The Sprit of Forrest Gump
The sprit of Forrest is religion. Religion is defined as a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny and an institution to express belief in a divine power (Dictionay.com). Maybe Forrest was trying to tell us something: "Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes." Forrest Gump the movie has many hidden religious themes from a floating feather (the hidden) to freak acts of God (the prevalent).
An abstract feather blowing in the wind starts this film and a timeless adventure. The feather wafts along, almost alighting on several "acceptable" people, finally settling on Forrest, sitting on the bench, waiting for the bus. Mark 1:10: "...he saw...the Spirit descending like a dove on him." "Our destiny is only defined by how we deal with the chance elements to our life and that’s kind of the embodiment of the feather as comes in. It can land anywhere and it lands at you feet it has theological imputations that are very huge". This quote is from Tom Hanks the actor who played Forrest Gump. This is the cumbersome tale of an adventure for Forrest Gump we never know where the film is taking us.
Who or what is Forrest Gump? Is he a simpleton? An idealist? A moral paragon? In this movie it's more appropriate to describe him as what he isn't. Forrest lives in a world that derides him as stupid but, as Mrs. Gump says, "stupid is as stupid does", and in this movie it's everybody else who seems to cross that behavioral line. Jenny stumbles from one bad trip to another, Lieutant Dan loses his legs, then his mind at war, while everybody else seems to engage in acts of relentless, well, stupidity. All through this adventure Forrest is the constant: he sees the world in simple terms, intent on doing the right thing. In this movie it's not Forrest that's retarded, it's the rest of the world. In this movie Forrest was not very smart but he did take to running "now it use to be that i ran to get where I was going I never thought it would take me anywhere."
Forrest started off to run at an early age, he did this to avoid ridicule from boys his same age but he did this with the encouragement of Jenny. (She is)"The sweets and most beautiful thing I have seen she was like an angel" Forrest did see Jenny as an angel and she came and went into his life like an "angel". Angels can be found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism typically meaning the same: benevolent celestial being that acts as an intermediary between heaven and earth. Jenny was an angel that helped him throughout his life that helped him with his life's difficulties, even though she was not their all of the time she was still a big significance in his life she also gave Forrest hope and inspiration.
Running for Forrest was a construction to imbue some spiritual identity in accordance with a particular philosophical belief. Running is a natural activity wherein spirituality may find connection with a philosophy of living, and portend possibilities of the infinite. It is within these actions of the moment that a spiritual truth unfolds for our main character.
Forrest runs everywhere he and while running he addresses many of the crucial American wounds of the 20th century: Vietnam, relationships with African-Americans, drugs, capitalism and the mistreatment of women. Naturally Forrest himself takes the morally upright line on all of these: he fights in Vietnam then rejects war as hell, makes best friends with Bubba, refuses drugs, makes a million without even trying, looks for love with Jenny but loses her despite treating her better than any men ever did. The interactions and contradictions between Forrest and his worldlier, more cynical friends are the source of much humor, some of it quite dark. Weaving Forrest into various bits of historical footage was quirky and interesting.
In Buddhism, this state, which the Buddha couldn't relate in language, is called nirvana. The word is Sanskrit for "to extinguish." In this case, it means to extinguish ignorance, hatred and earthly suffering. Humans accumulate good karma by performing the duties of the caste they were born in. If a person is born in a lower caste, his only hope is to behave properly in that caste so he will move up to a higher caste in the next life.
When a soul has reached the upper castes, it may escape the cycle of reincarnation by eliminating bad karma. This includes setting the scales right through good deeds (possibly over several lifetimes) and also removing oneself from all earthly distractions. When a soul finally escapes the karmic cycle, it becomes one with Brahman when the last bodily incarnation dies. This is a higher plane of existence that transcends the suffering of earthly life. Essentially, the soul rejoins the intangible energy that created the universe (encarta.com).
When Jenny left the film becomes silent and the silent goes on for a long time. The silence could be a self reflection. After a couple of years people caught on he was running everyone was seeking a reason for him running. He was just running just to run he would tell people thought of Forrest as would be savior. He gained a following of people to follow him anywhere he ran, Forrest ran over three years (just like Jesus Christ's sermon days). After this long journey "you have to put the past behind you and move on" "and just like that my running days are over." With this statement Forrest came to a self realization his journey coming to an end. "Now what are we suppose to do?" His followers exclaimed. Forrest just wanted to go home.
This is where the film begging, like the circle of life the story goes back to square one. Forrest is sitting on a bench telling his tale, He becomes a sort of teacher figure (like Jesus, Buddha, or Confucius all taught by using this method of narrative stories).
Forrest journey does not end here per say he learns he has a son. Forrest was taught to look at life as an adventure. Like picking a chocolate from the box, the adventure is that “you never know what you are going to get.” this quote on the surface appear’s to be devastation, can, in the right person, become fuel for tremendous achievement. Symbolic of this truth were the withered legs of Forrest Gump. Born deformed, needing braces, ridiculed by peers, Forrest overcame his defection by running everywhere. He became an all-American running back, served in the war and used running to rescue his whole platoon, ran to Jenny any time she beckoned, and ran to be with his “momma” for her last moments of truth.
"Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes." So maybe you can tell a lot from a man shoes. If you look at Forrest’s shoes you would probably see them as worn down from three years of running but his shoes were not worn down they were like brand new theatrical magic or spiritual. Maybe you can say that Forrest shoes were like his soul. Forrest went through so much and his shoes stayed in together, they even seemed like he just received them from Jenny. “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”. Hebrews 12:1 Maybe our lives are just floating around like some feather drifting in the wind or maybe in life we have to run around a lot of obstacles to achieve a higher state of mind.