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5.1 Mama Gump
It is amazing to see that in the novel a relation between Forrest and his mother is almost not present. He refers
to her only a few times and he basically lets the reader know that he does not care much about his mother. A
characterisation of Mama Gump can therefore not be made.
It is even more fascinating to see a loving son and a loving mother in the movie. From the beginning of the
film to her death Forrest's mother has a decisive influence to his life. Idioms like \"Stupid is as stupid does\" or
\"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never now what you're gonna get\" are very important guidelines to her
son's life.
5.2 Lieutenant Dan Taylor
In the novel, Forrest Gump meets Dan Taylor in a military hospital. He was \"blowed up inside a tank\" (p. 82, l.
20) and has therefore been severely wounded. He finally loses both his legs.
He is a learned man and a philosopher and he therefore often thinks about his fate and his destiny. During
conversations with Forrest he finds out about the strange adventures his friend lived through, which lead him
to conclude that Gump has a very special destiny on his own, although (or maybe because) he is not
intelligent enough to realise that.
The first meeting with Dan in the movie is when Forrest and Bubba report to Lieutenant Taylor for duty in
Vietnam. In this first scene Dan is already characterised as a honourable warrior who is searching for his
destiny in glorious battles, just like all of his ancestors did before him. He wants to find his honour in the
battlefield, but when Forrest saves him during a battle, Taylor feels cheated and he does not see a point to his
life anymore.
Unlike the Lieutenant Dan of the novel, whose life gets worse and worse because he is really cheated by the
American \"system\", the movie makes Dan an upright and honourable American citizen who \"found his peace
with God\" (and with Forrest) in the end.
5.3 Jenny Curran
In both novel and movie Jenny is characterised as a woman who actively lives through the sixties and
seventies of American history. That means she is a peace demonstrator against the Vietnam War, travels
homeless with other Hippies through the country, becomes addicted to drugs, and in the end calms and
settles down and starts an \"ordinary\" life as a mother and wife.
The film adds an important detail to her life: It shows that Jenny was abused by her father when she was
young; this is meant to explain her \"career\" that leads to drugs and prostitution, but it also gives Forrest a
chance to be the firm anchor in her life.
None of this is described in the novel though, and although the relation between Forrest and Jenny was
stronger at times, she finally marries someone else, because Forrest does not give her the hope that a marriage
between the two of them would work.
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