1. Employment of archetype---a learned idiot.
Gump is a learned idiot, a person affected with mental disability who nevertheless shows some exceptional talent or ability. In the novel, Gump himself becomes aware of the special character of his own idiocy( “what goes on in my mind in a sight different than other folks see”) and compares himself to the great idiots of literature such as the fool in Dostoevsky(陀斯妥耶夫斯基)’s The Idiot and Shakespeare’s King Lear. This facilitates the spectator’s recognition of the fictional character as a believable figure.
I. A Brief Introduction to Forrest Gump
Cast: Forrest Gump……汤姆汉克斯/Tom Hanks Jenny Curran……罗宾怀特/Robin Wright Lt. Dan Taylor……加里希尼斯/Gary Sinise Awards: Best Picture (1995) Best Director Best Actor Best Visual Effect Best Editing Best Adapted Screenplay
b. Humor as Release（释放）: It holds that humor and laughter serve to release the tensions produced by social rules and constraints. Laughter is the pleasure that comes from seeing social rules get broken, and from seeing deeper antisocial desires--desires that we all share ---being expressed
c. Humor as incongruity（不和谐）: we laugh at that which is incongruous. Incongruity theorists argue that the ability to imagine and appreciate such incongruity is fundamentally beneficial to humankind. It is also the ability to view the world in peculiar, unpredictable, and impractical ways. Dramatic Irony: it occurs when the audience understand the meaning of a situation of dialogue, but the character themselves do not.
II. Synopsis
He sets up a shrimping business. The business is successful through an act of God that sinks the boats of his rivals, and through a lucky reinvestment of the profits in Apple Gump becomes a rich man. Jenny returns but is unwilling to married him. Finally, Jenny has given birth to Gump’s baby. But she dies from AIDS. Gump takes their young son to the school bus that Gump himself had caught so many years before, and the circle is complete.
---Northrop Frye
2. Three approaches to answer the question “what makes us laugh?”
a. Humor as Disparagement(轻视): It has its origin in ancient Greek and Roman thinking. Its is based on the observation that we laugh at the weakness and stupidity of other. Humor is nothing other than the feeling of sudden glory arising from a sense of superiority that comes from a comparison of ourselves with others. (by Thomas Hobbes)
V. Narrative Structure
Episodic structure: that is, it is made up of separate, loosely connected situations that occur in the life of the protagonist. What holds together the narrative is not the plot but the figure of Gump. Accompanying the episodic structure is a pattern of repetition. The overall effects of these repetition is to create an sense of circularity---the reassuring feeling that history repeats itself, and that if any alternations are made to this pattern of repetition, they are unambiguously positive.
Comedy and tragedy were both parts of a mythic cycle, with comedy representing the victory of spring over wither. Tragedy can be considered an uncompleted comedy in which spring is never reached; conversely, comedy represents the completion of a cycle that must contain within itself the possibility of tragedy.
III. Appreciating the Movie
Discussing the following questions in groups: 1. Which scene amuses you? Why do you think it is funny? 2. What experiences of Gump’s life are narrated with focus? Are they closely connected? 3. What is Gump’s belief in or attitude towards life? Try to make a comparison of his and Jenny’s or Lieutenant's 4. What does the feather symbolize? What does the box of chocolates symbolize?
IV. Humor Effects
1. What is “comedy” It is a form a drama that deals in an amusing way with ordinary characters in everyday situations. It differs from tragedy in that it shows a basically positive attitude to life; life is not to be fled from or rejected, but to be grasped and enjoyed for what it is. ---Aristotle
Forrest Gump
I. A Brief Introduction to Forrest Gump
Director: Robert Zemeckis(罗伯特·泽米斯基) Back to the Future Who FrameCast Away Flight
II. Synopsis
The film tells the story of Forrest Gump, an amiable idiot with an IQ of just 75 who unwittingly finds himself at the center of many of the key events of recent American history. Gump is born in a small American town in the 1950s and falls in love with a local girl, Jenny who shows kindness to him and sympathy for his mental disability. Encouraged by Jenny to run away from the local bullies, Gump discovers a remarkable talent for running, and thereby gains admission to college, where he becomes a football star. … …