Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The end of "Forrest Gump"

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Please study these dialogues from the end of "Forrest Gump."

(Talking about his ping-pong playing)

Gump: I was so good that some years later, the Army decided I should be on the All-American ping-pong team. We were the first Americans to visit the land of China in, like, a million years or something like that. Somebody said world peace was in our hands, but all I did was play ping-pong. When I got home, I was a national celebrity, famouser even than Captain Kangaroo.
Dick Cavett: Here he is, Forrest Gump. Right here. Forrest Gump, John Lennon.
Lennon: Welcome home!
Cavett: You had quite a trip. Can you tell us, um . . . What was China like?
Gump: In the land of China, people hardly got nothin’ at all.
Lennon: No possessions?
Gump: And in China, they never go to church.
Lennon: No religion, too?
Cavett: Hard to imagine.
Lennon: Well, it’s easy if you try, Dick.
Gump: Some years later, that nice young man from England was on his way home to see his little boy and was signing some autographs. For no particular reason at all, somebody shot him.

(Gump visit's his mother after he hears that she is sick.)

Gump: Where’s Mama?
Woman: She’s upstairs.
Mama: Hi, Forrest!
Doctor: I’ll see you tomorrow.
Mama: All right.
Doctor: Sure got you straightened out, didn’t we, boy?
Gump: What’s the matter, Mama?
Mama: I’m dying, Forrest. Come on in. Sit down over here.
Gump: Why are you dying, Mama?
Mama: It’s my time. It’s just my time. Now, don’t you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life. Something we’re all destined to do. I didn’t know it, but I was destined to be your mama. I did the best I could.
Gump: You did good, Mama.
Mama: Well, I happen to believe you make your own destiny. You have to do the best with what God gave you.
Gump: What’s my destiny, Mama?
Mama: You’re going to have to figure that out for yourself. Life is a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you’re going to get.
Gump: Mama always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them.
Mama: I will miss you, Forrest.
Gump: She had got the cancer and died on a Tuesday. I bought her a new hat with little flowers on it. And that’s all I have to say about that.

(At Jenny's grave)

Gump: Jenny, I don’t know if Mama was right or if it’s Lieutenant Dan. I don’t know if we each have a . . . destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze. But I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. But I miss you, Jenny. If there’s anything you need, I won’t be far away.

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