Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

At the end of the Movie he says that he doesn’t know if his mama or Lt. Dan was right about destiny or lack thereof.   Forrest asks himself why can’t both be correct, that we have destiny but in between we are all randomly bumping around on our way to that destiny.  The book discusses this saying that God made humans as more than just another animal but as moral agents able to decide what type of life to lead and what kind of person to be.  This means that he had to give us free will, but the book argues that he could not have both given us free will and not limited the ability to make wrong decisions so therefore free will is the reason for moral evil.  There is also natural evil which are natural disasters and diseases that provide humans with the ability to moral character.  In the movie Forrest overcomes his disability and becomes a kick returner for a college football team, a military hero, and a millionaire shrimping boat captain, through what seems like random dumb luck and natural evil which is in Forrest’s favor.  This “dumb luck” comes about from the decisions Forrest makes and from what he has been told by his momma and Jenny.  His dedication to his promise to Bubba paid off and gave both him and Lt. Dan a new outlook on life, whether or not it was the same outlook is not know but regardless it was a positive change from Dan’s belief that his only destiny was to die in a war.