Forrest Gump

Author(s): Winston Groom

Location(s): Alabama

Genre(s): Fiction, Humour

Era(s): 1960s

Forrest Gump paints a portrait of contemporary Alabama from the point of view of an idiot savant. Technically, Forrest Gump does not take place wholly in Alabama. In fact, much of the time Forrest isn’t in Alabama at all. He fights in Vietnam, where as he tells us, “Somewhere in all this, I got myself shot, an, as luck would have it, I was hit in the ass.” He travels to Washington, DC, an island in the South Pacific, Indiana, China, Hollywood. But even though he travels the world (and outer space) in the novel, Forrest Gump is an Alabama read because Forrest, through his dialect, his harmonica, and his Southern manners, carries Alabama everywhere he goes. Whether he’s rasslin’ in Indiana or playing ping pong in China, Forrest is a walking representation of his Alabama roots. In every country, and even in space, Forrest recollects his aim to get a “srimp boat,” and every time he does, the reader is back on the bayou.

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