Interpersonal Communication in Forrest Gump

Interpersonal Communication In Forrest Gump

Georgie Goldberg

Santa Barbara City College

Communication 101

May 1, 2016

Interpersonal communication is the communication between people, usually in close relationships or friendships. We can use specific examples and concepts to analyze their interpersonal communication. I will be analyzing the interpersonal communication methods between Jenny and Forrest throughout the movie, Forrest Gump. Forrest is constantly pushing for Jenny and wanting her approval but Jenny is always building up walls and running away from him. Jenny does this because her past experiences shape her future perceptions. We can analyze their relationship by looking at concepts like; secure and fearful attachment styles, expectancy violation theory, cognitive complexity, individualism, novelty/predictability, personal construct, relationship listening, and nonverbal communications. All of these terms can help us better understand the relationship between Jenny and Forrest.

Forrest Gump is a simple man with a small I.Q. who is always in the right place at the right time. Forrest grows up in a small town in Alabama, where he meets his best friend, Jenny. Forrest goes from being a college football player, to fighting in the Vietnam war, to starting a multi million dollar shrimping company. Throughout his adventures in life he is constantly being reconnected with Jenny. Forrest is constantly trying to connect to Jenny while she is always pushing back. In, the end Jenny tells Forrest that they have a kid together. Jenny and Forrest get married but Jenny ends up dying from an illness. Forrest then raises his son Forrest Jr. in his childhood home in Greenbow, Alabama (Zemeckis, 1994).  

        Growing up, Forrest’s mother showed a secure attachment style, she was very loving to Forrest. His Mother always showed a lot of faith in Forrest, she always told him no one was better than him and reassured him everyone is smart in their own way. This attachment style led Forrest to be very compassionate in his relationships. Forrest always sees the good in others and is very interested in making friends. This attachment style led to Forrest becoming very loving himself as he grew up. Since all Forrest knew growing up was a secure attachment style that is what he is going to practice himself. It is hard for two people to be in a relationship if they grew up with different attachment styles because there is always going to be a disconnect in perception of the relationship.

Jenny grew up being exposed to a fearful attachment style (Wood, 1998). Growing up, Jenny’s father was very abusive to her and her other siblings. The only person Jenny felt loved by was Forrest. However, whenever Forrest would try to help Jenny in any way she would lash out and reject his help. Jenny wants a close bond with Forrest but she feels like she is unlovable because of her history of abuse with her Father. Most of Jenny’s problems throughout her life could be attributed back to her abusive father. One of the main problems is her issues with men. She always finds herself in abusive relationships because that is all that she knows from growing up. Forrest is the only person who has ever showed any loving compassion towards her. But, she doesn’t know how to be in a healthy, loving relationship.

Along with fearful attachment style, Jenny’s relationship with Forrest is affected by the expectancy violation theory. This means, when our expectations are violated, we become more alert and it is harder to accept unexpected behavior (Wood, 1998). Jenny accepts that all of her relationships are going to end in abuse, but tells herself that these men are going to change. An example of an abusive relationship would be when Jenny’s at the time boyfriend slapped her across the face during the Black Panther meeting because he didn’t think Forrest was “one of them”. Jenny assures Forrest that he will never hit her again, but we all know that is not true. Forrest tries to help Jenny see that she deserves better but her expectation is that all relationships lead to violence and heartbreak.  When Forrest comes along, and gives her a healthy relationship, this violated her expectations of a normal relationship. Jenny pushes back and runs away from Forrest simply because it isn't her norm. After Jenny has Forrest’s baby she finally realizes that she can’t live her life being abused, especially now that she has a child. Forrest breaks her expectations of relationships, causing her to pushback and run away. Once she finally accepts these violations, she can live in happiness (Wright, 2015).

Forrest struggles with cognitive complexity. This is, the number of personal constructs used, and how they interact to shape perceptions (Wood, 1998). As stated earlier, Forrest has a very low I.Q. So low that he cannot be accepted into a normal elementary school. Forrest seems to have the cognitive complexity of a child. He refers to being shot in the leg as, “something came up and bit me”. This is how a child might call being shot in the leg. Having the cognitive complexity of a child affects the way Forrest interacts with others, especially his peers because people don’t take him very seriously. People treat him badly because they think he is stupid or not up to pace. Jenny never looks down on Forrest for his cognitive complexity, instead she helps teach him social norms. Forrest uses Jenny as a crutch growing up to teach him from right to wrong. He even says in the beginning of the movie that Jenny taught him how to read and write. Another example of Forrest’s low cognitive complexity is with running. Forrest just runs and runs without stopping. In college, the whole football stadium would have to scream for him to stop once he got to the end of the field. It is things like running where Forrest has to be helped because he can not think on his own. When Jenny helps Forrest it makes him push to her even further because he can feel a sense of dependency towards her (SASAYAMA, 2016).

Individualism is a huge part of the way Forrest’s morals and values are shaped. Individualism is the predominant Western belief that everyone is their own individual and that they should be recognized for their behavior or accomplishments. This creates a sense of self awareness and feelings of accomplishment (Wood, 1998). Mrs. Gump (Forrest’s mother) always taught Forrest that he is unique and special growing up. Since he was taught that he is an individual he never doubted or limited himself. Forrest’s determined attitude and high sense of self worth can be attributed to individualism. This also made him more patient with Jenny because he knew whatever Jenny wanted to do, she would do because she was her own person. Without the idea of individualism, Forrest probably would not have had the patience to be waiting for Jenny for so many years. The only real time in Forrest’s life where he experienced collectivism was in the army. While in the army, Forrest was exposed to working together and sharing a common goal. Lieutenant Dan had more of a collectivist view because fighting in the army is all about your team, or platoon. Having experience with both individualism and collectivism helps broaden Forrest’s communication skills.