Adversity In Forrest Gump

Challenges are presented to everyone within their daily lives, each struggles does not compromise who a person fundamentally is. Rather, the actions taken whilst one undergoes adversity forms a person’s character. Through the use of the characters in, Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis shows the audience different forms of adversity, and different reactions to such. For example, Jenny Curran --the love interest of the main character-- has a life riddled with strife, and the ways she responds to problems gives the audience an insight into her weak identity. Jenny’s personality is always reflective of who she is with, she has no real identity, that is until she learns to face adversity finally making the right choices. Robert Zemeckis, through the …show more content…
Unfortunately, many lack this skill, and their ability to make rational decisions is skewed. Jenny Curran’s ability to make decisions when faced with danger forces her to rely on other people to tell her what to do and how to act. With having no real identity beyond face value, all of Jenny’s ideas and sayings come from somebody else. For instance, her idea to pray while being chased down by an alcoholic, abusive father, comes from her dead mother's belief in pray. Thanks to her mother, around her family Jenny develops a passiveness and with no other means of escape, she can not formulate a proper cry for help, telling the police or a responsible adult has never occurred to her. Especially because she is friends with Forrest Gump. A simple and naive boy, who could never figure out what exactly happened at Jenny’s house. Incidentally the simpleness and kindness that Forrest Gump identifies with is also how Jenny acts around him. When Jenny is around Forrest she is, a doe-eyed little girl, with little understanding of the world. This inability to properly confront her problems leads Jenny to be a mirror, reflective of those around her. Jenny’s problem not only causes difficulty within her childhood, but well into her adult