Character Analysis Of Forrest Gump

982 Words2 Pages

In the movie, Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks plays the role of an intellectually challenged man who tells his hypnotizing life story while sitting on a bench at a bus stop. Gump expresses the misfortune of the private troubles and the never-ending impact on his life. The story line explores the developmental aspects, the intelligence and creativity, self and personality, as well as psychosocial cognition of this fascinating character. Gump was mentally impaired. He was a somewhat strong, healthy, and athletic young adult. Even though he had suffered through having a crooked spine and then encountered injuries from a bullet wound during the Vietnam War, in general his health was consistently good. Despite his normal physical characteristics, Gump …show more content…

Gump made some of the more common transitional changes such as developing a greater sense of maturity and responsibility since he had a child to care for person and the comfort that comes with that. In this case, Forrest does undergo a stronger sense of responsibility now that he has a child to care for. His overall personality remained the same, but it did appear that he is somehow more mature and responsible now that he 's a parent. Gump did show concern for his son and the fact that he could be adversely affected by the reality that his father was referred to as …show more content…

Based on Maslow 's hierarchy of needs, individuals will make certain that they can satisfy specific fundamental needs before they continue onto more complex needs. Gump had a perception of his fundamental needs and that they had to be fulfill such as food and water. Love and friendship are the next level of needs. Although Gump tried to make friends and establish relationships, his attempts were not as one would expect pertaining to romance. He and Jenny had known one another since childhood. Gump recognizes his feelings toward her as love, however, she does not share those same feelings, despite that fact his loyalty to her remains. That was his naïve attempt at fulfilling the need for intimacy which was his perception of the actions of his peers and others. Success and esteem is a level that didn’t seem that important for Gump. Success was something that just seemed to happen for him it was not a goal. He was successful in everything that he did. Per Erikson 's theories, Gump should have been having two conflicts, intimacy vs. isolation and generativity vs. stagnation. So with that being said, Gump did not appear to be experiencing either one of those conflicts. He found the love and friendship that others yearn for, so those were not the driving force that caused him so much stress in his life. One would have to say there were no signs of Gump being stagnant. Even though some would consider Gump as developmentally slow

Open Document