Forrest Gump And The Examination Of The American Traditional Values

Winston Groom is an American writer who began his first novel Better Times Than These at 1978. He has published seven novels from then among which Conversations with the Enemy (1982) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Forrest Gump was written in 1985, which was famous in 1994 after its adaption into a film with the same name. The film propelled the novel to bestseller status and it sold 1.7 million copies worldwide. Winston Groom became one of best sellers in the world.Although Winston Groom made remarkable achievement, he didn't stop the enthusiasm for writing, devoting all his time writing on the topics about the wars. This essay consists of five parts including introduction, the first chapter, the second chapter, the third chapter and the conclusion. In introduction, it introduces Winston Groom's life experience and the background and storyline of Forrest Gump. At that time the U.S. counterculture movement was in full swing. This rebellious wave spread to a wide range and quickly got the respond of the younger generation. "Forrest Gump" is written in such a complex historical context.The first chapter briefly describes the growth and experience of Forrest Gump, analyzing the optimism, the kindness and the sincerity of the hero. Forrest Gump is upright, honest and trustworthy. Although mentally retarded, he has an optimistic attitude to life and generous attitude towards everything around. He embodies the virtues of being recognized by the people. Although Forrest Gump was influenced by the wave of social revolt, deviating from the traditional values for a while, but he did not indulge in it and returned to the track of traditional values under the guide of inner-orientation in the end, from which we could get the deconstruction that he is a sigh of American traditional values. Chapter Two introduces Jenny's personality and experience. It also introduces the counterculture movement and its social background, cause and features. Jenny is the representative of hippies who advocate the counter-culture and resent the traditional morals and values that she has betrayed. But Jenny finally end up the unrestrained way of living of hippie-style which also reveals the counterculture movement didn't bring out the revolutionary change to the society.Chapter Three is the main part of this paper talking about American mainstream culture and American traditional morals and values. From the point of view of the development of American society, the leading position is no doubt occupied by the Christian Puritan culture. As the core of American mainstream values, the individualism from the Puritanism has penetrated into every aspect of American life. This part reveals the importance of the traditional values through the depiction and analysis of ups and downs of the mainstream culture. It presents us with the importance of American traditional values and its leading position in the American mainstream culture. The last part is the conclusion.Through the personalities and life experience, Winston Groom means to present us the American people's attitude towards the dominant culture and traditional values after the Second World War. Initially the American people didn't suspect and deny the traditional values and mainstream culture and they cherished beautiful beliefs and wish to life. However, with the change of international and domestic background as well as the broke out of every kinds of rebellion, the people's intellectual level also has a big change. Mainstream culture have been questioned, all kinds of new ideas began to germinate. Under the guidance of new ideas people want to change the status quo, however, to no avail they felt at a loss. After the social unrest and a variety of issues are emerging, people began to reflect on what happened and began to look at the past. When the wave of cultural rebellion retreat, mainstream American society, after experiencing various challenges, again rooted in the American people at all levels. To Groom the return to traditional values is not the simply pendulum hovering between liberalism and conservatism, but was rised on the spiral-type. That is the American people need to regain the good traditional values while pursuing of social progress and development.