Changes: Jenny Gump

Revision as of 21:46, 7 November 2017

Jennifer "Jenny" Curran Gump (July 16, 1945 - March 22, 1982) was Forrest Gump's childhood friend, love interest, and later, wife. She was played by Robin Wright as an adult and by Hanna Hall as a child. Jenny would later die of an unknown disease (most likely Hepatitis C or HIV, as they were unknown diseases at the time) due to her long term heroin and cocaine use as well as sexual actions.

Birth and Education

Jennifer "Jenny" Curran was born on July 16th, 1945 (the day the first atomic weapon in history was detonated in Alamogordo, NM) in Taylor, Arkansas. Her mother died when she was 5 years old. She was raised by their father, a farmer, who physically and sexually abused Jenny and her sisters. Forrest believed that he was a loving father that was always kissing and touching Jenny and her sisters, but he was wrong.

[[Fos the love of his life, He meets her on the bus to school, and she invites him to sit with her, which Forrest gratefully accepts (as none of the other students would let him sit with them).

Later some boys cruise up on bikes and throw rocks at Forrest, knocking him off his feet after which Jenny urges him to run, screaming "Run, Forrest, run!" It was difficult to walk and run, and as he ran this time, his leg braces broke off. He ran across town, literally kicking up dust as he passes.

Then one day, Jenny isn't at school and Forrest goes to her house, which is on a farm. Jenny's drunken father pursues Jenny and Forrest, but they hide in a cornfield, where they kneel down and pray to God, "Dear God, make me a bird, so that I can fly far, far, far away from here".

Jenny's father is arrested, and she is sent to live with her grandmother in her trailer. But occasionally she would go out and stay with Forrest, claiming she was scared. Forrest believed this was due to her grandma's dog.

Forrest and Jenny would remain close through their high school years, with Jenny continuing to urge Forrest to run, screaming " Run Forrest, run!" when the bullies pursue him, this time in a truck. Jenny later attends a college that Forrest can't cause it's an all girls college but he goes and visits her to which he accidently beats up her boyfriend Billy when he thinks Billy is hurting Jenny in his car when Jenny accidently hits her head against the head window of the car while trying to make out with Billy to which Billy ends his relationship with Jenny by driving away angry. Jenny (though angry) forgives Forrest and invites him into her dorm room and has sex with him. While in college Jenny poses for Playboy in pictures of which she is wearing just her college sweater to which she is later thrown out of college but gets hired by a man who owns a strip club to sing during a show under the name Bobbie Dylan to which Forrest comes to watch her sing and when some guys in the club try to grab Jenny's legs Forrest beats up the guys and tries to carry Jenny out the door to which she angrily breaks free of Forrest and shoves her guitar at him and walks out with Forrest following her and Jenny gets fired. Outside the club Jenny scowls Forrest for trying to to protect her and Forrest tells her he only did it cause he loved her but Jenny doesn't think Forrest knows what love is and has a thought about commiting suicide by jumping off the bridge outside the club but quickly changes her mind and hitches a ride from a stranger in a pickup but not before telling Forrest that if he's ever scared in Vietnam to just runaway to which Forrest promises Jenny he will and Jenny leaves with the guy in the pickup.

Hippie Jenny

While Forrest is in Vietnam, he writes Jenny many letters, none of which ever reach her. Jenny continues her downward spiral, and becomes a hippie participating in the anti-Vietnam war protests, and doing heavy drugs in the process. She is reunited with Forrest in Washington DC, while he was making a speech on the war, and they spend the day together, going to a Black Panther Party safe house. However, the Black Panthers are not happy with Forrest's presence, and neither is Jenny's abusive boyfriend Wesley, the president of the SDS at Berkeley. Forrest then sees Wesley argue with Jenny and slap her, and Forrest retaliates, by attacking him. Forrest and Jenny are forced to leave, and they spend the rest of the night together walking around Washington DC. The next day, Jenny leaves for Berkeley with Wesley, much to Forrest's dismay. Before Jenny leaves, Forrest gives her his Congressional medal of honor, crediting her for his earning it.

Forrest doesn't see Jenny again for a long time, but he frequently thinks of her and is hoping that she is happy in whatever she is doing. However, during this time, Jenny succumbs further to a life of drugs and prostitution. She eventually hits an all time low, and comes close to attempting suicide by almost leaping off the top floor of a hotel.

After the war

One day, Jenny, partly in an attempt to rebuild her life, arrives at Forrest's home and stays with him for a while. Forrest explains that they'd walk a lot together. He did all the talking and she did all the listening, and Forrest also tells her about Vietnam, playing ping pong, the shrimping business, and his mother going up to Heaven where her own mother is.

One day, they happened to walk in front of Jenny's father's abandoned house, where she was abused by her father as a child. Though Forrest hadn't stopped talking, Jenny walked up to the house and looked at it for a few seconds. She then threw her shoes at the house, and then proceeded to pick up a handful of rocks and feverishly throw them at the house, hitting boards and breaking windows, all the while saying things like, "How dare you." It's suggested that this is the moment when Forrest realizes that Jenny's father had molested her and her sisters and how it has agonized her, even in her adult years. She then runs out of rocks and falls to the ground, crying, to which Forrest quietly sits with her, and (in his narration) says, "sometimes I guess there just aren't enough rocks." It was during this visit that Jenny makes love to Forrest, and becomes pregnant with little Forrest. It is not revealed when she learned about her pregnancy, and Forrest doesn't learn that he had become a father till much later on.

Present day and Death

In the movie, Forrest Gump Jr. first appears towards the end of the movie when Forrest comes to visit Jenny in Georgia. As they talk, Jenny starts to apologize for all the times in the past she acted badly to Forrest because of her own problems. Then, there's a knock at the door, to which a woman drops off a little boy to Jenny. To which Jenny introduces the little boy to Forrest. Then he asks Jenny if he can go watch T.V. She says yes but to keep it low. Jenny tells Forrest that her son is named Forrest. Also because she named him after his daddy to which Forrest asks her if she knows another man named Forrest. Which Jenny replies, "You're his daddy Forrest." This sends Forrest into a shock but Jenny tells him he didn't do anything wrong and that Forrest Jr is one of the smartest kids in his class. Forrest then goes into the room to watch Sesame Street with his son and begins bonding with him.

Jenny later reveals that she is ill and is suffering from an unknown virus with no cure ( Hepatitis C or AIDS) Forrest asks Jenny and little Forrest to come and live with him, where he promises to take care of both of them. The two marry soon after, in a ceremony at Forrest's house, which several family and friends attend, including Lt. Dan.

One day, some time later, an ailing Jenny asks Forrest if he was scared in Vietnam, with Forrest replying that sometimes he was. Then, he remembered the occasional starry nights in Vietnam, comparing them to the sunsets on the Bayou, comparing the water to the clear mountain lake during Forrest's long run, and finally comparing the sky to the sunrises in the desert also during Forrest's run. Jenny wishes she had been with Forrest through it all, even though Forrest says she was.

Jenny eventually died on March 22nd, 1982 (a Monday, but Forest says it was a Saturday Morning), the day that the space shuttle Columbia was launched on STS-3, (the third space shuttle mission). Near the end of the film, we see Forrest standing beside Jenny's grave, under their oak tree, talking to her. He mentions that he bought the land that had belonged to Jenny's father, and had the house demolished. He is taking care of little Forrest, as the two read books, play ping pong and go fishing. Finally Forrest ponders on whether Lt. Dan'sr's life philosophy about having a destiny, or his mother life philosophy about floating around accidentally on a breeze is accurate, eventually deciding that both of them are right. Forrest then tearfully tells Jenny that he misses her and promises to be near if she needs anything. As Forrest leaves the grave, he watches the birds fly (It is implied that at this moment, Forrest realizes that God has finally answered Jenny's childhood prayer to be made a bird and fly away) In the last scene, Forrest is waiting with his son by the bus stop, waving him off to his first day of school.