History Characters / ForrestGump

* IGaveMyWord: He jokingly promises Forrest that if he becomes a shrimp boat captain, Lt. Dan will serve as his first mate. He makes good on the promise later, claiming that he is "a man of his word".

* PromiscuityAfterRape: Jenny was sexually abused by her father and grows up to become very promiscuous, and has sex with a long series of men.

* HighSchoolSweethearts: She and Forrest met in [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood]], stayed friends all the way to college, had a son, and got married.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:In the sequel novel, ''Gump and Co.'', when she dies quite early.]]

* GoodBadGirl: Deconstructed. While Jenny is a good person, her wild lifestyle, which includes sex with abusive boyfriends, represents her destructiveness.
* GoodParents: [[spoiler:As evident by Forrest Jr.'s [[NiceGuy attitude]], Jenny was clearly a loving and proper mother to him]].

* OhCrap: When he realizes he left his entire platoon, including Bubba, behind.

* IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: While he's very much in love with Jenny, it's notable that he never really displays signs of resentment towards her boyfriends until he sees them visibly harm her. He's also quick to assume that Jenny's son isn't his, but displays nothing but support and happiness at Jenny's parenthood, even when he thought it was with someone else.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: {{Justified}} since she was raised in her early life by an abusive father. {{Deconstructed}} when all of her boyfriends were complete assholes who only hurt her in some way. [[note]]Sadly, this is a common real-life consequence of growing up in an abusive home, even when you're not the victim. And a lot of abuse is mutual, so it's entirely possible she was worried ''she'd'' hurt Forrest.[[/note]]

* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: [[spoiler:It's never stated what her terminal illness actually is, only that it's caused by a virus. Given that she was diagnosed around the start of the [=AIDS=] Epidemic...]]

* HeroicLineage: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]: one man from his family had fought and died in every American war, so he feels [[DeathSeeker he has to do the same]].

* DeadGuyJunior: {{Inverted}}. He was named after his living father. It's his mother who dies.

[[/folder]]

* AdaptationalUgliness: Downplayed. Few would call his movie incarnation ugly, but he's not an Adonis like in the book.

* PlayingGertrude: Sally Field is only ten years older than Creator/TomHanks. Justified, however, since in most of her scenes, Forrest is a child, and for scenes where he is an adult, Field wears significant aging make-up.

* PsychologicalProjection: A few times in the movie, Jenny brushes off Forrest's confessions of love by telling him he doesn't know what love is. When she [[spoiler:leaves Forrest]] around the end of the second act, it becomes clear that she's really the one who doesn't know what love is (due to her childhood sexual abuse) and tells herself that he simply doesn't know to justify pushing him away. An alternative, but not mutually exclusive, issue is that she had her agency violated and taken away from her and worries (as revealed in her reply to Forest when he confesses his love) that she might be doing the same to him as she harbors doubts about him being able to consent or understand due to his questionable mental state.

* PsychologicalProjection: A few times in the movie, Jenny brushes off Forrest's confessions of love by telling him he doesn't know what love is. When she [[spoiler:leaves Forrest]] around the end of the second act, it becomes clear that she's really the one who doesn't know what love is (due to her childhood sexual abuse) and tells herself that he simply doesn't know to justify pushing him away.

* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: A downplayed version. While she doesn't outright die like Bubba, it's clear that Jenny is a very smart, talented, loving person who would make Forrest happy and vice-versa, yet due to her early childhood sexual abuse she wastes most of her life [[TheStoner getting high]] and [[PromiscuityAfterRape sleeping around]] with one bastard boyfriend after another, trying to escape ([[PromiscuityAfterRape yet subconsciously recreate]]) her past. [[spoiler:Then it's implied her past finally catches up with her and she dies young from the [=AIDS=] Crisis, leaving a young son and heartbroken Forrest after just a few years of marriage.]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Well meaning in general, but if you do anything to hurt Jenny...
** Also applies to his squadmates in Vietnam. When they're ambushed, Forrest returns fire with his rifle, marking the only time he attempts to actively kill another person. He's also sent in to clear tunnels by Lt. Dan, implying he has likely killed enemy combattants in Vietnam.

* IllGirl: [[spoiler:Becomes sick shortly after marrying Forrest and dies from the complications.]]

* ReallyGetsAround: Which she's not proud of. Mostly due to having a lot of {{Bastard Boyfriend}}s.

* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: A downplayed version. While she doesn't outright die like Bubba, it's clear that Jenny is a very smart, talented, loving person who would make Forrest happy and vice-versa, yet due to her early childhood sexual abuse she wastes most of her life [[TheStoner getting high]] and [[PromiscuityAfterRape sleeping around]] with one BastardBoyfriend after another, trying to escape ([[PromiscuityAfterRape yet subconsciously recreate]]) her past. [[spoiler:Then it's implied her past finally catches up with her and she dies young from the [=AIDS=] Crisis, leaving a young son and heartbroken Forrest after just a few years of marriage.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Downplayed. It's established early on that his IQ is only 75, just below an average person's. Bear in mind, however, that this was based on heavily biased 1950's standards of intelligence. Nowadays, especially given Forrest's numerous life achievements, most psychologists would probably place him on the moderate to high functioning levels of the autism spectrum and some might even call him a savant.

* NiceHat: When he goes to school in the end, and can be seen in his character image -- a red cap.

* AFatherToHisMen: He's pretty welcoming to Bubba and Forrest when they first arrive in Vietnam, with his two rules being to take care of their feet and not to do anything stupid that will get them killed. Despite not quite grasping what's really going on in Vietnam, Forrest still knows he's lucky to have Lt. Dan as his commanding officer. [[spoiler:Also the person most likely to have had the greatest impact in Forrest's Medal of Honor nomination, being his direct superior and highest-ranking witness to Forrest's bravery - It's highly likely that Dan's testimony as Forrest's CO more or less guaranteed Forrest being awarded.]]

* GutFeeling: Lt. Dan's intuition is absolutely ''terrible''. His "odd feelings" in Vietnam usually turn out to be nothing, while he fails to sense the real ambush. It turns out to be equally useless for finding shrimp.

* StaticCharacter: He never goes through any kind of character development, and stays the same simple-minded, but kindhearted jock throughout the entire film's runtime. But, there's no problem with that, and the audience still loves him despite this.

** Also applies to his squadmates in Vietnam. When they're ambushed, Forrest returns fire with his rifle, marking the only time he attempts to actively kill another person.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Thanks to his Army training kicking in, Forrest acts very different during the ambush in Vietnam. He intentionally tries to harm other people by shooting at them (understandable given the circumstances), acts very professionally with his weapon, and is actually fully aware of what's going on, rather than his usual slight obliviousness. The moment the U.S. warplanes arrive to drop their payload is one of the few times he looks genuinely frightened as he knows full well what an air strike entails.

* IllBoy: As a child, he had to wear leg braces because he had a crooked spine.