Forrest Gump: 'Philosophy Is Everywhere'

Gabe Bentz
Dr. Sanderson
PHIL 100 24
6 December 2015
Philosophy is Everywhere #2
Forrest Gump is an American Classic movie about a man who isn’t very smart and influences many historical icons without even knowing.. We watch as a man goes from growing up in the 50s, is in Vietnam in the 60s, and then returns home. During the late 60’s and early 70’s, Gump is caught up in political issues and protesters. When the mid 70’s come, he starts to pursue entrepreneuring, and is a successful businessman in the 80’s. During the 90’s, he goes in search of himself, and this relates to the philosophical meaning of life. Not only is the meaning of life involved in Forrest Gump, there are many other philosophical ideas throughout the movie that will be discussed.

Gump at the beginning of the movie can be represented as one of the prisoners in the cave. His mother always told him that he is no different than everyone else. His mother definitely represents the “shadows” on wall portraying what the prisoner (Gump) wants him to see. This is evident when when she talks with Forrest about God in the start of the movie. She tells him that Jesus will always love him, but she makes sure to add that Jesus loves her better. She basically casts shadows throughout the beginning of the movie, to instill in him that he is just like everyone else, and also doesn’t show him the diverse world around him and outside of his home. Another time she hides the real world from Forrest is when talking about his father. She attempts to let him down ‘easy’ because she knows how hard it is to have someone walk out of her life. So she lies to him, telling him that he just needed some time to himself, and that lets Forrest rest easy for a little while just like the men in the cave did. It was all they knew. Once he is let loose into the world, he’s unsure of what is expected, just like the prisoner being released out of the cave. This is shown throughout the movie, where Gump acts oddly, inappropriately, or unexpected in many different

Materialism again is just basically thinking that everything, including our souls and other things that aren’t really physical, are physical and made up of physical matter. An example of this in the movie is when Gump went to his mother’s grave and talked to her as if she was actually there. Gump also did this in the movie to his lover Jenny when she passed away, he thought that she was actually there with him when she really wasn’t. Although materialism is small throughout the movie, it’s worth mentioning because of the simplicity of the idea, which compares to another mindset that Gump has. Not only is materialism very simple in the sense of its’ philosophical definition, Gumps mindset is also as simple as it gets. He never overthinks things, and makes every situation as simple as possible. He does whatever he needs to when a problem is in hand, and takes care of it without much struggle at