Some people live extraordinary lives. The fictional Forrest Gump is one of those people. Despite Forrest’s early physical impairment with his legs and his lack of mental acuity, which other characters repeatedly emphasize, the title character of this week’s BP manages to (spoiler alert!) graduate from high school, become a college football star (and earn a college degree), win the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, morph into a superstar table tennis player, captain a shrimping boat, become a millionaire, inspire America with his cross-country running adventure, win the heart of the woman he’s loved for almost his whole life, and raise his son Forrest Jr.–all while hobnobbing with U.S. Presidents and rock and roll superstars during some of the twentieth century’s most dynamic events.

But…Forrest doesn’t dwell on any major incident for very long. He whips through the happenings of his life as fast as he famously runs. In fact, he never seems to grasp the importance of the events he witnesses and in which he plays a role. Instead, his mind returns time and time again to two people: his mother (and the words of wisdom she passes down to him before her death) and Jenny, his best friend from childhood and his eventual wife. Each grand occurrence in Forrest’s life–historical and personal–is judged by how those two women respond to it and/or how each incident makes Forrest think or feel about his two leading ladies. And those ladies couldn’t be more different.

Mama Gump is endlessly supportive of Forrest and determined that her son’s physical and mental challenges will not limit anything he wants to do. She tells him early on in the film after some people stare at Forrest’s new leg braces, “You’re the same as everybody else…You are no different.” The film’s viewer knows this statement isn’t exactly true. Forrest is different from everyone else he encounters in the movie. However, Mama’s words do give Forrest the confidence to live as if what she said is true. Throughout the film, Forrest informs us viewers of what Mama says about everything, including normalcy, wealth, miracles, destiny, and dying. Her words lay the foundation of how Forrest lives his life. For that reason, many of Forrest Gump‘s most memorable lines come from Mama, as recited by Forrest: “Stupid is as stupid does.” “Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you’re gonna get.” On the surface, these sayings seem to be simple wisdom for a simple-minded man, but there’s no denying the depth of either Mama’s words or Forrest’s mind.

On the other hand, Jenny, Forrest’s childhood friend and later lover/wife recognizes throughout the entire movie that Forrest is different from everyone else. She doesn’t harp on this fact, but rather accepts that Forrest operates in a unique way and attunes herself to his quirks. Jenny is able to do this because she also is at a disadvantage in the larger world. Although not physically or mentally challenged like Forrest, Jenny is emotionally and psychologically scarred from the abuse she suffers as a child. Her early years cause her to grow into a restless, promiscuous, and easily influenced young adult who cannot settle in one place for very long. Despite Forrest’s best attempts to protect Jenny, she leaves him to embark on her next “adventure” every time.

Jenny and Forrest both run throughout the movie. Jenny runs away on buses and in cars with strangers, endlessly trying to escape her haunting past. Forrest literally runs everywhere because it’s one thing he excels at and enjoys. No running is necessary once Jenny and Forrest decide to be together toward the end of the film. Forrest tells us that he and Jenny “[go] together like peas and carrots.” What he means to say is that they are two peas in a pod, but what he actually says implies that their differences make them fit together. With Jenny, Forrest feels understood and complete. Apart from Jenny, Forrest can only talk about how he misses her and wishes he could share his life’s events with her.

(Spoiler alert!) When Forrest experiences the deaths of people close to him, namely his mother and his Army friend Bubba, he stops after relating the fact of their deaths and says, “That’s all I have to say about that.” Forrest doesn’t process those deaths out loud in his narrative on the bus stop bench. But after his marriage to Jenny and her death, Forrest visits her grave and updates her on how he and little Forrest are doing without her. He is able to talk to Jenny although she is gone. They are still bonded together, like they were throughout Forrest’s life story even when they were physically apart. And I suppose that gives a satisfactory ending to Forrest’s account of his colorful life.

For Me Then…

Mama Gump’s asking “What’s normal anyways?” really sums up this film for me. Clearly, Forrest is unique. He knows it. His mother knows it. Jenny knows it. Forrest’s listeners on the bench know it. We the viewers know it. But what appear to many characters in the film to be Forrest’s disadvantages really end up being his strengths. His simplemindedness allows him to forget himself and constantly focus on the well-being of others and how he can contribute to that well-being. He is selfless, courageous, and compassionate–all positive attributes that diminish the importance of the fact that Forrest has a low IQ.

Furthermore, not too many other characters (if any) in the film are exactly “normal.” Jenny has a multitude of issues stemming from her childhood experiences. Lieutenant Dan struggles after losing his legs in Vietnam. Bubba seems to have some mental impairment (or at least some sort of bizarre obsession with shrimping). Mama herself doesn’t exactly fit in with her society. But all these disadvantages are okay. We the audience come to know and love each of these characters because their issues make them seem like real, complicated, flawed people. Anyhow, who wants to live in a world where all the people are the same? Besides, intelligence, physical perfection, social acceptance, etc. are all fleeting and don’t matter as much as our cultures and societies tell us they do. Forrest Gump shows us that other things are more important. “I’m not the smart man. But I know what love is,” says Forrest. And maybe that makes him intelligent after all.