Why Everyone Hates Her: "Why the hell does Forrest keep going after this chick? She obviously doesn't care about him! I mean, has there ever been a more selfish human in the history of the world than Jenny? She only wants him for his money!" But Wait... As more and more people begin to turn on Forrest Gump as the world seems to be collectively realising it might not actually be all it's cracked up to be (certainly arguable), one common criticism seems to lie with Robin Wright's character, Jenny, who provides Forrest with a sort of on-off love interest for the sum of the movie. The two characters have known each other since they were kids, of course, so they have a complex and relatively bizarre relationship. Once thought of as a nice, sympathetic and hard done by character by the public at large, Jenny has inspired much hatred amongst those fans who grew up watching Forrest Gump, then grew up a bit more, watched it as adults, and saw Jenny as what they might describe to be "a total b*tch." Seriously, if you don't believe it, search the internet: there are plenty of "Jenny Is The Worst" websites scattered about, dedicated to bring light to her apparently evil ways. The problem people have with Jenny is that she basically jumps from one pursuit to another, aware that Forrest is - and always has been - in love with her, and never stops to consider the consequences of her actions. He's loyal to her, and she just does whatever she wants, right? She's careless, selfish, and messes around with Forrest's feelings to make herself feel better. Then in the end, infected with AIDS, she comes crawling back upon hearing he's rich and famous. All of those reasons warrant not liking somebody, but what we forget about Jenny is that she's the victim of sexual abuse. The ordeal she experienced as a kid at the hands of her father has made her into the confused person that she is throughout the movie. She consistently abandons Forrest on a whim because she can't believe that he loves her; when they sleep together, she feels bad because she doesn't know if it's right, and flees because she's lost and confused. Fundamentally, Forrest Gump doesn't want us to like Jenny in the conventional love interest sense; those first scenes in which we learn that her father is abusing her are crucial to understanding her motives for the rest of the picture. What's odd is that so many are quick to judge Jenny as if she were being poised as "the perfect girl" for Forrest at the very end, and have judged her accordingly. But to hate her for how she treats Forrest is to misunderstand Jenny. Like this article? Let us know in the comments section below.
