Similarities Between Odysseus And Forrest Gump

Heroes’ Journeys: Odysseus and Forrest Gump

The Hero’s Journey, discovered by Joseph Campbell, is a way that numerous stories can relate based on the steps each character takes to complete their journey. These heroes followed the Hero's Journey by departing to complete a task, facing complications along the way and return with a new status quo. Forrest Gump, a book and a movie about the life of a man who makes an impact on the world regardless of his mental disability, he faces numerous trials as he embarks on his journey back home from the Vietnam war. The Odyssey, written by an ancient Greek poet, Homer, is an epic, heavily influenced by Greek mythology, about a man named Odysseus that embarks his way back home after being at war with the

In the film Forrest Gump, Forrest saves his platoon while they were under attack and ends up getting a “million dollar wound” (Forrest Gump). A wound earned in combat, and in return gets a medal for his bravery during the Vietnam war. Similarly, Odysseus comes up with a plan to trick the Trojans and presents a wooden horse as a gift to their rival; Odysseus and his men hide in it and prepare to attack. Due to his cleverness, his men open their foe’s gate at night and started their attack on the Trojans. His quick thinking and planning helped them win the war and defeat their opponents. With much hubris, Odysseus then boasts about his war stories to the king and the Phaeacians; “I stormed the place and killed the men who fought / Plunder we took, and enslaved the women.” (Odyssey,“I Am Laertes’ Son,”

Generally, it takes a hero a while to come to their senses when they are traveling back home. While Odysseus is in the underworld, Odysseus has a revelation from the prophet Tiresias, foreshadowing the things to come and what is in store for him. While in the underworld, the speaker narrates Teiresias’ revelation; “And hard seafaring brings you all to Ithaca [...] though you survive alone, lost for years, under strange sail shall you come home, to find your own house fIlled with insolent men eating your livestock as they court your lady [...] you shall make those men atone in blood, but after you have dealt out death-in open combat to all the suitors” (Odyssey, “The Land of the Dead” 915). This prophecy is a boost in Odysseus’ decisions, making him determined to return to his wife and son. Unlike Odysseus, Forrest did not need spiritual guidance or a mentor to make decisions and did whatever he decided to do without a plan in mind at first. Forrest faces a plethora of trials and loses his best friend, Bubba, and his mother, who died of cancer months later.He deals with his grief and the sudden change of lifestyle by running across the country for three years. He finally stops his running and makes his decision and go back home and put the past behind him and deal with the issues he’s facing. Overall, the journey home is faced