NOVEL
Forrest Gump, named after Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest, narrates the
story of his life. The author uses misspellings and grammatical errors to indicate the character's
Southern accent, education, and cognitive disabilities. While living in Mobile, Alabama, Forrest
meets Jenny Curran in first grade and walks her home. They become the best of friends.
By the time Forrest is sixteen years old, he is 6' 6" (1.98 m), 242 pounds (110 kg), and plays high
school football. Miss Henderson, with whom Forrest is infatuated, gives him reading lessons. He
reads Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and two other books that he does not
remember. While he enjoys the books, he does not do well on tests.
He gains popularity as a football player, making the All State team. When Forrest is called to the
principal's office, he meets noted university coach Bear Bryant, who asks if he'd considered
playing college football. After high school, Forrest takes a test at a local army recruitment center,
and is told he is "Temporarily Deferred."
Forrest and Jenny meet again at the University of Alabama and play together in a folk
music band at the student union, covering songs by such singers as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan,
and Peter, Paul and Mary. After one semester, Forrest flunks out of the university. He and his
friend Bubba are drafted into the Army, but Bubba dies in the Vietnam War. Forrest is wounded
and meets Lieutenant Dan, who has lost his legs, in the infirmary. Dan tells Forrest the he feels
Forrest is destined for something great.
While recuperating, Forrest develops a talent for ping pong, eventually playing in a tournament
in China and inadvertently saving the life of Mao Tse-tung and meeting President Lyndon
Johnson. He reconnects with Jenny and is arrested and institutionalized after a peace
demonstration. When the doctors realize he has a talent for doing math in his head, he is
recruited to be an astronaut for NASA. When 'Sue,' a male orangutan on the flight, wrecks the
ship, they crash land in New Guinea and end up captives of a tribe of cannibals, whose chief
teaches Forrest to play chess. After returning to the US, Forrest meets President Richard
Nixon and runs into Dan, who is now homeless. They travel to Indianapolis to look for Jenny,
and find her working in a tire plant. Forrest begins working as a professional wrestler, fighting
under the moniker 'The Dunce.' When Dan hatches a plan to rip off Forrest's manager, Jenny
leaves in disgust. Forrest, who dreams of starting a shrimp business like his friend Bubba wanted
to, decides to head for Louisiana. Before he can go he meets a chess champion who realizes his
talents and enters him into a competition. This doesn't pan out, nor does working
alongside Raquel Welch in a remake of The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Forrest and Sue eventually make it to Bubba's hometown, and with advice from Bubba's father,
start a shrimping operation. This becomes so successful that he becomes a millionaire and
manages to hire most of the people he'd previously encountered in his life to work for him. He is
roped into running for the U.S. Senate, but is forced to drop out when the media uncovers his
checkered past. Eventually he and Sue move to Savannah, Georgia, where Forrest performs as a
one man band. He finds Dan again, and runs into Jenny, who has a son, whom she reveals to be
Forrest's. Forrest decides not to be a presence in his son's life, as Jenny is now married. He, Sue,
and Dan move to New Orleans.
FILM
In 1981, Forrest Gump is sitting on a bench at a bus stop, and he has decided to tell his life story
to a nurse who is sitting on the bench next to him. As a young boy, Forrest wore leg braces
because he had a curved spine and was unable to walk properly. He grew up in a boarding house
in Alabama with his mother, who taught him to always believe in himself, in spite of his physical
limitations. Additionally, Forrest has a below-average IQ. To get him accepted into a public
school, Forrest’s mother agreed to sleep with the principal in exchange for Forrest's admission.
In flashback, Forrest meets Jenny Curran on the first day of school on the bus. The two become
fast friends and they spend all their time together. Jenny is beautiful and a good friend to Forrest,
but she struggles at home with a sexually abusive father. One day, when a group of children start
bullying Forrest, Jenny tells him to run and he runs away, outrunning the bullies. In the process,
his leg braces miraculously fall off his legs.
As time passes, Forrest and Jenny remain good friends. In high school, while running from some
bullies, Forrest gets noticed by a football scout and accepted into college on a sports scholarship.
During this time, the college gets desegregated and a number of black students are admitted, a
historic event at which Forrest is present.
Forrest ends up meeting President Kennedy after getting recruited onto the All-American
football team. After graduation, he joins the army and meets a friend at boot camp, Bubba, a
young black man whose one dream is to start a shrimping business.
Forrest has an easy life in the army because he listens well and follows orders. While in the
army, Forrest finds out that Jenny was expelled from college because she posed nude in a
magazine wearing her school sweeter. Forrest goes to find Jenny in Memphis, where she is
singing naked at a strip club. Forrest tells Jenny he loves her and that he is being sent to
Vietnam.
In Vietnam, Forrest and Bubba are put under the command of Lieutenant Dan, an army officer
who has had an ancestor die in every American war. The platoon in which Forrest serves gets
attacked and Bubba is killed. In the midst of the attack, Forrest goes back and retrieves all his
fellow soldiers, which wins him a medal of honor. He even saves Lieutenant Dan, even though
Dan was intent on dying in battle, like his ancestors.
Forrest is sent to an army hospital after taking a bullet to his rear end in the battle. There, he is in
a bed next to Lieutenant Dan, who lost both his legs in the attack. At the hospital, Forrest starts
playing ping pong and is really good at it. Back in Washington, after receiving a medal of honor,
Forrest is pulled into an anti-war demonstration where he runs into Jenny, who has become a
hippie radical. She is also in an abusive relationship, which Forrest tries to protect her from to no
avail.
Forrest plays ping pong internationally, and when he returns to New York to interview about his
athletic prowess, he runs into Lieutenant Dan, who is in a wheelchair and living on disability. He
stays with Dan for the winter holidays and the two of them become close. When Forrest tells Dan
about his plans to buy a shrimp boat, Dan laughs at him and sarcastically tells him that if his
dream ever comes true, he will be Forrest's first mate. Meanwhile, Jenny gets addicted to drugs
and continues to go from one abusive relationship to another.
Forrest is discharged from the army and is asked to endorse a ping pong paddle, which earns him
$25,000. With this money, he buys a shrimping boat, keeping his promise to Bubba. He names
the boat Jenny, but has little success with it. Dan keeps his promise to Forrest and he joins him in
his shrimping endeavors.
When Hurricane Carmen destroys all the boats except for the "Jenny," Forrest becomes a
successful shrimper. Immediately after his success comes, Forrest discovers his mother is dying
of cancer, and he returns home to her. Dan invests Forrest’s part of the money into Apple
Computers, earning Forrest a fortune.
One day, Jenny visits Forrest and stays with him for a while. When Forrest proposes to her, she
declines, but they end up having sex that night. The next day, Jenny leaves Forrest.
Distraught, Forrest starts running around the country without stopping, except to sleep and eat.
His persistent running turns him into a celebrity, and he even catches Jenny's attention.
When the scene shifts back to the present on the bench at the bus stop, Forrest tells the woman
sitting next to him that he is in Savannah to visit Jenny, who wrote to him. When Forrest goes to
see Jenny, she introduces him to her son, Forrest. Jenny tells Forrest that the boy is his and that
she is sick with an unknown virus.
The three move to Greenbow and Jenny and Forrest get married. Dan comes to the wedding with
his fiancé. Dan is no longer in a wheelchair, but has prosthetic legs.
Forrest lives happily with Jenny and Forrest Jr., but Jenny eventually dies. The last scene in the
film shows Forrest sending Forrest Jr. to the bus on his first day of school.
The Forrest Gump Novel Was Very Different
(Every Change Explained)
BYDANIEL DIMANNA
UPDATED NOV 13, 2022
Forrest Gump was based on a novel, and that
novel was a very different story when compared
to the film. Here are all of the major changes.
The classic film Forrest Gump is very different from the novel it's based on.
The beloved 1994 tear-jerker has gone down in history as a definitive piece of
American cinema and introduced audiences to a remarkable title character,
but as outrageous as Forrest's exploits were in the film, the things he got up to
in the novel ranged from the hilarious to the utterly preposterous. Directed by
Robert Zemeckis and considered to be one of Tom Hanks' greatest
performances, Forrest Gump follows the incredible life of a simple-minded
man with a true heart of gold. Largely told in flashback by Forrest himself,
the Forrest Gump novel takes viewers on a trip through the latter half of 20th-
century America, through the eyes of a guy who somehow manages to
experience every triumph and tragedy the era had to offer, with equal parts
heartbreak and life-affirming joy. The movie was produced for a modest
budget by a studio that had little faith in the finished product, but ultimately
ended up making a fortune at the box office and managed to rack up a pile of
well-earned Oscar nominations and wins.
Forrest Has A Different
Personality
There's a good reason why Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump is one of the most loved
characters in cinema history. The gentle, good-natured man speaks softly and
innocently, interacting with the world as a child might. His lack of a high IQ
might make him less "book smart" than his contemporaries, but his focus,
hysterically random skills, and big heart make him easy to love. There's also
the fact that Forrest Gump's accent makes him all the more endearing, which
is obviously an element that only the movie could bring to the table. Indeed,
this winning formula is slightly different in the book. While the Forrest
Gump novel still retains his childlike personality and innocence, he can be
gruff and even violent at times. He is also heard swearing on many occasions
throughout the book, an idea that was completely dropped for the film. The
book also sees Forrest display infrequent moments of high intelligence
relating to subjects like mathematics and physics, which was also abandoned
by the filmmakers.
Forrest Doesn't Meet
Bubba in the Army
In both versions of Forrest Gump, one of the key events in Forrest's life is
meeting his friend Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue. The two form a close bond,
largely owing to their similar mentalities and IQ. After becoming brothers in
arms, Bubba eventually dies in combat in Vietnam, leading Forrest to honor
his sacrifice with the eventual opening of the Bubba Gump Shrimp
Corporation. One key difference between the two stories is how the good
friends first find each other: in the film, Forrest famously meets and befriends
Bubba during basic training, while in the Forrest Gump novel, the two meet
during a football game while they are attending university together.
Forrest Starts & Leaves
His Shrimp Company
Differently
One of the most memorable parts of the film version of Forrest Gump sees the
Vietnam vet return home to America and fulfill a promise to the deceased
Bubba to start a shrimping enterprise. After teaming up with the legless
Lieutenant Dan, Forrest establishes a massive shrimp-based empire and
quickly becomes a millionaire. These underscore how both the Forrest
Gump movie and book adapted history, though things play out differently in
the book. In the movie, Forrest leaves the company behind to return to a
simple life in his old home after his mother's passing. But in the Forrest
Gump novel, instead of returning to the states, Forrest begins raising shrimp
in small ponds in Vietnam. After hitting it big with his shrimp company,
Forrest begins to yearn for a simple life and sacrifices the company to Bubba's
family before hitting the road as a one-man band. Lieutenant Dan doesn't play
a part in the company, nor does he inherit it after Forrest leaves the shrimping
business for good.
Forrest Plays Chess &
Goes to Space
Throughout the Forrest Gump film, Forrest travels through multiple historic
events, experiences a variety of weird and wonderful adventures, and takes on
a number of unexpected vocations. From becoming a champion football player
and a war hero to establishing a multi-million dollar corporation and even
emerging as a world-renowned Ping-Pong master, Forrest ends up leading
quite the storied existence. However, the book included even more for Forrest
to do, and some of his in-print exploits were downright bizarre.
One accomplishment of Forrest's that was omitted from the movie was his
proclivity for chess. In the book, Forrest's aforementioned higher IQ allows
him to master the game and become a world-class player. This was ultimately
removed from the film largely for reasons of length and pacing, with more
emphasis instead being placed on Forrest's Ping-Pong career. One of the
book's most notorious plotlines involved Forrest Gump becoming an
astronaut and venturing into outer space alongside an orangutan named Sue.
Unsurprisingly, this concept was dropped for being a bit too ridiculous.
Forrest Never Ends Up
With Jenny
Throughout all of Forrest Gump's various misadventures, high points, and low
points, his guiding light remains Jenny, the girl he has been desperately in
love with since his childhood. After being inseparable as kids, the two
ventured on different life paths, with Forrest leaving school to join the army
and Jenny ultimately succumbing to a life of drug and alcohol abuse. This set
up the most crucial turning point in the story of Forrest Gump. In the film,
after years of intermittent separation and heartbreak, Forrest Gump and
Jenny's son was born, and the three finally come together as a family until
Jenny passes away a year later. As sad as this ending is, the book takes an even
more upsetting turn. While Jenny ultimately gets to live, she ends up taking
Forrest's son away from him so that she can run off with another man. While
Jenny passing away is undeniably sad, the film's decision to let Forrest
Gump's titular hero at least raise his son was definitely a smart move.
Is Forrest Gump Better
As A Book or Movie?
Whether the Forrest Gump movie is better than the novel is ultimately a
matter of taste. In contrast to the movie's perfect mainstream appeal,
the Forrest Gump novel wasn't exactly aimed at all audiences, with Forrest
having a history of violence and legal trouble. Curiously, Forrest Gump's dark
past was merely hinted at in the movie, when Jenny's scrapbook is shown
including a newspaper clipping about Forrest being investigated in his
hometown. This moment underscores what makes the movie and novel truly
different: the movie is a Hollywood adaptation of an absurdist novel, which is
also why the novel is largely considered to be unreadable. Written from
Forrest's perspective, the novel is filled with spelling and grammatical errors,
and not every reader is prepared for such a format. Although necessary to the
story, the way it's written can be difficult even for readers of absurdist
literature. Even the hilarious scenario of Forrest Gump going into space
served as little reward for trudging through prose that seems designed not to
flow.
By toning down the absurdity and adapting only the elements necessary for
inventing one of cinema's most endearing characters, Forrest Gump avoided
being one of the many movie roles turned down by Tom Hanks, and instead
became universally loved. Inspired by the dark and absurd tale of a genius,
Robert Zemeckis crafted a cornerstone movie for an entire generation, the
creative footprints of which can still be observed in triumphant dramas and
comedies like Walk Hard, Good Will Hunting, and The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button. There's certainly enough evidence to say that the movie is
better than the book, especially in terms of cultural impact. That said, Winston
Groom's Forrest Gump isn't a bad book, it's just an acquired taste. It's not
for everybody, and the only way to really find out if it's better is to just read it
with an open mind.
