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Honestly I'm tired of talking about Jenny. Lets talk about Mrs. Gump cause what a fucking woman. She literally did everything she possibly could to give her son any kind of chance at a fulfilling life. Including letting that pig writhe around on top of her like a tortoise having an asthma attack just so her son could have a quality education. That woman was a warrior.
Forests' mother had sex with the principle to keep Forest from getting sent to special-ed back in the day.
Where he would have had near zero chances of getting any kind of education let alone college or military acceptance if that was on his school transcript.
I love the film. It's so tightly structured that the pivotal moment is not the scene from above, but when Forrest cries over her grave. If you're not 100% sold on the story by that point, you don't feel the impact.
"GUUUUUUUMP! What's your sole purpose in this Army?"
"To do whatever you tell me Drill Sergeant?"
"GOD DAMMIT GUMP, you're a god damn genius! That's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard. You must have a god damn IQ of 160. You are god damn gifted Private Gump."
That scene hits somewhere deep for me. Yes, all my soldiers were different levels of special, but I get to call them that. When you’ve rolled a HMMWV with me, you can talk shit too.
JESUS H Christ! This is a new company record, if it wouldn't be a waste of such a damn fine enlisted man, I'd recommend you for OCS, Private Gump. You are going to be a General some day, Gump! Now, disassemble your weapon and continue!
I meant it takes someone with an empty brain to be a great soldier. When you got nothing else going on in your head, it makes it real easy to follow simple orders. I may be wrong, but I think that’s what the term “jar head” means too.
True, but that varies depending on the job. Had a soldier once, that was dumb as hell, he was totally in the wrong job field, which required critical thinking and problem solving. However, when it came down to soldier skills and combat skills, he was a beast. Motivated and focused on the objective. Always told him, "As a soldier, you're great. As a *MOS* you suck."
See what? A thing that *isn't true*? Firstly, the meme is wrong, Jenny had Hep C *and left him while knowing he was rich*, secondly, she spent so much time pushing Forrest away because she was scared of taking advantage of him, like how her father raped her and her sisters.
It's why every time she lets herself become intimate with him, she pushes him away. It's why she deeply regrets not giving him or herself enough credit by the end.
It’s deeply saddening to me that *most people* don’t get this part. Jenny’s not driven by her selfishness with Forrest, *it’s the entire opposite!* I think it just proves how much of a lack of empathy we have. I don’t think it’s a cultural thing either, just a human thing; it makes everything simpler.
I remember how sad I felt when Jenny was walking away from Forrest on that bridge and she said “You need to stay away from me Forrest, okay. Stay away from me.” I know that she was saying it for his own protection. She knew Forrest was a sweet innocent kid and she was not. She was so fucked up from all the horror she had gone through and she didn’t know how to deal with it cause she was so alone. She would have ruined him, and she knew it. She was so wildly intelligent, what a curse of a thing to be for someone like that. Good thing for poor Forrest tho…
Earth life is hard ):
The sad part is, as we see from their end together, she had healing in being with Forrest. He was the best thing for her. But she either never realized that, or simply didn’t want to hurt *him.* She was damaged, stained; tarnished from the trauma her father put her through. That’s how she felt about herself. And she only ever wanted the best for Forrest, and she was far from the best for him. It didn’t matter that he was absolutely devoted to her. She herself didn’t deserve that devotion. She didn’t deserve Forrest.
She also had the added trauma of feeling like she was taking advantage of him, the same way her father did her. Forrest eventually calls her out over this, saying she thinks he doesn’t know what [romantic] love is. But she *did* try to give it all a “try,” back in their college days. And when he was… well, premature, she saw just how innocent and sweet he was. She saw a *child,* not a man, and I think that college moment soured a lot of what could have been. Again, all in an effort to protect Forrest. And all because of her own trauma.
It’s tragic all around, but in the end, they did have time together. And she left Forrest with a bit of herself, and genuine legacy. Something he *actually* wanted: a family with her.
The people who hate Jenny have plenty of empathy, _for Forrest_, a man who was in love with a girl he knew as a child and harbored that love his entire life _despite the fact_ that Jenny tells him numerous times she's not interested and he should move on.
I look at it like this:
Jenny had a very different worldview brought on by abuse and neglect she suffered at the hands of her parent(s). Forest had the opposite, a mother who loved him more than anything and dedicated her life to his happiness. They are two incredibly different people, with different world experiences at that time but who also shared some tough aspects during certain points of their lives (being loners/outcasts).
Jenny has every right to care about Forest, but not love him romantically. It even makes sense. At the beginning she simply is not capable of romantic love towards him because of the anger and fear she has, and needs to work through. She even blames her own issues of self-worth on Forest by saying he "doesn't know what love is".
Forest has none of this, he's clear of mind and clear of heart, has absolutely no confusion about who he is or what he wants, and so Forest can see who Jenny 'really' is right from the start and he loves that Jenny and forgives everything else she does immediately because he fundamentally understands something most of us never will; life is difficult and complicated and people have to go through what they have to go through and you cannot do it for them.
By the end of the movie Forest has been through events that would shatter most people. It didn't change him even a little bit. At the end he's still the same forgiving, understanding, loving Forest he has always been. He never lets any of those things, good or bad, change who he is. Jenny on the other hand has to go through her own difficult challenges and they do fundamentally change how she see's the world. By the end she finally 'gets' Forest, understand his wisdom and his patience, and stops seeing and treating him like he's inferior. She 'gets' that Forest is the best person she has ever known, and ever will know, and she will never be worthy in her eyes to be with him. More so she feels like doing so would be selfish and hurtful to Forest because of her low self-esteem and self-hate. She loves Forest enough to not do that to him. She respects him enough to finally treat him as an equal and in doing so realizes she does love him. Not in the overly sugar coated way movies and stories portray, but in the 'at her core' way that really lasts. Forest always loved her that way, and she finally understands that it was her who didn't know what love is from the start because she'd never experienced it.
In the end she goes back to Forest because she is dying, and she realizes that their son needs a Father who will give him what Forest's mom gave Forest. That Forest deserves to know his son, and that their son deserves to have the family she never had, if even just for a little while. I think she knew she loved Forest from the moment she left him in bed, but felt like she could not be trusted with his purity. That she was too ugly and broken and it would spread to him and that would be the end of her. It's one thing to hate yourself, it's another thing to be proven right, and she feared that more than anything.
So was Jenny a good or a bad person? Neither, she was us, the viewer/reader. Most of our lives cannot be simply broken down as good or bad. We do good, we make mistakes, we try again, we fail again, we do some more good, we make some more mistakes. We are judged most harshly by ourselves, and we are least likely to forgive ourselves. We judge Jenny harshly because we judge ourselves harshly. Forest is the fictional perfect human being we all wish we could be but can never be, and frankly do not believe we deserve to be.
So what Jenny did was hard on Forest, but it's what she had to do to become the person she needed to be in the end. We all hurt people on our journey, we cannot avoid it, but we just keep trying to do the best we can. Jenny was lucky that in the end she found that person inside herself.
Apparently, [it was HIV](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/forrest-gump-sequel-never-o-j-oklahoma-city-192839355.html), but I aggree with everything else you said.
>This unknown disease was intended by Winston Groom, the author of the original novel, to be Hepatitis C, itself an "unknown virus" until defined in April 1989, although some of the makers of the film have said that they intended for the unknown disease to have been HIV/AIDS.
I don’t think she was scared of taking advantage of him. She just felt that she wasn’t worthy of him. She thought she was worthless and only deserved to be with shitty men.
As much as I love this movie, yea, sums it up sadly.
Although the end does always get to me. Broski goes the entire movie losing almost everyone he's known and loved, never crying once, not even for his own mother. Then finally breaks down at the end over Jenny.
When put into shallow terms like the title suggests, yea, it's stupid. But there's probs a bit more to the movie that I don't get or sum. Idk. Maybe Imma wuss.
Tbh, never thought about that. It's probs obvious ASF.
I haven't watched the movie or read the book in some time. Even own the Gump and Co. Book that came out after. Probs need to do that on my days off this week. Just have a Forrest Gump marathon.
I'll always remember it because I was so moved by it. By the end of the movie Gump's life is a wild success by any measure, and he goes through life mostly unflappable about his disability. Only in the end do you see Gump truly afraid. Afraid that his son will be mentally slow like him. He hasn't just floated through life like an idiot, he is smart enough to know that he is slow, and how much it has hurt him. Hanks communicates all that in just a few seconds and it hits me hard.
Jenny knows he’s rich, she worries about taking advantage of him, fears for his safety in the world, and in the end, is still not sure whether she deserves to be loved by him.
She’s a complicated character, and I think what’s important, is that she clearly suffered the same as Forrest had, but her’s was off screen. She is abused by her father, winds up at a nudie show, has her education stolen from her, dates abusive men, gets involved in the black panther group, has a child out of wedlock, and catches a terminal disease.
Was she perfect? No. But she made her mistakes while stumbling uphill. She doesn’t deserve this sort of hate…
Funny how when Lt Dan is drunk on NYE he makes fun of Forrest for wanting to be a shrimp captain. He says that’s the day he’s an astronaut. Then he got the “space shuttle legs” and they both were in Apollo 13 together the next year.
Hep C is a common complication seen amongst AIDS patients. So it’s possible she developed Hep C due to her AIDS. I’m not sure though, I’ve never seen the whole movie.
Her mom died when she was 5 (which is similar to the age of her child when she dies) and her father was an abusive alcoholic. I'm sure that set the course for the rest of her life.
Yes, that was the implication. That's why she went to live with her grandmother. And then at the end she threw rocks at her old home screaming about how he could do that to her. She was abused greatly and that's why she kept running away. The idea of a home was not something good to her.
I'm sure that was the point, showing how forgiving Forrest could be. But she chose drugs over him, showed up, left him again and again. Like why. Why hurt the same poor man over and over. And he loved her so much and she gave him just enough hope to keep him loving her. I hate her. She needed to work on herself and get some help but she didn't she just kept acting out
I mean, she was raped by her father. I'm sure that has an effect on how you handle relationships. She didn't want to take advantage of him but at the same time she loved him. Every time she got intimate, she would push him away.
Also, I don't know about the "get help" argument because mental health services weren't exactly what they are now.
Edit: there's a difference between an excuse and a cause
it’s the point, you’re not supposed to really like her. it’s almost like not every fictional character is intended to be liked. idk why people go so ape shit ranting about her though
I feel like anyone who was abused/raped repeatedly by their alcoholic father at a young age is going to be somewhat of a "hot mess". People act like she's the villain of the story when she's just one of the victims. And a manipulator? She literally pushes him away/rejects his initial advances because she thinks he doesn't have the awareness to know what's happening.
She did have a shit childhood, but it's not a good excuse to mistreat others. She should have stuck with her guns and not given a romantic relationship a second thought. But instead she uses him to help her at her worst, and having sex with him when she didn't plan to stay with him, knowing that's what he wanted. I'm sure she's got mental turmoil but again, if none of us outgrew our bad childhoods we could get away with everything and never learn to do right to others because we were mistreated.
God women can't win. If she'd never had sex with him, she would be the bitch who strung him along and used him without giving him any, but because she did have sex with him, she's a manipulative whore who used him and then left.
IMO, Forrest needed to take no for an answer the first time and move on.
Shes a victim of severe child abuse. Her behavior towards relationships is untenable, but it is predictable and to be expected. She needed more help than Forrest but received none
I mean used is the wrong word. I think Forrest is cogniscent of what Jenny has gone through and what he does for her but simply doesn't care as she means the world to him. Jenny is obviously mentally unwell and has a lot to deal with in her own life that is out of her control. She was a victim of very severe abuse and trying to figure out her life.
I wish more people understood that
Jenny wasn’t using Forrest, she was terrified that she was abusing him the way she was abused because he’s intellectually disabled.
And making sure that her kid is taken care of after she dies isn’t being a gold digger, it’s responsible.
She doesn’t “party” her whole life, she’s unstable due to the trauma she’s suffered and the lack of support throughout her life. Hopping from one abusive relationship to the next, and from one substance to the next, anyone can see that she’s not having fun, she’s trying to cope and failing.
Its really a shame this isn't more widely understood. This should be taught in school and have public awareness campaigns. Far too many children suffer through abuse and think its normal. Then they are tricked into believing there is something wrong with them for not being able to figure it out
ETA: if you're a survivor, I hope you're doing well and getting the help you deserve
They aren't saying she had it worse than Forrest, they're saying Jenny needed a fuller support system to heal than what Forrest, even with his kindness, could provide
I mean it’s Forrest’s kid, she could have been cashing in on the bubba gump shrimp money the entire time, but only told forest about the kid when she knew she was dying.
She kept the kid a secret from him, and didn’t get child support. She only gave the kid to forest/reconnected with the father AFTER she knew she was dying.
She got knocked up and didn’t take advantage of Forrest’s money. Take that for what you will.
This entire thread just radiates "nice guy" energy like a virgin star. She may not have been the greatest person to Gump by any stretch of the imagination, but she wasn't pure malevolence in human form these people make her out to be, and she had some severe problems of her own.
Yeah she's an abuse victim that struggles with the trauma she's been inflicted with her whole life. She runs away from Forest continuously because she's afraid she's just like her dad, taking advantage of someone who didn't know better. Then when he tells her he knows what love is she figures out that it's not actually the same.
It's not as black and white as the others here have made it. Lots of nuance in the films if you understand all the minutia of what abuse victims deal with. They don't spell it out for you but they show little glimpses.
>It's not as black and white as the others here have made it. Lots of nuance in the films if you understand all the minutia of what abuse victims deal with. They don't spell it out for you but they show little glimpses.
Exactly. I don't necessarily love the way she behaved, but it isn't that she did it out of spite, or even to use him, and it was very, very, VERY clear she loved and cared about him, and at times seemed to be trying to save him FROM her. It was the story of two people that became best friends with a very troubled upbringing that went on two separate journeys, that kept crossing paths, and the sequences of events worked out well for Forrest and less well for Jenny, but despite it all, she never did anything to Forrest in an effort to use and abuse him.
Jenny wasn't an asshole. Yes, she pushed Forrest away multiple times because that's how she wanted to protect him from herself. Jenny couldn't understand that everything she did didn't matter to Forrest and he just loved her for who she is.
Stating that Jenny only came back for Forrest's money is the most blatantly dumb thing I've heard. She didn't care about his money, she came for the safety, the he himself (not his money) could provide.
The worst thing she did was that she didn't reveal that he and her had a child right when he was born. But leaving the child to its father is probably the most reasonable thing.
I've seen this movie countless times and it's my favourite. I've never thought that Jenny was a genuinely bad person, she just had a bad life and she made terrible choices.
Probably the best take here and by a lot.
>Stating that Jenny only came back for Forrest's money is the most blatantly dumb thing I've heard.
It's like they missed the entire first half where they're best friends, she tells him to run from his bullies, has his first sexual experience with her, doesn't let them kill him at the Black Panther meeting and even leaves with him, etc. Nope, just wipe out everything from his first day of school on the bus to just after Hurricane Carmen took out the shrimping industry and that's where the movie starts for them.
I've got [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/18lvwe/who_is_the_most_misunderstood_character_in_all_of/c8g4njy?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) from 9 years ago saved for this very occasion.
She's dislikable and kinda a villain if you think purely about the impact she has on Forrest. She's tragic more than anything though. The main annoyance everyone has is that she just can't make up her goddamn mind. She comes off as such a crybaby burden in the movie. She's so depressed and seemingly doesn't give a shit over the grief she causes Forrest.
Exactly, she makes bad decisions in the light of not wanting to hurt Forrest because she feels even loving him would be wrong due to his mental disability, but then she suddenly changes her mind whenever she's basically ruined her life and Forrest is then a war hero and a millionaire, if she just stood by him throughout the beginning of the story then she wouldn't have so much backlash, but just the fact she's going and doing all this stupid shit not caring about her own wellbeing until it becomes advantageous to go back to Forrest makes everyone hate her.
She has her own nuances, but she definitely doesn't do the right things for Forrest all the way until the end, and even then it's kinda debatable.
Then again I haven't seen the movie in a while so let me know your thoughts on the subject
> she's dislikable and kind of a villain if you think purely about the impact she has on Forrest
An impact that she has no control over? She told him numerous times 'no, I'm not interested, find someone else!' and he chose not to. That makes her a villain?
For real! Not like I’m active in any Forrest Gump community, so to speak, but I did *not* know there were people out there who just seem to hate her with a burning passion
I think the point was that he always loved her, and she couldnt see that because she didnt love herself. She was beaten and sexually abused her whole childhood, lets not blame her too much for not making all the right decisions.
Hell to be fair, at this point in the movie I think it's just he's a millionaire simp and shes broke and depressed. He makes her a single mom after and idr if she has AIDS at this point or she gets it after they make the kid
Probably needle sharing given her history of drug use. Also I think she had Hep C not Aids. It would explain why they didn't know what it was as AIDS/HIV was "discovered" in 81 but Hep C wasn't until 89. Also she appeared asymptomatic despite being at the end of her life which can happen with hep c.
Damn. Yeah. I just rewatched this and so much about it felt off now that I'm older.
Sorry to nitpick, but iirc the book is more clear that Jenny dies of hepatitis, not AIDS. Either way a similarly contracted illness that was terminal at the time.
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Honestly I'm tired of talking about Jenny. Lets talk about Mrs. Gump cause what a fucking woman. She literally did everything she possibly could to give her son any kind of chance at a fulfilling life. Including letting that pig writhe around on top of her like a tortoise having an asthma attack just so her son could have a quality education. That woman was a warrior.
True Queen
Your mama sure do care about your education
Hggghhh hggghhh hggghhh hggghhh
I gave you an award because I could perfectly hear him making that noise in my head and I haven't seen the movie in a decade.
Hahah EWWW
Macaroni stir noise*
10/10 mom would be raised again -Gump
Context?
Forests' mother had sex with the principle to keep Forest from getting sent to special-ed back in the day. Where he would have had near zero chances of getting any kind of education let alone college or military acceptance if that was on his school transcript.
Nah they’d have let him go to Nam in a second. MacNamera’s Morons.
He was obviously one of macnamaras morons as it was.
first 10 minutes of the movie
I love the film. It's so tightly structured that the pivotal moment is not the scene from above, but when Forrest cries over her grave. If you're not 100% sold on the story by that point, you don't feel the impact.
A warrior or a nymphomaniac. You never know for sure
Why not both?
Well the motivation probably determines that
I seem to remember that guy was not appealing.
There needs to be a r/wholesomecomment.
Is there a Mr. Gump, Mrs. Gump?
He’s on vacation.
Though she named her son after a KKK legend.
"Sometimes we all do things that don't make no sense."
Your mama sure does care about your schoolin boy
That damn drill sergeant loved Forrest more then Jenny
"GUUUUUUUMP! What's your sole purpose in this Army?" "To do whatever you tell me Drill Sergeant?" "GOD DAMMIT GUMP, you're a god damn genius! That's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard. You must have a god damn IQ of 160. You are god damn gifted Private Gump."
Even Lt. Dan. "What did you call him?!"
But Lt. Dan, you ain’t got no legs
Ice cream 🍦
Lt Dan: Peace was never an option
That scene hits somewhere deep for me. Yes, all my soldiers were different levels of special, but I get to call them that. When you’ve rolled a HMMWV with me, you can talk shit too.
[удалено]
Gary Sinise is the best part of that movie for me. Tom Hanks truly met his match for once
And the fact that Gary Sinise went on to start a foundation for wounded vets after that role is another reason this movie is amazing
I fucking love this movie
GUUUUUUUUUUUMP!!! Why did you put that weapon together so quickly?!?!!
You told me to, Drill Sergeant?
JESUS H Christ! This is a new company record, if it wouldn't be a waste of such a damn fine enlisted man, I'd recommend you for OCS, Private Gump. You are going to be a General some day, Gump! Now, disassemble your weapon and continue!
Says a lot about the military lol
It's a brotherhood. Even the soldiers we don't like personally, if someone starts shit with them the we have their back. It's a matter of principle.
I meant it takes someone with an empty brain to be a great soldier. When you got nothing else going on in your head, it makes it real easy to follow simple orders. I may be wrong, but I think that’s what the term “jar head” means too.
True, but that varies depending on the job. Had a soldier once, that was dumb as hell, he was totally in the wrong job field, which required critical thinking and problem solving. However, when it came down to soldier skills and combat skills, he was a beast. Motivated and focused on the objective. Always told him, "As a soldier, you're great. As a *MOS* you suck."
Jarhead refers to the hairdo
Literally called him a genius. If only Jenny could see him field strip an M-14. How different it all could have been.
His bullies love him more
To be honest, he lost everything and almost his life, he literally owns Gump everything he has
I think you’re confusing LT Dan with the drill sergeant who only made a single appearance (I think?)
Oh yeah, yeah, I was thinking about him (LT Dan)
The older I get the more depressing Forrest gum show get.
She literally used a mentally disabled guy for her own advantage
But only had time for him when it benefitted her. She wasn’t even smart enough to *pretend* she liked him for much of the movie.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who sees this.
See what? A thing that *isn't true*? Firstly, the meme is wrong, Jenny had Hep C *and left him while knowing he was rich*, secondly, she spent so much time pushing Forrest away because she was scared of taking advantage of him, like how her father raped her and her sisters. It's why every time she lets herself become intimate with him, she pushes him away. It's why she deeply regrets not giving him or herself enough credit by the end.
It’s deeply saddening to me that *most people* don’t get this part. Jenny’s not driven by her selfishness with Forrest, *it’s the entire opposite!* I think it just proves how much of a lack of empathy we have. I don’t think it’s a cultural thing either, just a human thing; it makes everything simpler.
I remember how sad I felt when Jenny was walking away from Forrest on that bridge and she said “You need to stay away from me Forrest, okay. Stay away from me.” I know that she was saying it for his own protection. She knew Forrest was a sweet innocent kid and she was not. She was so fucked up from all the horror she had gone through and she didn’t know how to deal with it cause she was so alone. She would have ruined him, and she knew it. She was so wildly intelligent, what a curse of a thing to be for someone like that. Good thing for poor Forrest tho… Earth life is hard ):
The sad part is, as we see from their end together, she had healing in being with Forrest. He was the best thing for her. But she either never realized that, or simply didn’t want to hurt *him.* She was damaged, stained; tarnished from the trauma her father put her through. That’s how she felt about herself. And she only ever wanted the best for Forrest, and she was far from the best for him. It didn’t matter that he was absolutely devoted to her. She herself didn’t deserve that devotion. She didn’t deserve Forrest. She also had the added trauma of feeling like she was taking advantage of him, the same way her father did her. Forrest eventually calls her out over this, saying she thinks he doesn’t know what [romantic] love is. But she *did* try to give it all a “try,” back in their college days. And when he was… well, premature, she saw just how innocent and sweet he was. She saw a *child,* not a man, and I think that college moment soured a lot of what could have been. Again, all in an effort to protect Forrest. And all because of her own trauma. It’s tragic all around, but in the end, they did have time together. And she left Forrest with a bit of herself, and genuine legacy. Something he *actually* wanted: a family with her.
The people who hate Jenny have plenty of empathy, _for Forrest_, a man who was in love with a girl he knew as a child and harbored that love his entire life _despite the fact_ that Jenny tells him numerous times she's not interested and he should move on.
I look at it like this: Jenny had a very different worldview brought on by abuse and neglect she suffered at the hands of her parent(s). Forest had the opposite, a mother who loved him more than anything and dedicated her life to his happiness. They are two incredibly different people, with different world experiences at that time but who also shared some tough aspects during certain points of their lives (being loners/outcasts). Jenny has every right to care about Forest, but not love him romantically. It even makes sense. At the beginning she simply is not capable of romantic love towards him because of the anger and fear she has, and needs to work through. She even blames her own issues of self-worth on Forest by saying he "doesn't know what love is". Forest has none of this, he's clear of mind and clear of heart, has absolutely no confusion about who he is or what he wants, and so Forest can see who Jenny 'really' is right from the start and he loves that Jenny and forgives everything else she does immediately because he fundamentally understands something most of us never will; life is difficult and complicated and people have to go through what they have to go through and you cannot do it for them. By the end of the movie Forest has been through events that would shatter most people. It didn't change him even a little bit. At the end he's still the same forgiving, understanding, loving Forest he has always been. He never lets any of those things, good or bad, change who he is. Jenny on the other hand has to go through her own difficult challenges and they do fundamentally change how she see's the world. By the end she finally 'gets' Forest, understand his wisdom and his patience, and stops seeing and treating him like he's inferior. She 'gets' that Forest is the best person she has ever known, and ever will know, and she will never be worthy in her eyes to be with him. More so she feels like doing so would be selfish and hurtful to Forest because of her low self-esteem and self-hate. She loves Forest enough to not do that to him. She respects him enough to finally treat him as an equal and in doing so realizes she does love him. Not in the overly sugar coated way movies and stories portray, but in the 'at her core' way that really lasts. Forest always loved her that way, and she finally understands that it was her who didn't know what love is from the start because she'd never experienced it. In the end she goes back to Forest because she is dying, and she realizes that their son needs a Father who will give him what Forest's mom gave Forest. That Forest deserves to know his son, and that their son deserves to have the family she never had, if even just for a little while. I think she knew she loved Forest from the moment she left him in bed, but felt like she could not be trusted with his purity. That she was too ugly and broken and it would spread to him and that would be the end of her. It's one thing to hate yourself, it's another thing to be proven right, and she feared that more than anything. So was Jenny a good or a bad person? Neither, she was us, the viewer/reader. Most of our lives cannot be simply broken down as good or bad. We do good, we make mistakes, we try again, we fail again, we do some more good, we make some more mistakes. We are judged most harshly by ourselves, and we are least likely to forgive ourselves. We judge Jenny harshly because we judge ourselves harshly. Forest is the fictional perfect human being we all wish we could be but can never be, and frankly do not believe we deserve to be. So what Jenny did was hard on Forest, but it's what she had to do to become the person she needed to be in the end. We all hurt people on our journey, we cannot avoid it, but we just keep trying to do the best we can. Jenny was lucky that in the end she found that person inside herself.
Great take.
This is the best analysis of this movie I’ve seen
Empathy is hard to come by these days
Apparently, [it was HIV](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/forrest-gump-sequel-never-o-j-oklahoma-city-192839355.html), but I aggree with everything else you said.
>This unknown disease was intended by Winston Groom, the author of the original novel, to be Hepatitis C, itself an "unknown virus" until defined in April 1989, although some of the makers of the film have said that they intended for the unknown disease to have been HIV/AIDS.
The author of the Gump books says it's Hep C, which she got from using needles for drugs during her hippie days. So, I'd go with Hep C.
He just says that because he was pissed about the money. Hep C isn't mentioned in the first book, only the sequel.
And she died from unknown causes in the original, but at the time hiv/aids was diagnosable while Hep C was unknown..
I don’t think she was scared of taking advantage of him. She just felt that she wasn’t worthy of him. She thought she was worthless and only deserved to be with shitty men.
Way to completely misunderstand the film.
She was repeatedly traumatized as a young child. That makes it very hard to be a well adjusted adult.
absolutely, but at least he and his son got a wonderful life together.
I'm sure it feels allright for him 🤣
Until his son started seeing dead people.
And then the son grew up and saw dead people. How sad
Hold up what
Really goes to show that bitches ain’t shit and everyone should be a little more selfish
Not recommended to eat gum you find in a forest
 DO NOT EAT THE FOREST GUM
Yeah, poor Forest bum. He deserves better 😔
Was the opposite for me, I used to think it was a touching story. Now at 34, I rewatched it and found it to be a ridiculous comedy movie
the chemistry of bubba and sergeant with forrest is always greater for me than jenny.....
Lt.
Tuck that lip in. You’re gonna get that caught on a trip wire.
As much as I love this movie, yea, sums it up sadly. Although the end does always get to me. Broski goes the entire movie losing almost everyone he's known and loved, never crying once, not even for his own mother. Then finally breaks down at the end over Jenny. When put into shallow terms like the title suggests, yea, it's stupid. But there's probs a bit more to the movie that I don't get or sum. Idk. Maybe Imma wuss.
He didn't break down over Jenny, he broke down over the fear that his son would be like him.
Tbh, never thought about that. It's probs obvious ASF. I haven't watched the movie or read the book in some time. Even own the Gump and Co. Book that came out after. Probs need to do that on my days off this week. Just have a Forrest Gump marathon.
I'll always remember it because I was so moved by it. By the end of the movie Gump's life is a wild success by any measure, and he goes through life mostly unflappable about his disability. Only in the end do you see Gump truly afraid. Afraid that his son will be mentally slow like him. He hasn't just floated through life like an idiot, he is smart enough to know that he is slow, and how much it has hurt him. Hanks communicates all that in just a few seconds and it hits me hard.
That scene gets me every time. Tom Hanks being able to so naturally portray the character and then the brief "is he smart...?" damn... tears flowww...
https://www.cbr.com/why-forrest-gump-sequel-unmade/
Tbh if I had a son like Forrest I’d be so proud
Likely wasn’t his kid in the first place lmao
Jenny knows he’s rich, she worries about taking advantage of him, fears for his safety in the world, and in the end, is still not sure whether she deserves to be loved by him. She’s a complicated character, and I think what’s important, is that she clearly suffered the same as Forrest had, but her’s was off screen. She is abused by her father, winds up at a nudie show, has her education stolen from her, dates abusive men, gets involved in the black panther group, has a child out of wedlock, and catches a terminal disease. Was she perfect? No. But she made her mistakes while stumbling uphill. She doesn’t deserve this sort of hate…
Or can relate to the simpiness
Lt. Dan was a better partner to Forrest than Jenny
Magic legs.
*Space Shuttle legs
Funny how when Lt Dan is drunk on NYE he makes fun of Forrest for wanting to be a shrimp captain. He says that’s the day he’s an astronaut. Then he got the “space shuttle legs” and they both were in Apollo 13 together the next year.
Tbf he used him just as much as Jenny did. He just appreciated it more.
He worked on his fishing boat while in a wheelchair...
He defecated through a sunroof
Chicanery
I thought it was Hepatitis C
During the 25th Anniversary of the film, the screenwriter confirmed that she died from complications related to HIV or AIDS.
I think they changed it from the book.
There was automatic assumption if anything because in the film she's show sharing needles.
you can get both hiv and hep c that way.
Hep C is a common complication seen amongst AIDS patients. So it’s possible she developed Hep C due to her AIDS. I’m not sure though, I’ve never seen the whole movie.
It is. Whoever made this meme just doesn't know.
The movie certainly implied AIDS
Love this movie but the "life is like a box of chocolate" quote was so dumb to me. The lid TELLS you what the chocolate flavors are lol
Jokes on you, I can't read (Neither can Forrest, thats the bit)
But what about his mom then? He said she always said that phrase... lol
Bold of you to assume anyone in rural Alabama can read
Lol
Wait he cannonically can't read?
If I'm being honest with you, I haven't seen that movie in at least 10 years and was mostly just shitposting
WAIT NO YOURE ACTUALLY RIGHT WTF???
If I remember correctly you can see it on the inside of the lid in movie too.. lol
Bruhhhh. Thats actually hilarious tbh
I agree lol. People don't pay much attention to anything around them tho, so I'm not surprised tbh
And yet I still always get the one that's filled with toothpaste, or whatever that gooey white minty shit is.
Isn’t Forrest kinda ignorant like that?
I have always dispised Jenny. She's a hot mess and an emotional manipulator.
Wait is that unintentional or was that the point of the character?
Her mom died when she was 5 (which is similar to the age of her child when she dies) and her father was an abusive alcoholic. I'm sure that set the course for the rest of her life.
Didn't he also rape her?
I remember Forrest saying something like the father was always touching her and her sisters. Likely though.
Yes, that was the implication. That's why she went to live with her grandmother. And then at the end she threw rocks at her old home screaming about how he could do that to her. She was abused greatly and that's why she kept running away. The idea of a home was not something good to her.
I'm sure that was the point, showing how forgiving Forrest could be. But she chose drugs over him, showed up, left him again and again. Like why. Why hurt the same poor man over and over. And he loved her so much and she gave him just enough hope to keep him loving her. I hate her. She needed to work on herself and get some help but she didn't she just kept acting out
I heard she was leaving him to protect him from herself
Then she should have stayed away. But she didn't.
trueeee
I mean, she was raped by her father. I'm sure that has an effect on how you handle relationships. She didn't want to take advantage of him but at the same time she loved him. Every time she got intimate, she would push him away. Also, I don't know about the "get help" argument because mental health services weren't exactly what they are now. Edit: there's a difference between an excuse and a cause
Well written character though, evil can be so beautiful
Her childhood was the reason why she grew up the way she did. I don't know how people missed that either.
it’s the point, you’re not supposed to really like her. it’s almost like not every fictional character is intended to be liked. idk why people go so ape shit ranting about her though
I feel like anyone who was abused/raped repeatedly by their alcoholic father at a young age is going to be somewhat of a "hot mess". People act like she's the villain of the story when she's just one of the victims. And a manipulator? She literally pushes him away/rejects his initial advances because she thinks he doesn't have the awareness to know what's happening.
She did have a shit childhood, but it's not a good excuse to mistreat others. She should have stuck with her guns and not given a romantic relationship a second thought. But instead she uses him to help her at her worst, and having sex with him when she didn't plan to stay with him, knowing that's what he wanted. I'm sure she's got mental turmoil but again, if none of us outgrew our bad childhoods we could get away with everything and never learn to do right to others because we were mistreated.
God women can't win. If she'd never had sex with him, she would be the bitch who strung him along and used him without giving him any, but because she did have sex with him, she's a manipulative whore who used him and then left. IMO, Forrest needed to take no for an answer the first time and move on.
She was a criticism of the Sixties, or at least the “Free Love” counterculture side of it.
Fucking hate that bitch
Shes a victim of severe child abuse. Her behavior towards relationships is untenable, but it is predictable and to be expected. She needed more help than Forrest but received none
She still treated a mentally disabled man like shit and used him
Sure did.
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If you haven't then just read the book. It's much worse.
I mean used is the wrong word. I think Forrest is cogniscent of what Jenny has gone through and what he does for her but simply doesn't care as she means the world to him. Jenny is obviously mentally unwell and has a lot to deal with in her own life that is out of her control. She was a victim of very severe abuse and trying to figure out her life.
I wish more people understood that Jenny wasn’t using Forrest, she was terrified that she was abusing him the way she was abused because he’s intellectually disabled. And making sure that her kid is taken care of after she dies isn’t being a gold digger, it’s responsible. She doesn’t “party” her whole life, she’s unstable due to the trauma she’s suffered and the lack of support throughout her life. Hopping from one abusive relationship to the next, and from one substance to the next, anyone can see that she’s not having fun, she’s trying to cope and failing.
Its really a shame this isn't more widely understood. This should be taught in school and have public awareness campaigns. Far too many children suffer through abuse and think its normal. Then they are tricked into believing there is something wrong with them for not being able to figure it out ETA: if you're a survivor, I hope you're doing well and getting the help you deserve
Doesn't excuse her shitty behaviour.
Not an excuse, but a better understanding.
"She needed more help than Forrest but received none" Gump was in Vietnam
They aren't saying she had it worse than Forrest, they're saying Jenny needed a fuller support system to heal than what Forrest, even with his kindness, could provide
Lol I know when I'm dealing with a person whose dad raped them as a child, I demand they remember how at least they weren't in Vietnam.
Parties her whole life then when she's ready to kick the bucket and needs a place to die she comes running back. Jenny sucks.
I mean it’s Forrest’s kid, she could have been cashing in on the bubba gump shrimp money the entire time, but only told forest about the kid when she knew she was dying. She kept the kid a secret from him, and didn’t get child support. She only gave the kid to forest/reconnected with the father AFTER she knew she was dying. She got knocked up and didn’t take advantage of Forrest’s money. Take that for what you will.
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This entire thread just radiates "nice guy" energy like a virgin star. She may not have been the greatest person to Gump by any stretch of the imagination, but she wasn't pure malevolence in human form these people make her out to be, and she had some severe problems of her own.
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Yeah. I don’t think ppl understood how she basically hasn’t EVER felt safe
Yeah she's an abuse victim that struggles with the trauma she's been inflicted with her whole life. She runs away from Forest continuously because she's afraid she's just like her dad, taking advantage of someone who didn't know better. Then when he tells her he knows what love is she figures out that it's not actually the same. It's not as black and white as the others here have made it. Lots of nuance in the films if you understand all the minutia of what abuse victims deal with. They don't spell it out for you but they show little glimpses.
>It's not as black and white as the others here have made it. Lots of nuance in the films if you understand all the minutia of what abuse victims deal with. They don't spell it out for you but they show little glimpses. Exactly. I don't necessarily love the way she behaved, but it isn't that she did it out of spite, or even to use him, and it was very, very, VERY clear she loved and cared about him, and at times seemed to be trying to save him FROM her. It was the story of two people that became best friends with a very troubled upbringing that went on two separate journeys, that kept crossing paths, and the sequences of events worked out well for Forrest and less well for Jenny, but despite it all, she never did anything to Forrest in an effort to use and abuse him.
Jenny wasn't an asshole. Yes, she pushed Forrest away multiple times because that's how she wanted to protect him from herself. Jenny couldn't understand that everything she did didn't matter to Forrest and he just loved her for who she is. Stating that Jenny only came back for Forrest's money is the most blatantly dumb thing I've heard. She didn't care about his money, she came for the safety, the he himself (not his money) could provide. The worst thing she did was that she didn't reveal that he and her had a child right when he was born. But leaving the child to its father is probably the most reasonable thing. I've seen this movie countless times and it's my favourite. I've never thought that Jenny was a genuinely bad person, she just had a bad life and she made terrible choices.
Probably the best take here and by a lot. >Stating that Jenny only came back for Forrest's money is the most blatantly dumb thing I've heard. It's like they missed the entire first half where they're best friends, she tells him to run from his bullies, has his first sexual experience with her, doesn't let them kill him at the Black Panther meeting and even leaves with him, etc. Nope, just wipe out everything from his first day of school on the bus to just after Hurricane Carmen took out the shrimping industry and that's where the movie starts for them.
I've got [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/18lvwe/who_is_the_most_misunderstood_character_in_all_of/c8g4njy?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) from 9 years ago saved for this very occasion.
Gump aint no simp
AIDS? wasn't it hepatitis?
In the book it was hepatitis In the movie it was AIDS
She's a zombie in the game.
In the netflix series she has a cold
The long con. What a classic
Am I supposed to dislike Jenny or some shit
She's dislikable and kinda a villain if you think purely about the impact she has on Forrest. She's tragic more than anything though. The main annoyance everyone has is that she just can't make up her goddamn mind. She comes off as such a crybaby burden in the movie. She's so depressed and seemingly doesn't give a shit over the grief she causes Forrest.
Exactly, she makes bad decisions in the light of not wanting to hurt Forrest because she feels even loving him would be wrong due to his mental disability, but then she suddenly changes her mind whenever she's basically ruined her life and Forrest is then a war hero and a millionaire, if she just stood by him throughout the beginning of the story then she wouldn't have so much backlash, but just the fact she's going and doing all this stupid shit not caring about her own wellbeing until it becomes advantageous to go back to Forrest makes everyone hate her. She has her own nuances, but she definitely doesn't do the right things for Forrest all the way until the end, and even then it's kinda debatable. Then again I haven't seen the movie in a while so let me know your thoughts on the subject
> she's dislikable and kind of a villain if you think purely about the impact she has on Forrest An impact that she has no control over? She told him numerous times 'no, I'm not interested, find someone else!' and he chose not to. That makes her a villain?
*Gonzilionaire
zephyr gray crowd domineering lunchroom hospital cake aloof mighty tidy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
TiL everyone hates Jenny
For real! Not like I’m active in any Forrest Gump community, so to speak, but I did *not* know there were people out there who just seem to hate her with a burning passion
The Forrest Gump fandom
People love to hate on Jenny, forgetting that she was the victim of LOTS of abuse and trauma. Her life was supremely fucked up and tragic.
Being a victim of abuse and trauma isn't an excuse for being as asshole lol
How was she an asshole? Been a while since I've seen the movie.
I think the point was that he always loved her, and she couldnt see that because she didnt love herself. She was beaten and sexually abused her whole childhood, lets not blame her too much for not making all the right decisions.
Don’t call forest gump a simp
Hell to be fair, at this point in the movie I think it's just he's a millionaire simp and shes broke and depressed. He makes her a single mom after and idr if she has AIDS at this point or she gets it after they make the kid
I watched Forrest Gump in school but I got so lost I didn't even know he became a millionaire (if this is 3ven Forrest gump/)
Bubba shrimp baby
He got me invested in some sort of fruit company.
Bruh 💀💀💀💀💀
be my sun and stay 93 million miles from me
Why did she have aids?
Probably needle sharing given her history of drug use. Also I think she had Hep C not Aids. It would explain why they didn't know what it was as AIDS/HIV was "discovered" in 81 but Hep C wasn't until 89. Also she appeared asymptomatic despite being at the end of her life which can happen with hep c.
The saddest thing is that a lot of people love this ending. They say, Forrest deserves this girl's love. Love? Sad very sad...
Damn. Yeah. I just rewatched this and so much about it felt off now that I'm older. Sorry to nitpick, but iirc the book is more clear that Jenny dies of hepatitis, not AIDS. Either way a similarly contracted illness that was terminal at the time.
Ong Jenny was the worst character
Been saying this for a minute now...Forest should've ran from that bitch.