美国文化在《阿甘正传》中的体现

I. Introduction

Winston Groom is a famous American writer. In 1986, he writes Forrest Gump, however, it doesn’t make Groom famous until it is adapted into a film with the same name in 1994. It is the film that drives the novel to the best-seller position and it is sold 1.7million copies worldwide. It makes Winston Groom’s name be associated with the award-winning film Forrest Gump. The movie gains over ＄657 million worldwide, gathering six Academy Awards, such as best picture, best director, and best actor, etc. It is the actor Tom Hanks that brings Forrest Gump to eternal life, and Forrest Gump’s assertion that “life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get” (Groom, 2010:20) becomes part of the American language. What’s more, Forrest Gump is so popular that Winston Groom has to write two guidebooks to help people understand the novel. Forrest Gump phenomenon begins to spring up in the country, Forrest Gump hats and T-shirts are popular in the country. In the enthusiasm of the film, the fact that Groom is a famous fiction and non-fiction writer is somewhat overshadowed.

About Forrest Gump, Xue Yuemin and Guo Jian’s The Charms of Forrest Gump explores that in what way Forrest Gump goes along with so many people’s mind and wins the admiration of the public from esthetic

value; Ji Tingting and Yin Lu’s The American Dream out of Forrest Gump (2011) illustrates the American Dream by analyzing the qualities and characteristics of Gump; Zhu Meihong and Liu Lihong’s Analysis of Black Humor in the Movie Forrest Gump From Rhetorical Perspective list a series of rhetorical methods such as simile, metaphor, irony and hyperbole and it also explains how the black humor affects with a lot of examples; Liu Yuxia, Li Meng and Zhou Min’s Cultural Contradiction—A Brief Analysis of Jenny: Symbol of a Cultural Rebellion in Forrest Gump(2012); Zu Wanhui’s The Analysis of Religious Culture in Forrest Gump(2012); Yang Li’s The Masculine Ideology in Forrest Gump(2010) illustrates the cultural phenomenon that women are predominated by men by using the examples of Mrs. Forrest and Jenny; Chen Jing’s On American Culture From Forrest Gump(2010) States the history that happens in the background of the second half 20th century in America to arouse a deep thinking for the past and the American Dream which is cherished by every American people, from this people can see the footstep of the development of American culture and the core of American culture; Wu Wenting’s The Lonely Runner(2009) refers to all aspects of America’s politics, economics, culture and history, it hints a lot of philosophy of life; Yan Hui’s Forrest Gump and American Dream points out the resource of American Dream and its effect on people including Jenny,