Forrest Gump, named after Confederate cavalry officer and
Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard
Nathan Bedford Forrest, narrates the story of his life. The author uses misspellings and grammatical errors to indicate the character's Southern accent, education, and cognitive disabilities. While living in
Mobile, Alabama, Forrest meets Jenny Curran in first grade and walks her home. They become the best of friends. By the time Forrest is 16 years old, he is , 242 pounds (110 kg), and plays high school football. Miss Henderson, with whom Forrest is infatuated, gives him reading lessons. He reads
Mark Twain's
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and two other books that he does not remember. While he enjoys the books, he does not do well on tests. He gains popularity as a football player, making the All-State team. When Forrest is called to the principal's office, he meets noted university coach
Bear Bryant, who asks if he'd considered playing college football. After high school, Forrest takes a test at a local
army recruitment center and is told he is "Temporarily Deferred." Forrest and Jenny meet again at the
University of Alabama and play together in a
folk music band at the
student union, covering songs by such singers as
Joan Baez,
Bob Dylan, and
Peter, Paul and Mary. After one semester, Forrest flunks out of the university. He and his friend Bubba are drafted into the Army, but Bubba dies in the
Vietnam War. Forrest is wounded and meets Lieutenant Dan, who has lost his legs, in the infirmary. Dan tells Forrest that he feels Forrest is destined for something great. While recuperating, Forrest develops a talent for
ping pong, eventually playing in a tournament in China and inadvertently saving the life of
Mao Tse-tung and meeting President
Lyndon Johnson. He reconnects with Jenny and is arrested and institutionalized after a peace demonstration. When the doctors realize he has a talent for doing math in his head, he is recruited to be an astronaut for
NASA. When "Sue", a male
orangutan on the flight, wrecks the ship, they crash land in
New Guinea and end up captives of a tribe of cannibals, whose chief teaches Forrest to play chess. After returning to the US, Forrest meets President
Richard Nixon and runs into Dan, who is now homeless. They travel to Indianapolis to look for Jenny and find her working in a tire plant. Forrest begins working as a professional wrestler, fighting as "The Dunce". When Dan hatches a plan to rip off Forrest's manager, Jenny leaves in disgust. Forrest, who dreams of starting a shrimp business like his friend Bubba wanted to, decides to head for Bayou La Batre. Before he can go, he meets a chess champion who realizes his talents and enters him into a competition. This doesn't pan out, nor does working alongside
Raquel Welch in a remake of
The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Forrest and Sue eventually make it to Bubba's hometown, and with advice from Bubba's father, start a shrimping operation. This becomes so successful that he becomes a millionaire and hires most of the people he'd previously encountered to work for him. He is roped into running for the U.S. Senate, but is forced to drop out when the media uncovers his checkered past. Eventually, he and Sue move to
Savannah, Georgia, where Forrest performs as a one-man band. He finds Dan again and runs into Jenny, who has a son, whom she reveals to be Forrest's. Forrest decides not to be present in his son's life, as Jenny is now married. He, Sue, and Dan move to
New Orleans. ==Critical reception==