I. Introduction
Winston Groom is a famous American writer. In 1986, he writes Forrest Gump, however, it doesn’t make Groom famous until it is adapted into a film with the same name in 1994. It is the film that drives the novel to the best-seller position and it is sold 1.7million copies worldwide. It makes Winston Groom’s name be associated with the award-winning film Forrest Gump. The movie gains over ＄657 million worldwide, gathering six Academy Awards, such as best picture, best director, and best actor, etc. It is the actor Tom Hanks that brings Forrest Gump to eternal life, and Forrest Gump’s assertion that “life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get” (Groom, 2010:20) becomes part of the American language. What’s more, Forrest Gump is so popular that Winston Groom has to write two guidebooks to help people understand the novel. Forrest Gump phenomenon begins to spring up in the country, Forrest Gump hats and T-shirts are popular in the country. In the enthusiasm of the film, the fact that Groom is a famous fiction and non-fiction writer is somewhat overshadowed.
About Forrest Gump, Xue Yuemin and Guo Jian’s The Charms of Forrest Gump explores that in what way Forrest Gump goes along with so many people’s mind and wins the admiration of the public from esthetic
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value; Ji Tingting and Yin Lu’s The American Dream out of Forrest Gump (2011) illustrates the American Dream by analyzing the qualities and characteristics of Gump; Zhu Meihong and Liu Lihong’s Analysis of Black Humor in the Movie Forrest Gump From Rhetorical Perspective list a series of rhetorical methods such as simile, metaphor, irony and hyperbole and it also explains how the black humor affects with a lot of examples; Liu Yuxia, Li Meng and Zhou Min’s Cultural Contradiction—A Brief Analysis of Jenny: Symbol of a Cultural Rebellion in Forrest Gump(2012); Zu Wanhui’s The Analysis of Religious Culture in Forrest Gump(2012); Yang Li’s The Masculine Ideology in Forrest Gump (2010) illustrates the cultural phenomenon that women are predominated by men by using the examples of Mrs. Forrest and Jenny; Chen Jing’s On American Culture From Forrest Gump(2010) States the history that happens in the background of the second half 20th century in America to arouse a deep thinking for the past and the American Dream which is cherished by every American people, from this people can see the footstep of the development of American culture and the core of American culture; Wu Wenting’s The Lonely Runner(2009) refers to all aspects of America’s politics, economics, culture and history, it hints a lot of philosophy of life; Yan Hui’s Forrest Gump and American Dream points out the resource of American Dream and its effect on people including Jenny,
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Forrest Gump and Lieutenant Dan, it also expresses the call of American Dream; Li Nan’s A Breeze from the Chaos — An Analysis of the Film Forrest Gump (2012) reflects the negative poits of the popular culture and the positive points of the traditional culture; Liu Yang’s Looking For the lost hero(2004) tells about a story about a common character whose name is Forrest Gump, although he is common, he has played and experienced a significant role in the events of that time. He is a typical American hero and still has an influence to today’s Americans; Li Peng’s The Return of Social Value in Forrest Gump(2009) criticizes the popular culture and tries to heal the schism of social value and praised a return of value which bases on the traditional and religious conservational value; Zhang Jing’s The Analysis of American Culture in the Anti-intellectual Movie Forrest Gump calls for the return of American traditional culture and shows the spirit of love, purity and perseverance which are the best explanations to American Dream, it also embodies the change of American culture and the liquidity and expansionary of American culture; Li Hongmei’s On the Reflection of American culture and society in Forrest Gump analyzes three aspects including the holy fool phenomenon, Forrest Gump philosophy and the symbolism of Forrest Gump.
It is well known that every country has its own culture. Edward T.Hall says that “Culture hides much more than it reveals and strangely enough what
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it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants” (Datesman, 2006:1). This essay intends to expose American culture in Forrest Gump. America is an immigrant country who brings different languages and different cultures to the Unites States, so America is a nation of cultural diversity. Forrest Gump is an inclusive and extensive novel, which has many implications that need readers to taste. It is like a box of assorted chocolates, as long as the readers have the intentions to taste, everyone will have a different understanding of it. In the novel there are so many deep meanings hidden behind the simple events that have taken place in those years that one can get a fully understanding by reading it once only. It is worthy of repeated reading. Some deeper meanings can be understood by reading over and over again. It tells a life experience of an intellectual impaired man: Forrest Gump, whose IQ is only 75, much lower than the normal, his successful experience of becoming wealthy through his hard work and luck. Besides, the events that happen in the novel are all typical and significant ones in those times, such as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, anti-war movement, anti-racialism and the turning of American presidents, they form the centre of American culture. This thesis aims to analyze the reflection of American culture in Forrest Gump from three aspects: religious culture, popular culture, traditional culture.
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II. Reflection of Religious Culture in Forrest Gump
Religious culture has an irreplaceable position in American life. Most of Americans believe in Christian. God has a very important position in their heart. They use “oh, my God” to express surprise and use “God bless you” to express blessing. They also print “In God We Trust” in the American dollar to express national belief and even in Presidential Inaugural Address, the president needs to put his hands in Biblical. In Forrest Gump, religious culture also has an important part in the three main characters: Forrest Gump, Jenny and Lieutenant Dan. This part intends to analyze the reflection of religious culture in Gump, the impact of religious culture to Jenny and the attitude change towards religious culture of Lieutenant Dan.
2.1 The Similarity of Forrest Gump and Jesus
In some ways, Forrest Gump and Jesus are alike. First, their family backgrounds are alike. Forrest Gump comes from a single-parent family and is reared by his mother while his father never occurs in the novel. Similarly, Jesus, according to Biblical, is born in the primitive lodgings of an animal stable. His mother Mary is said to be pregnancy when she is a virgin. She feels very strange until one day an angel comes and tells her that this child is made by the power of Holy Spirit and he is to save the world. She must give birth to this baby and name him Jesus, so Jesus is the son of God. He has not
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美国文化在《阿甘正传》中的体现
