vietnam War. Forrest goes to fight in the war and takes on the Vietcong. Jenny stays home and is against the war and transforms into a hippie. She travels freely around the country and goes wherever her music takes her. When Forrest is shot he is forced to leave combat and join the ping pong team. When he returns home he receives the Medal of Honor and meets up with Jenny again. Here you can really see the contrast of history and see how situations can change it. The first new elements are added to the story and Jenny and Forrest grow apart even more. After Forrest goes to work on his Shrimp boat Jenny becomes addicted to drugs and her life start going downhill. Forrest becomes successful while Jenny starts to struggle and eventually goes back to Forrest. This is the point where you can look back and find meaning in each of their histories. Forrest takes the approach where he doesn’t think and he just acts on where life takes him. Jenny thinks thing through and is a rebel towards society. Each of them take a different past but they end up together and get married. They each forgot the parts of their lives when they were mad at each other and joined together to make new history. Unfortunately Jenny dies from aids and their history together is cut short.
Throughout Forrest Gump elements of Achenbach’s quote are very prominent. In FG the dual point of view of Forrest and Jenny help to paint more of a in depth picture of the society during that time period. On the one hand you have Forrest who takes his chances with opportunities that arise as he drifts through life, finding ways to find light of a situation as he goes along. For instance, when he’s in Vietnam and he talks about how the sometimes the rain stopped and he was able to look up at all the stars, as he recalled, and remember how beautiful they were. He also shows his adaptability of his character when Jenny tells Forrest that he has a son that Jenny was raising without him. This most notably speaks to the part in Achenbach’s quote where he says, “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added…” On the other hand Jenny is, in some ways drifting through life, but in Jenny’s case she’s is constantly on the move trying to find meaning in her life, whether its by stripping, joining the peace corps, a member of the black panthers, or settling down as a single parent. This characteristic of Jenny’s life shows resemblance to the last portion of the quote thats says, “History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning.” This is because even though Jenny is bouncing around trying to find out who she is she grows and build her own character, eventually ending up with Forrest until her death. From the beginning of movie until the end, Jenny and Forrest show how the culture and the counterculture affected people of that time most notably with the devastating effects of drugs and AIDS which at the time wasn’t fully understood (as said by Jenny).
The quote is trying to say that history is different depending on who you ask. Everyone has different experiences and ideas about the past, and it completely depends on the situation at hand. The different understandings of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s are portrayed very well in Forrest Gump. For example, we have Jenny, who followed all of the trends and movements of the time period. We see her fight for world peace, become a hippie, become a drug addict, and then die form the epidemic of AIDS. These are very common things throughout the time period, and she was follower during most of her adult life. We also have Forrest, who is mostly the opposite. He was oblivious to most of the thoughts of the era, and he became very successful and unique. He did follow the trend of fighting in the Vietnam war, but while there he went against the flow and saved numerous members of his troop. Also, he played college football, ran across the country, owned a shrimping business, and played on the American ping pong team. Which you could say was not very ordinary. Additionally, Bubba unfortunately passed away while in Vietnam, like so many others during the war. If you asked Forrest about the time period, you would hear these amazing stories of triumph and glory, while if you ask Jenny or Bubba, the era was very hard and caused a lot struggle and fear. In response to things forgotten, the Vietnam War is known in history as such an awful thing, which it was. Though there were these amazing people, like Forrest, who were heroes and saved the lives of many. Although there were many truths in the movie, something very made up was Forrest’s trek across the USA. There was nothing in real life history related to this, and most of the movie other than this is somewhat based off real truths. When Forrest accidentally gives a speech during the anti war protest, this shows causes imagined, because most people probably thought that the cause of him talking was because he felt strongly about peace, but in reality it was just an accident.
When Achenback says, “History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing casualty, and finding meaning,” you can directly relate to Forrest Gump by taking the two lives of Jenny and Forrest and knit-picking out the details. The entire story of Jenny and Forrest was a mess, from Forrest being excluded on the bus to Jenny’s abusive father; and furthermore, later on, when they take hold of their adult lives. The meaning behind the entire story of Forrest Gump is essentially the idea of fate versus free-will. Forrest taking the conservative route in the era (fighting in the Vietnam war, taking each job put in front of him) and Jenny, more liberal, going around joining peace movements, sleeping around, and trying to pursue her dreams. Polar opposites of each other, they always attract each other. Their friendship has always been chaotic, nearly because Forrest let’s Jenny walk all over him, but always found the shallow end of the puddle. Which correlates to Achenbach talking about “inventing casualty”, which is demonstrated in the novel. Every so often the two would meet once again and have that spark they’ve always had before their views collide and cause them to separate, well, causing Jenny to run away from Forrest. The second part to the quote, “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added, others forgotten, myths invented, causes imagined, facts debunked.” At the end of the movie, Forrest goes into depth of the motion of life at Jenny’s burial area/tomb stone. Forrest announces to Jenny, “ I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.” Forrest finally closes the movie and brings the polar opposites together, which in all, is bringing the idea of (paraphrasing) new elements being added and the story changing. The idea of a grey area between fate and free will is what makes the story change. When Jenny tells Forrest about their child, that was where it blended. Physically and metaphorically. He brings the quote listed above up after speaking about his child. Now I may be wrong and this might seem like utter bullshit, but this was my take from the quote and the movie.
In the quote: “History isn’t the thing itself, but rather a story we tell, and the story changes, new elements are added, others forgotten, myths invented, causes imagined, facts debunked. History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning,” many things are being said about history. Even in today’s “history,” its all stories told from different people with different takes on an event or such that happened in their lifetime, they heard about, or were told about. This will be the same in the future to come, and even in the past as we’ve already seen. This quote clearly shows throughout the movie Forrest Gump because the movie is based on the story that Forrest tells to multiple people at the bus stop. Forrest tells about multiple events, such as the Vietnam War, from his point of view which varies from other’s opinions on events. When Forrest was talking about the war, he never talked about it as an awful thing that ruined his life as some other veterans may have. For instance, even throughout all the fighting and wartime, Forrest would look at the stars and be reminded of Jenny. For most things in his life, he took a positive outlook on them such as when he was shot during the war. When he was shot, Forrest had the positive outlook on life going for him because the only thing he cared about at that point was the ice cream in the hospital he was in. On the other hand, his lieutenant, Lieutenant Dan, lost both of his legs during the war and was in such a dark place that nothing could cheer him up at the time. In the end, Forrest took basically his entire life story, from his own perspective, and told it how he saw it in his own eyes. From there on, the people in whom Forrest told his story to would tell others from their perspective on what Forrest told them and so on. In history, that’s how history’s made.
It sees that this quote is arguing a point that we thought about at the beginning of the year– is the objective or revisionist school of history better? Achenbach is arguing the latter, that the revisionist school of history is better. He is saying that history is learned not through the cold, hard facts, but the stories told and the lives changed by the events that happened during the times we learn about. I think this quote perfectly describes the movie. Forest lived through and saw some of the most important events of his time with his own eyes. When he recaps the story of his life, we hear about all of these important, historical events and associate his story with the historical even that was happening at the time.
The writers of Forest Gump took the meaning of revisionist history to a whole new level. They put Forest into the middle of major historical event from 1960-1980. By telling Forest’s story, they can’t avoid telling America’s history as well. We think of Forest running through the forests away from the air raids and Litigant Dan dealing with the loss of his legs and we inadvertently learn about The Vietnam War. We think about Forest madly hitting Ping-Pong balls in the Army hospital and we learn about the Ping-Pong Diplomacy. We think of Forest cluelessly calling the hotel front desk saying the power went out and we learn about Watergate. The movie Forest Gump told history through a story, Forest’s life; they added some elements like Forest running across America; they forgot some pieces of history, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964; they created the myth that Forest taught Elvis his dance moves and busted the Watergate plumbers, but the movie found order and meaning of history through Forest’s life. At the end of the day, we may not remember the cause and effects of all those historical events, but we will always remember how they affected people’s lives by learning stories like Forest’s.
In my opinion, the quote given by Noel Achenbach could be applied many times throughout Forrest Gump. In his quote, Achenbach is saying that history is made up of experiences, not just facts. History is passed down by stories and writings, so naturally, there are aspects left out. In the movie, Forrest has many experiences from major events from that time period, such as the war and meeting the presidents. These events made Forrest happy to be in the country he lived in and made him trusting of the government. On the other hand, Jenny was desperate for adventure and got caught up in the wrong crowd. When she got into this crowd, she started making bad choices, like doing a lot of drugs. This made her outlook on the time period much less significant and meaningful, in comparison to Forrest. In saying that, I think Forrest and Jenny are complete opposites and foil each other in this movie. These characters allowed the producers to show two polar opposite sides of the time period. You either supported your country completely or you were against it. Not only were their outlooks on the time period opposite, their intelligence and education was as well. Forrest was not very bright and was only able to attend college because of his running skills. Jenny, on the other hand, went to college (though we don’t know how she did) and got into social politics. Forrests’ intelligence makes him very trusting and helps him in all of his adventures. Forrests’ education gets him into the most important events during this time. Jenny’s intelligence makes her doubt, whether it be the government, her lifestyle, or her beliefs. This causes her to be a part of a lot of popular social movements and more “adventurous” in her lifestyle. Forrest Gump shows two different lives in this time period
I think that the quote is saying is that events in history obviously can’t change but over time little details are discovered and added to the stories, and along with that, little details are forgotten. Sometimes false information gets added, one little thing that is nothing to one person means everything to another. In the end its about finding meaning of why these events are important to us. I think that Forrest Gump relates to this quote because, Forrest is so simple he sees things in a way that you don’t have to think about. Forrest doesn’t really process much that is going on around him. Big events that we would be terrified to take part of he never even flinches. When he was attending the University of Alabama, and African Americans were starting to attend, he doesn’t care, while other people are protesting. He didn’t let the change of the country effect him and how he lived. He achieved many great awards as well, as meeting the president twice he just brushes it over his shoulder. On the other hand Jenny is very aware what is going on, and is very involved with moments throughout the country. She goes with the time period and when it changes throughout the country it also impacts her. Jenny and Forrest were two completely opposite characters but were such great friends. Both characters go with what Achenbach is trying to convey by his quote. They lived in the same time period in the same town, but the same events effected their lives in completely different ways. Forrest went to Vietnam not really for any reason, mostly to make friends, and Jenny was apart of a huge protest against the war. They both remember and lived through these events but they see these things in history differently, remembering little details but not the same details.
I think the quote relates to the movie in which it explains that history has elements added and some stories forgotten. I guess you could compare Forrest’s story to Jenny’s and how we know more about him than her. Forrest went to college, played an extracurricular activity which was football, joined the army during the time of the vietnam war, saved a lot of his comrades in the process, survived, went back home, took care of his mother, got rich but shared his wealth with others. Forrest is the all American man. He lived life but in a way that society fully approved of. Let’s not forget that he got the dream girl of his life and a son. As for Jenny’s story all we know is that her dad probably molested her, she was fortunate to get away from her father, she went to live with another relative, went to college, became a hippie, then she became a junkie, cleaned herself up, and transformed into a stable, loving wife and mother. Now relating the movie back to the quote, Forrest’s path was like go with the flow but he followed the right directions. We might know so much about Forrest because the movie is trying to portray that as long as you are responsible and follow the rules moderately then all will be well. Then you have Jenny, who went on the rebellious path. She lived her life too but she was careless, she supported groups that pushed for change or protested against what was supposed to be accepted without a doubt. We get a little glimpse of her hippie life those moments just showed how much of a wreck she was becoming. When the Black Panther was yelling about minorities being sent in the front line to be killed off first I believe you could make good comparison to the quote as to how stories like that weren’t really important facts of history and how they were forgotten…but now stories like those are added into our textbooks because they hold more value than they did back then. To sum it all up, history is mostly polished stories. Stories that look and sound good for certain groups that represented what their role in society was supposed to be and they just went along and perfected it. Sure, we get a little glimpse of immaculate rebels, reformers, and things that make you cringe to the point that you think “what were they thinking?”. Forrest is what history is molded around and Jenny represents the stories that we get here and there or we just don’t hear them at all.
If you want me to get super deep then I could say that even though we get peeks into minority and women struggles the man always dominates, you know. The Anglo-Saxons are the ones that get to tell HIStory. People like Forrest is what it’s all about and people like Jenny are either seen as outcasts, outrageous, bad, and/or not worthy enough to be duly noted. But it’s 11 at night and I’m just overthinking. I hope this made since. I don’t think I wrote it as good as it sounded in my head.
The movie Forrest Gump applies to Achenbach’s quote because we see history come about from the 50s-80s and how time has emerged everyone else including Forest. He recalls history as he remembers it at the bus stop. He talks about people he’s known and what impact they’ve had on his life. When Forest is given an order he goes through with it and makes his own out of whatever life throws at him. In Vietnam Forrest lost a fellow partner named Bubba. He tells his story of that time talking about Bubba how he adored shrimp and when he died he was his only friend at the time. Forrest doesn’t talk about the Vietcong, fighting communist, nor does he dwell on how hard the war was. I think this part of the movie touches on Achenbach’s quote when he says “History is a process of imposing order on a chaotic process, inventing causality and finding meaning.” We remember history based on our experience at the time not on recorded history by documents or books. The movie made me understand that people obliviously go through history and only remember events by people and places. In Forrest Gump, the movie portrays two types of people those that go through life and whatever it takes them through and those that have a set destiny in life. Jenny she had this idea of singing on stage and being remembered. History transformed who she was from a hippie, to a cocaine abuser, and then eventually a working mother. Jenny all through her life was unaware of the terrible choices she made until after the fact when she’s finally feels ready to marry Forrest. All along she had morphed herself into what was going on around her finding herself always unhappy. Forest went with whatever life threw at him even with the racism in his early life to the Vietnam War and the great hurricane he remembers history through the faces and places regardless of all that’s happened. He made meaning out of his life.
I believe that this quote is saying that history should not be looked at as the facts but instead the memories and experiences the people of these had. Forest Gump is an excellent example of this because the main character, Forest Gump lived through those times and had many experiences through the sixties and seventies. His friend Jenny also had many experiences but they were much different. While Forest sees everything so simply and goes with the flow, Jenny makes her own decisions even when they aren’t the best. For example, after being handed a poster at his graduation, Forest decides to join the army and then later receives a medal of honor for his courageous acts of saving his platoon. On the other hand, Jenny stays home and protests against the war, here she experiments with drugs and gets herself in some pretty dark situations. Forest represents the conservatives of this time period in the sense that before the war he went to college to play football, and then after the war he came home and started a shrimp business. Jenny represents the liberals of this time where she goes and tries to become a singer after her childhood of being abused. Forest Gump shows the conservatives in a more positive light because Forest overcame all the challenges thrown in his way and became rich and successful, whereas the liberal, Jenny, made horrible decisions almost every chance she got and ended up dying of AIDS. Even though the liberals were shown in a more negative light this movie was able to show us a somewhat accurate description of the time period for both of these two groups. It shows the tragedies that they both would face and the ways in which they would face them. From these examples and the quote by Joel Achenbach that history cannot be contained in only the facts but it must also be shown in the people’s memories as well.
Throughout the movie, Forrest and Jenny are influenced by society and the changes the nation faces during a time when the study of medical was advancing while the nation surges into the Vietnam War and into new cultures like being a part of the hippies category of people. Achenbach’s quote is well proven by the movie Forrest Gump because all of the points are hit. From what I know, history is made of a series of people’s interpretations, gossips, facts, and people’s experiences. And when Achenbach says “we”, I believe he refers that to everyone because it is the people in American history who make history happen and see what happens in their own way. Forrest Gump had become a soldier in the Vietnam War and saw the war in a more clueless way than what I’ve heard from other Vietnam War veterans. He did highlight what happened but in a different way from what I learned in class. For example, there was a part in the movie where Forrest first came to Vietnam and was being introduced to how relaxing and at peace the village was with only the military, but what I learned in class was that during the soldiers stay at the villages, the soldiers became closer and more comfortable with the Vietnamese villagers. The movie’s portrayal of history differs from other factual documentaries on history. The new elements added were the attitudes and people in the movie that made the history illustrated more interesting. New discoveries, more curiosities, and more truths are constantly occurring in history just as it showed in the film. Like Achenbach, I believe that history is like a well organized summary of chaotic events and an analyzed study that we are always trying to find explanations for. How Jenny naturally became a hippy during the 1960s showed how people from both the country and city had their own set of beliefs and started coming into large organizations to support a cause. The fact that Forrest became a soldier after recruiting methods and conscription came into play was also neatly shown in the movie. The movie moves its viewers into a series of decades through social and political changes in the nation by putting its characters into these points in history and lets fate do its job. By doing this, the movie tells a story about history during the 1950s-mid 1980s while staying true to the character’s personality and character.
Both the quote and the move bring together a single idea, perspective is everything. Whether your experiencing an event, or learning about it in a class; the viewpoint you look at it from changes the entire meaning. The movie displays this by placing the same events under two contrasting perspectives. Forrest and Jenny view the world in very different ways. Forrest’s innocence allows him to see the good in everything without realizing the darker parts of the world. While at the same time Jenny lives in the darker parts of the world and only glimpses the good through Forrest. For example Forrest goes to war in Vietnam but he never fully grasps that his actions are hurting the people and the land in Vietnam, nor does he even question why he’s fighting. At the same time Jenny is participating in the civil rights movement which is all about questioning and defying societal norms. The actual lives of Forrest and Jenny change the perception of these events because they are looked on from the viewpoint of the character in them. Jenny’s experiences seem darker because how she sees them and Forrest’s seem happier because that’s the way he regards them. That’s all history is: stories told from different perspectives. No matter how many times you look at a single event if you change the perspective even just a little, the entire story can change as well. That’s what the quote’s all about, how a viewpoint changes history. Because of the ever changing perspectives from the people recording the events to those telling you about them, history is never true. It’s constantly dependent on how you look at it; furthermore, it’s not just history that changes but reality as well. From the things happening today to the things that happened a thousand years ago, your interpretation of everything changes by how you look at it. Perspective is everything; both in history and in life. It is only by looking at something from as many perspectives as possible that we can come close to the truth.
This quote from Joel Achenbach applies to the movie Forrest Gump because of how it illustrates just how much Forrest and Jenny’s lives are influenced by the time period they’re going through. Their lives make history sound like a “story we tell”. Forrest starts his life as a young southern Alabama boy that doesn’t understand slavery that goes on to join the military and soon become a millionaire selling shrimp. Jenny comes from the same place but goes on to live like a hippie and experiments with drugs, while somewhere along the way picking up a deadly and popular disease at the time, aids. Both of them tell a story throughout history, and give two examples of the different lifestyles living parallel with the interesting American time period. When Achenbach says that “new elements are added”, I think of how Forrest is added into each part of history in some way or another. He goes into Vietnam and becomes a war-hero, he meets the president after participating in the ping-pong diplomacy, and even gives Elvis his signature dance move when he was a child. Forrest acts as a floating piece throughout history in this movie, and shows how these different time periods and different pieces of history had an effect on its’ people. As Achenbach is saying, Forrest is being used in these historical events to give an idea of how the people impose an order to the crazy events that occur. Instead of Forrest just being a character that goes along with the time period’s thoughts and segregation, he is used to counteract society’s thoughts, like at the integration of The University of Alabama. Jenny is showing the worse parts of the time period, and how the bad early years with her family led to her turning to drugs and living on the edge. Unlike Forrest, Jenny is molded by how society sees things, and shows us a popular lifestyle of a hippie at the time. This whole movie showed us how the history of a time period isn’t just the events that happen, but that it can be illustrated by telling the story of the lives that were impacted by those events.