The symbols in "Forrest Gump".

Also other characters in movie were symbolic. Some of them were represented as a part of society in one particular person. The most important were Jenny and lieutenant Dan but there were also others. Jenny wants to become a popular musician. When she tries to accomplish it she realizes how this all actually works in real life, so she brakes and turns to drugs and even tries to kill herself. Probably with her the producer tried to show the young people of that time. They did not know what they want to do in life and all they had were their dreams. And when they had to turn to real life they just could not stop dreaming. When they realized this, it was already too late, so they broke down. Luckily with Jenny it was different because Forrest saved her with his love and care. Other important character was lieutenant Dan. He represents that part of society which Americans call war veterans. It is not that he was just physically a cripple, but, what is more important, the war mentally damaged him. He had no job and he drank all the time. All these people lives were ruined  because of the war, they were angry at their country and also at themselves. Some of them become even so crazy that they wanted to revenge the country which has done this harm to them, even by organizing some acts of terror. But luckily also lieutenant did not do anything like that, because Forrest helped to get over it. One more example that seemed important is the black hippie man that was fighting for black people’s right. At that time the black people fought very much for their rights and they had this opinion that every white man hates black people. They too much exaggerated that they are being discriminated. It seemed that this was a model of those black people.

Characters themselves came out wit many cognitions and several of them were symbolic. Most of these cognitions are made out by Forrest’s mother because he very often referred to what se said. Of course the most famous phrase is the one that Forrest says at the very beginning of the movie: “My mama always said, life was like a box of chocolates – you never know what you gonna get.” So box of chocolates is a symbol of life. It means that the whole life depends on coincidences, but in the mean time people are the ones to choose these coincidences, because they are the one that decides witch of the chocolates to take, but they still never know what is in there until they have put it in their mouth. And sometimes it may turn out that the ones that are the most beautiful are not the tastiest. Other cognition that came from Forrest’s mother is, that one can tell a lot about people by their shoes – where they go, where they have been. This symbolizes the experience of life, not the one the school can teach, not the one mother can tell, but the one that is experienced with own feet running through dust and mud.

I really enjoyed watching this movie, because there are so many verities that everyone can find one for himself and interpret as he wishes to. I think that the picture is a big barrel of symbols. They are in the characters, even the ones that are the background characters, and of course in the cognitions and speech of them. Possibly the movie as a whole is a symbol of the America in the 2nd half of 20th century, but only from a perspective of one special individual, leaving the historical events in the background, but still showing how he participated in them, and maybe how he affected some of them…Or maybe showing how the coincidences affected the history.