Forrest Gump: Marxist and Feminist Analysis

Forrest Gump bolshie and Feminist AnalysisIn the 1990s, dominant Studio produced just about box-office hits and one of which, Forrest Gump, is a huge triumph that won the Oscar for Best Picture for 1994 and gained oer $677 million dollars of box office finishedout the world. The learn is based upon the novel by Winston groom and directed by Robert Zemeckis it portrays the leading office staff Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks), who is a normal the Statesn guy, with an IQ of 75 so c each(prenominal)ed as idiot, but boomingly get through his bittersweet childhood, brilliant footb all c arer at collage, and stout performance in the army as well as a fortune in his shrimping business. Forrests business relationship truly inspires the entire American with his evidentiary achieve ments and positive attitudes towards manner in addition, the exposure reveals a history of America over the past decades in which take numerous historic planets, representing the ultimate American dr eam in a land of opportunity.Forrest Gump is wholly manly select and Forrest Gump is no doubt the protagonist, two important females, his m opposite Mrs. Gump and his crush girl friend ever jenny, however do present their thoughtful images in the film, making a great impact on Forrests interior world and bearing. fit inly, this oblige would like to concentrate on the above-mentioned women and look for how they fix Forrest with their unique characters and determine. Furthermore, a deeper level of examination linked to time-honored myths and values in social context will be too proposed to demonstrate the status of the 1990s American society.With the intention of arguing these supermans, some film theories should be certainly applied to the narrative in Forrest Gump. It has been predominant since the 1970s that film critics and scholars stomach turned from semiotics to psychoanalytical notions that been slackly utilized into the film analysis. Consequently, it i s crucial indeed to employ these methods into this article, theoretically addressing feminist debates in legal injury of the texts in Forrest Gump. Furthermore, it can go steady through how the hegemony is constructed in a patricentric society in relation to feminism by the analysis indoors Marxism discourse.Representations of Women in Forrest GumpThe two females are depicted in the film one is Forrests mother Mrs. Gump (by Sally Field), who hold backs great contribution to Forrests life the other one is jenny ass Curran (by Robin Wright), as Forrest says about her she was my intimately special friend, my only friend. In general, these two females can be place as stereotypical de go underations of women with their social, cultural and sexual definition, super influencing Forrest into another internal representation of men in a patriarchal society as Hollows, Hutchings and Jancovich (2000, P230.) evinces that It is a historical fact that women come formed an important get off the ground of the inter expectation for commercial entertainment films.Mrs. Gump appears to be a single mother of Forrest. According to how Forrest values his mum, she is a very smart lady, responsible, brave, and independent. She is good at managing her airscrew inherited from her family, renting all the empty rooms to make a living. Regardless Forrests low IQ, Mrs. Gump still insists on her paroles attending public enlighten rather than a special school as she says that my boy Forrest is tone ending to get the same opportunities as everyone else She tells Forrest that stupid is as stupid does, supporting(a) Forrest growing up to a normal and confident per watchword. On the other hand, she really understands that life is full of ups and downs, giving Forrest lessons such as life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what youre gonna get. To Forrest, Momma is ceaselessly an excellent model he learns from. Even though she is dying, Mrs. Gump calmly says to her son its just my time Dont be afraid, death is just a part of life. Its something were all indentured to do. I didnt know it, but I was destined to be your momma. I did best I could. Generally, the character of Mrs. Gump is a powerful and independent female presence. However, her existence is more than for herself viewing all the sort through Forrests story, Mrs. Gump becomes a characterifier of independence which can be seen as answering to male desires and anxieties. Claire Johnston (2000), one of the first film critics to recognize the film text as a semiotic grade system, develops Barthesian semiotic point of view into her feminist inventions that the woman exists as a structure in the text of classical Hollywood filmsIconography as a specific large-minded of sign or cluster of signs based on certain conventions within the Hollywood genres has been partly responsible for the stereotyping of women within the commercial cinema in general, but the fact that there is a faraw ay greater specialisation of mens roles than of womens roles in the history of the cinema relates to sexist political orientation itself, and the basic rivalry which places man inside history, and woman as ahistoric and eternal. (2000 23)In this respect, Mrs. Gump is a sign macrocosm considered as a structure or a convention. some(prenominal) Forrest recalls his mother, for example, he forever starts with words like Momma always state this or Momma always said that, which emphasis his mothers huge influence on him. The mothers amazing characteristics of perseverance, independence and kindness are taken by Forrest who can overcome any difficulties through his life. It proves a system of telephone exchange in classical films that the representation of women as the ideological meaning is for men rather than women. Hence, as Cook and Johnston (1990) arguesThe male protagonists castration fears, his search for self-knowledge all converge on woman it is in her that he is finally f ace with the recognition of lack. cleaning woman is thence the locus of emptiness she is a sign which is defined negatively something that is missing which essential be located so that the narcissistic aim of the male protagonist can be achieved.Besides, Jenny presents her distinct aspect of the representation of women in Forrest Gump, who is depicted as an extremely confused character. She spends most of her life finding herself, always expecting that Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far away from here. Young Jenny is abused by her drunken soda pop and stays with Forrest just because she is scared of loneliness. After high school, they go to divergent colleges. In Forrests eyes, Jenny and he are just like peas and carrots since she affectionate offers a seat on his first bus to school. However, the film broadly speaking presents the dark, lonely and weak side of Jenny whom is totally unlike virile and independent Mrs. Gump Jenny makes wrong decisions of being nake d model for magazine, singing at a strip club and taking drugs when Forrest sets off his successful life crabbedly, a couple of times she wants to suicide. No matter when and where, Forrest always attempts to rescue Jenny out of trouble through her journeys but ends up Jennys running away every time. Jenny is Forrests only love and he really does care about her, trying his best to protect her. Finally, they go together as what Forrest hopes when Jenny decides to settle down and marry Forrest.Mrs. Gump and Jenny play important roles with respect to Forrest but in completely various ways. The semiotic investigation into the myth of women in the film text clarifies the women as a structure and how they works as a signifier of ideology. analytic thinking Concepts and Spectatorship IssuesApart from theoretically examining the representation of women in Forrest Gump with the help of semiotics discourses, psychoanalytic conjecture is necessarily to be taken as a scathing tool in order to clearly exemplify womens differences from men in terms of lack and castration as well as hold forth spectatorship according to Hollywood classical cinema. According to Janet McCabe (2004), Psychoanalytic theory shifted from a semiotic concern with the text, to consider instead the unconscious processes involved in how the spectator is persuasioned in and through the film text (p.24). In this instance, Freuds and Lacans psychoanalytic approaches significantly contribute to feminist film analysis in terms of studying sexuality concerns within spectating practices.Drawing on Freudian theory regarding scopophilia, voyeurism and fetishism as well as Lacanian mirror phase, in her article Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey (1975) establishes her point of male gaze and demonstrates that film is structured according to male fantasies of voyeurism and fetishism.In Forrest Gump, the act of gaze employs a complex relationship between the characters, the sense of hearing and sp ectator. For example, during his childhood just in the beginning mum tries to enroll him to the public school, Forrest sits on a swing away the house at night, hearing the principals grunts from inside the house. Forrest thusly grunts, imitating when the principal go out, making him feel embarrassed. It is obvious that Mrs. Gump becomes an object glass for both the principal and her son to view, however, what reflect from them are varied for the principal, she is an tingling impact and pleasurable looking for her son, it seems his first time to recognize his mother does not own her member but he previously assumes that she should have, so he thinks mothers one must have been castrated. The scene demonstrates Mulveys (1989) debate from a feminist perspective it clearly conveys how male castration anxiety comes to be projected onto the female form, which is accordingly appropriated as a fetish how woman is represented adorned with phallic shapes (p 8).In addition, Forrests loo king at Jenny throughout her journey displays Mulveys (2000) view of male gaze woman plays a traditional exhibitionistic role her body is held up as a passive erotic object for the gaze of male spectators, so that they can project their fantasies on to her. For instance, Forrests sitting in the rain at night and staring at her necking with a boy in the car make him in the position of passive voyeur his another looking over Jennys breasts while she removes her bra in the dorm room presents Jenny herself as erotic spectacle for Forrest, then his active gaze renders her image into an object of sexual fantasy to begin with being sent to the War, Forrest comes to the night club, sitting in his seat in the same way as the spectator, watching Jenny and sharing with audience in the cinema his anxious gaze when she is topless, sitting on a stool and playing a guitar on the stage. All these Forrests looking over Jenny at his different occasions seemingly oscillates between voyeurism and f etishistic fascination. redness Criticism and Cultural StudiesAlong with psychoanalytical, feminist and cultural literary criticism, Marxist criticism is an especial approach to expose a collection of hidden meanings in films rather than discussing representations of women or sexuality from a sociological perspective.According to Marxist theory, the film represents the Repressive State Apparatus as Forrest is passing play through his life the assassination attempt on George Wallace, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy the struggles over civilised rights and the war in Vietnam. At this point, Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise) initially appears as a strong portrayal in the army with a long, great army tradition, but ends up losing his both legs in the war then being encouraged consistently by Forrests plain ideology, viewers thus see he eventually finds the real meaning of the life with his new mental legs, which convey a positive message towards the ideologica l issue that all the Americans wonder like Forrest Gump whats my destiny?Regardless its nature of unspoken still invisible, ideology generally defines the shared beliefs and values held by a culture, it therefore hugely influences upon the culture with its invisible power. To some extent, ideology forms the manners of muckle think and things look, which is so called hegemony. In the film, either Mrs. Gump positively disciplines Forrest that life is a box of chocolates or Jenny leaves him a negative advice that if youre ever in trouble, dont try to be brave Just run away, Forrest simply takes them at the unconscious level nevertheless, running becomes his starting point to success and even leads a large group following behind him. Consequently, whatever the representation of women meaning to this male protagonist in the classical narrative cinema, or how he gains the fantasies of voyeurism and fetishism in light of psychoanalysis, it finally appears to viewers that Forrests story asserts possibility and hope even though difficulties, loneliness, and death, as he says that to put the past behind you and move on. Accordingly, behind the images on screen, Forrest Gump reflects positive values that Americans should hold the main characters more or less, present these ideological state apparatuses in terms of Marxism criticism. The film not only entertains audience with erotic spectacle and pleasure, also offers its suggestion to audience with regard to the society and culture they are positioned.Marxism and feminism examine film studies individually these discourses in fact have same desire to challenge the power structures in a patriarchal society. Meanwhile, both of them link to each other on the basis of psychoanalytic notions. Studying the main females of the film with feminism theory is certainly serviceable to explore the ways in which ideology has though been structured in the cultural context.ConclusionTo sum up, Mrs. Gump and Jenny, the two females who relate to the protagonist Forrest Gump, have been mostly examined with the mechanism of feminist discourse in the article. By going through the feminism analysis with their representation and sexuality in the film text and ideological implication in terms of Marxism theory, we can fold the film, as Comolli and Narboni (2000) state on the one hand it is a particular product, on the other hand, as a result of being a material product of the system, it is also an ideological product of the system.ReferencesComolli, J. and Narboni, P. (2000) Cinema/ideology/criticism1971, in in Hollows, J., Hutchings, P. and Jancovich, M. (ed.) The Film Studies Reader. capital of the United Kingdom Arnold Presser.Cook, P and Johnston, C. (1990) The Place of Woman in the Cinema of Raoul Walsh1974, in Patricia Erens (ed.) Issues in Feminist Film Criticism, Bloomington inch University Press.Hollows, J., Hutchings P. and Jancovich, M. (2000), The Film Studies Reader.London Arnold Publisher. P 230.Johnst on, C. (2000). Womens Cinema as counter-Cinema 1973, in E.A. Kaplan (ed.) feminist movement and Film. Oxford Oxford University Press, P22-23.McCabe, J. (2004). Feminist Film Studies Writing the Woman into Cinema. London Wallflower Press. P24.Mulvey, L. (1989). Fears, Fantasies and the male Unconscious or You Dont Know What is Happening, Do You, Mr. Jones? 1973, in Visual and former(a) Pleasures. Basingstoke Macmillan. P8.Mulvey, L. (2000). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema 1975, in Hollows, J., Hutchings, P. and Jancovich, M. (ed.) The Film Studies Reader. London Arnold Presser.Dongjie Duan