Today I was watching Forest Gump on TV. I don’t have to go in to much detail about how popular this movie was and still is. First of all, Tom Hanks is probably one of the best, most-versatile actors today. He has been successful in many different roles, because it is so easy to empathize with him. I think it is because he incarnates the roles he plays and lets the emotion of the character come out. But, this is the topic of a different post.

As I watched Forest Gump I thought about what makes this movie so appealing. Is it the lovable characters? Is it the fun storyline? Is it the themes of hope amidst trials? While I don’t think there is one answer for the success of this movie, one thing stands out to me. Gump and Jenny traverse the decades of American history and culture through very different paths. All of us can relate to how either Gump or Jenny moved through a rapidly changing culture.

It is interesting how Gump is woven into US history. While a tide of cultural and political changes crash down, he simply stands tall and walks through it somewhat oblivious to what’s going on around him. Perhaps he is the symbol of modernism. His saving grace is that while those around him are swiftly changing, he just forges ahead with a head full of facts and simple truth. Gump is the conservative.

If Forest is modernism, Jenny is a symbol of postmodernism. She’s swept away by the emerging culture, so much so that she loses her identity amidst the crowd. She has no reference point to her life, because everything is relative to her. Jenny finds pleasure, but only with pain right beside it. Jenny is the liberal.

Forest loves Jenny, but doesn’t know how to win her to himself. Every time Forest tries to rescue her from the recklessness of her life, their relationship is put in turmoil and Jenny runs away from him and Forest walks away alone and disoriented. She can’t love a man who won’t let her live passionately. It’s not until Jenny is much older and the mother of young Forest that she realizes that she has messed her life up and loves him too, but not long after that she dies.

Forest and Jenny are opposites. Forest is the stable, factual thinker who doesn’t care about the future, only the past and present. Jenny is the progressive, emotional dreamer. All she cares about is what suits her future fancy. Forest is the left-brain conservative and Jenny is the right-brain liberal.

In the beginning of the story Forest falls in love with Jenny, because she is kind to him while everyone else dismisses him as different. In the end Jenny falls in love with Forest, because he is generous to her despite the mess she made of her life. The two need each other. Without Jenny he is empty, cold and alone. Without Forest, she is on the edge of danger and despair. This, I believe, is why people like this movie so much. It’s the story of two different people in a world in the midst of two vastly different ideologies.

The story of Forest Gump and Jenny. In our hearts we desperately want the two together. But is there hope for the modern and the post-modern to marry? The answer this movie gives is yes, but only through a generous, persevering love and pain and sorrow.