Life As A Box of Chocolates - Article Example

Life As A Box of Chocolates From tasting the unfamiliar flavors of China and Vietnam, Chekhov and Ibsen, as well as heartbreak and triumph, to being connoisseurs in the art of Greenbow, Alabama, fatherhood, and eventual respect, the choices made by both Rita and Forrest remain some of the most fascinating in cinema. Like the proverbial box of chocolates, you really never know what you’re gonna get. And no one can prove that better than Forrest himself—the young man who went through life on sheer optimism, partaking of everything it had to offer. Forrest Gump, the 1994 film starring the superb Tom Hanks as the slow-minded yet endearing character with the penchant for storytelling, inspired audiences all over the world and gave hope to those who believed they had picked the substandard piece of chocolate to represent their chances at success. Forrest is indeed qualified to be the universal symbol of hope, because, in spite of his less-than-average intelligence, he managed make many things out of the box of chocolates he had been given. Amazingly, Forrest never had to search for the chocolates himself—everything he received, most of them accidentally. Just like finding something someone else has thrown away, which ends up being more than it appears to be. Football player, army soldier, shrimping magnate, Watergate whistle-blower, Olympic ping-pong athlete, and, most importantly, doting father—Forrest was able to make these all happen for himself, just by believing in the goodness of people. Forrest Gump did not know the meaning of caution, or of skepticism; he was pure hope and faith. His choices were never even about passion—except for his girlfriend Jenny—but about doing something for someone else, or just to simply do something. He definitely did not know the magnitude of the effects his spontaneous decisions would bring, and he never really changed that much in personality or outlook. The one aspect that made a world of difference, though, was Forrest’s eventual belief in his own talents, particularly the one skill that mattered most. As father to his son by Jenny—also named Forrest—he finally changed, finally found something he never had in him before. The whole gamut of accolades and financial successes never really mattered to Forrest; to him they were just all the same. But the life with his young child was one that was the sweetest among the choices in his full box. Eleven years earlier, the film Educating Rita was shown to the world—and exposed a different kind of experience, a more determined passion for change. The street-smart, tough-talking Rita, portrayed by Julie Walters, was the perfect candidate for a total makeover—with her unrefined accent and ignorance of things cultural and polite. Unlike Forrest, who was simply gifted with many talents, Rita had to acknowledge that she needed help, and had to find a way to improve herself. Her choice was formal education, and the instrument was the brilliant teacher Dr. Frank Bryant, who lived and breathed Socrates and was respected by his peers and students for his exceptional mind. But things were not as plain and simple as Forrest’s story, and Rita had to deal with her own share of bad chocolates before she got to the right one. The spunky Rita may have chosen the traditional way to learn, but the new things she discovered were all grounded in life’s lessons, and not just classroom theories. She had to cast away everything she had been as a hairdresser in order to embrace the brand new world available to her as a student of liberal studies. It was her mind-challenging lessons in literature under the inimitable Dr. Bryant that ultimately changed her life, albeit not in the straight-and-narrow way she had originally expected. You see, education, like Forrest’s box of chocolates, will always change a person; it depends on how much and how often one partakes of it, and where and when one decides to eat it. In Rita’s case, it was a matter everything tasting and feeling new, that she could not stop herself from going on—but the new life it offered contrasted sharply with her old one, alienating her own family yet not completely accepted by her new company. In the end, new experiences, just like an array of chocolates in a velvet-lined box, can indeed bring good or bad, sweet or bitter, right or wrong. Of course, the best one can wish for is a happy change and a better life; but it can never just be the chocolates’ work alone—one has to put in much effort, and have a generous amount of faith in people and in oneself. Rita knew she had to fix something in her life, and knew that there were many things she had yet to experience, and chose to outline her goals. Perhaps this kind of thorough planning and intentions may result in reality falling short of expectations, but, really, it is all up to how one decides to understand things. The admirable attitude of Forrest about the opportunities given him consequently paid him back, financially or otherwise, and prepared him for his most precious gift of fatherhood. Indeed, life is like a box of chocolates; you’ll never know what you’re gonna get. But you can choose what to do with them. Works Cited Educating Rita. Perf. Julie Walters and Michael Caine. Dir. Lewis Gilbert. Acorn Pictures, 1983 Forrest Gump. Perf. Tom Hanks. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Paramount Pictures, 1994. Read More