There are many similarities between the book "Memory of Running" and the movie "Forrest Gump," both being known as social outcasts, Vietnam War survivors, childhood friends as romantic interests, and of course their distinct journeys from Smithy's biking and Forest's running that starts off as nothing and ends in self discovery. While the parallels between the two unconventional hero stories are interesting, their difference in the way each story is told is especially significant.
Both Smithy and Forest's stories are told in such a way that it sounds like a conversation. The tone is informal, however it still feels like you connect and trust with narrators from their small, personal details. Forest's story is told by Forest nararating his life in chronological order to people he encounters while sitting at the bus stop. Smithy's story, on the other hand, depicts present day Smithy and flash backs to his childhood that help the reader uncover what happened that made his life spiral out of control.
From comparing the two stories, it makes me wonder how different Smithy's story would be if like Forest, he told it in chronological order. What makes "The Memory of Running" so special is the mystery behind how Smithy went from being a boy with so much opportunity, but somehow lost himself along the way. If the story was told chronologically, I don't think it would be as nearly as interesting and I think its clever the author chose to tell the story this way.
Though there are parallels between the two stories of such unconventional heroes, the way the two stories are told are so fundamentally different, they wouldn't make sense if the way they were narrated way switched and would leave a completely different message.
I think this is what is so interesting about literature and about writing. You can take essentially the same premise (traveling across America either by bike or by running, the childhood sweetheart, the Vietnam war, and the other similarities that the book and film share) and make a totally different story by changing the way it is ordered and some details. The two stories are strikingly similar, yet both are interesting in different ways, and both are worthwhile. It's amazing how writers can share ideas and make them their own.
ReplyDeleteI think if The Memory of Running was told in chronological order, it would be more of a conventional hero's journey. He would've started as a promising young man, only to devolve into a drunk blob until he goes on a huge journey to "find himself". I think that the way that the book is structured presents more questions on how we view Smithy and what has happened between his past scenes and his present scenes. Now, thats not to bash Forrest Gump, which is an amazing movie that is told perfectly. It may have to do with the fact that in cinema, people expect a chronological story and the way movies are presented, it may be difficult to keep track of too many flashbacks and stuff.
ReplyDeleteI probably never would have seen this similarity until you pointed it out, but now that you did it is pretty crazy how much of the format of the story is the same! Now I can't stop noticing it haha. But yeah I agree that the "theme" of each story is pretty different.
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