Abstract： The feather’s track in Forrest Gump symbolizes the whole life of Jenny, who wanders from place to place but finally comes back to Forrest as his wife. With a feather opening, and a feather ending, this film implies the conflict and its final result of two ideologies in 1960s America: the liberal values and the traditional values.
Key words：Forrest Gump 1; the Feather 2; conflict between the liberal and the traditional values 3
1.Preface
Through the experience of a mentally retarded man, the film, Forrest Gump, succeeding in both box office and Oscar Award, reviews the tremendous social changes of the 1960s America. The well-made film has rich and profound meanings after being interpreted by different critics. The careful audiences may find something interesting in the film, especially the feathers in the opening and the ending scenes. At the very beginning of the film, a soft feather wanders in the sky, skimming over tall buildings, flourishing branches, muddy street and busy pedestrians, and finally lands besides Forrest’s foot when he is waiting for Jenny. Forrest picks it up. After looking at it for several seconds, he finally puts the feather into his book. Following that, the film unfolds itself in Forrest’s talk with different strangers besides him about his life story. At the end of the film, a feather appears again in the scene where Forrest sends little Forrest to the school bus. Opposite to the track in the opening, the feather firstly is on the land, besides Forrest; then, it wanders with wind in the sky and flies higher and higher. The shot focuses on the feather for twice in the scenes that are important for a film, the opening and the ending.
So, what does this mean? It must imply some significant meanings here. Liu Zheng in his essay argues that the track of the feather in the beginning symbolizes the developing process of American dream in history; while the one in the end is a symbol of the beginning of a new American dream. Different from Liu Zheng’s interpretation, this paper argues that the feather’s track in the opening symbolizes the whole life of Jenny, who wanders from place to place but finally comes back to Forrest as his wife. Under the surface of their moving love, actually, there is an implication of a conflict between two ideologies in American history: the liberalism and the conservatism. So, what Jenny embodies during her wandering life coincides with liberal values, while Forrest in all his life complies with traditional values which conservatism highly praises. Jenny’s final coming back to Forrest suggests conservative values replacing liberal ones return to American mainstream. As for the feather in the end of the film, it symbolizes a hope that America will have a bright future and continues to pursue its freedom but under the guidance of traditional values.
2. Ideological shift since the mid-1950s in America
For two decades after World WarⅡ, based on a New Deal coalition, liberalism remained the mainstream ideology in the United States, dominating the major political parties and the institutions of national government. For liberals, the individual and his or her satisfactions are the main focus. The government is to provide the conditions and certain kinds of assistance for individuals to pursue their rational self-interest. Equality of opportunity is strongly supported by liberals. On the basis of these values and with appropriate adjustment of New Deal, the social contradictions in America at that time tended to be alleviated. Because of that, the liberalism was in the leading position in the United States.
However, until the mid-1950s, its dominant status was challenged by a succession of social unrests, political debacles and cultural crises, such as the civil rights movement beginning in 1955, students movement led by New Left in 1962, antiwar movement from 1965 to 1967 when Vietnam War was massively upgraded, a series of counter-culture and anti-society movements caused by the antiwar and student movement. The United Stated in 1960s was full of conflicts and confusions. These in turn destroyed the unity of the New Deal coalition, undermined liberalism’s position as the dominant ideology and gave rise to new groups representing diverse sets of beliefs and values. All these have dramatically embodied in the film.
Because of the over-development of liberalism and the negative impact from civil movement, the country suffered social chaos and economic recession, which woke the American people. They wish to go back to traditions and to be out of disorders. At the time, once being liberalists and painstakingly criticizing government’s radical reform of New Policy that led to a series of social unrest, some intellectuals joined in the group of conservatism. All these facilitated conservatism’s return to American mainstream. The conservatism defends strongly traditional, religious and moral values, and fights against counter-culture and sexual-liberation movement as well as the radical reform designed by liberalists.
3. Ideological shift embodied in Jenny and the death of liberal America
As the film exposes confusions of the 1960s’ America, the camera increasingly focuses on Jenny. In her movement from her past and away from the values of 1950s’ Alabama, Jenny moves on an ever-increasing path of self-destruction. From strip shows, to the pages of Playboy, to student movement, to antiwar activism, to her wandering life with Hippies, Jenny is always linked with political and cultural movement in 1960s. Her way of life is counter-cultural and a pursuit for individual liberation as well as an abandonment of traditional values. She always appears before the audiences as the image of a rebel.
However, different from Jenny, keeping a 1950s crewcut and wearing crisp gingham shirts throughout the decades traced in the film, Forrest is an eternal observer of the traditional values. He represents almost all good American virtues－honesty, tolerance, decency, goodness, and loyalty, which forms a evident comparison with Jenny. Jenny hates his father and even hates to be back to the house where she once lives with her father. Conversely, wherever he goes, and whoever he meets, Forrest always remembers what his mother once told him and will follow it.
The comparison of the two entirely different images of two figures manifests the distinct values under two ideologies. Young people like Jenny radically pursued freedom, individual liberation and equality, living in a Hippie’s life as a protest to the traditional values. As a result, that led to their self-indulgence, dissipatedness, and demoralization. The whole society descended into chaos, and some serious social problems arose from it. As it is represented in the film, those people were always related to sexual violence, drugs, sordidness and sluttery. Their life is like the feather wandering in the sky without any goal but with total freedom. Totally different from Jenny, what Forrest embodies are all traditional values that conservatism favors. He would like to follow what his mother said. He also plays a role of mediator, helping defuse all kinds of conflicts and tension, such as racial conflict, Lieutenant Dan Taylor’s Vietnam War syndrome. In all his life, whatever he does, he will succeed, including graduating from college, playing ping-pong, shriming. He creates one miracle and another. Almost all things joined by him would go on well.
Jenny and Forrest lead lives parallel with each other in accordance with their own values. Nonetheless, a scene that the feather in the opening is picked up and put into a book by Forrest implies Jenny’s return to traditional values. The parallel lines finally come together. Exactly, as it hints at the beginning, Jenny eventually is back to Forrest and marries him after years of wandering life, which from other aspect suggests Jenny accepts Forrest’s conservative values. However, this is not enough if it ends like this. In the end, Jenny dies from an unnamed virus (presumably AIDS) infected as the result of her experimentation with sex and drugs during the 1960s and 1970s. Her death symbolizes “the death of liberal America and the death of the protests that defines the decade” (Wang 102). It suggests that eventually these conservative values, not the alternative liberal ones explored in the 1960s will survive the test of time.
4. A bright future with the guidance of traditional values
At the end of the film, the feather once again appears on the screen as if an echo to the opening. It is a very warm scene where the father Forrest sends his son little Forrest to go to school. Besides his foot, a feather begins to wander with wind and finally dances highly in the sky. The feather here is endowed with a new meaning. It symbolizes a hope that the American young generation will thrive and pursue their freedom under the protection of the old generation.
J. Hyland Wang in his essay points out that the date from which Forrest’s fatherhood begins just coincides with the presidential inauguration discourse, Regan, “the good father”. Regan emerges on the national scene in the early 1980s to champion conservatism and to save the country from 1960s liberals. In the film, through Forrest’s the-good-father image, it aims to deliver such a thought that America would usher its bright future under the guidance of conservatism.
5. Conclusion
With a feather opening, and a feather ending, this film implies the conflict and its final result of two ideologies in 1960s America. For one hand, through the image of Jenny, it criticizes the liberal values; on the other hand, through the one of Forrest, it highly praises the traditional values. The design of Jenny’s death aims at implying the death of the liberal America. That is why conservatives would like to invoke this film to highlight their ideological agenda in 1994.
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作者简介：骆菀如（1989-）， 女， 湖南省株洲市人，助教，文学硕士，主要研究方向为英美文学、英语教学。