That’s one take. But here’s another-
She tried to sleep with him before he was anything but a kid on a football scholarship remember? She loved him then- at least as a friend- but they made it clear that her upbringing and all but spelled out molestation caused her trauma and to see the only value she had to others as sex too. But he was immature and also had difficulty with that form of expression. She then posed nude (not always a sign of trauma but in her case most likely as part of her sexual issues from the abuse she suffers growing up and a search for validation-) got kicked out of school and started to spiral.
We see when she’s seeking validation through activism in the 60’s and with an abusive boyfriend (not exactly the circumstances under which two folks would most likely hook up- especially Forest who would likely take a very fun view of being part of cheating.)
We see her when Forest visits her while she’s doing nude stage shows. She is lost, she is toxic, she will hurt him. She knows it. The two fight when a patron assaults her and she doesn’t care or think forest should defend her (another sign of her trauma and low self esteem.)
It’s not like she could visit forest while he was in Nam or vice versa. Even if- we see that she’s heavily into drugs and it is implied many casual hookups. She’s in pain and trying to numb it with drugs and alcohol. She feels like dying and teases at it on a balcony before collapsing into tears after almost tripping.
Forest comes back- he spends time with Lt. Dan. We know that Jenny wrote him and he didn’t get the letters for a long time. We know that she moved a lot. She didn’t have Lt Dans address or even know where Forest was. He did his ping pong- traveled and was still in the service. He then had to take care of his business and keep up his word. He was very busy and she likely didn’t know where he was etc.
She returned “home” and saw Forest- she was tired and hurt. Still mixed up but finally coming to a bit- but she also knew she was still very messed up mentally and emotionally as we saw when she had the breakdown at her old home. We see the evidence of her low self esteem and her views of sex as all she has to give. Forest has always been good to her and she sleeps with him then leaves- because in her mind if she isn’t fucking you she’s a burden. She doesn’t want to hurt him and knows he has feelings for her.
Finally- she has a child- her views change and she has something to live for. She’s going to make sure that child doesn’t have the life she did. She has to get it together and she does. They didn’t know what aids even was for a long time. When she got it it was still largely a mystery and many people thought you could get aids by being in a room or touching a person with it. Many still believed aids only effected Gay men. There was a lot of misinformation and panic and unknowns.
Tl:dr- Jenny was a badly abused child who was most likely also sexually abused. She showed signs of low self esteem, using sex as her only value and as a form of self medicating to feel good along with seeking the validation of men (even terrible and abusive ones in a classic pattern of abuse) and self medicating with alcohol and increasing it hard drugs. She was a mess for most of her young life and knew it. Part of her wanted to die but she didn’t really- she just didn’t want to live in pain.
Between both of them moving around, Forests time in the war and the military and traveling for Ping pOng and his medal- his time “off the grid” with LT Dan and getting his fishing empire started; and Jenny being a drugged up mess- there were a couple decades where there really wasn’t hope of anything between them.
More over- Jenny was too messed up and Forest was too immature and “gentle” for a relationship earlier- Jenny even tried to sleep with Forest in college and Forest couldn’t make it past foreplay. Forest was lost himself after his mother died and exiled himself. Jenny got in touch when his exile ended and was finally in a good place mentally and emotionally thanks to having a child and having time to heal. Through the decades they always came back to each other so it wasn’t to do with his money because she had been his friend and slept with him back when it looked like his life would be nothing special. She finally grew up and so did he- as much as he could. She didn’t know she had aids and when she got it almost no one knew it existed. By the time she found out it was years later.
It didn't--but we know the two of them were together at the end of the movie, and we know Jenny had AIDS, and we know they had a son together, so it's easy to imply that she would have given Forrest AIDS given a modern understanding of how one gets AIDS, especially given that it wasn't well understood at the time the movie is set in.
Lol. Yes. But it is VERY different from the film. Also- the sequel has him teaming up with a monkey and in OJ’s Bronco amongst other things. I think he also somehow had Monica Lewenskis dress? It’s been a long time.
It could be HIV/AIDS or Hep C as both are diseases that are often passed through the types of behaviors we see with Jenny like Sharing Drug needles and or unprotected sex. Both diseases were relatively unknown until the 80’s. HIV was first reported observed about 1981 but no one knew what it was officially until 1983. Hep C wasn’t discovered until 1989.
The time frame isn’t too critical though because we don’t know how up to date the doctors Jenny saw were. If it was before 1989 she wouldn’t be diagnosed with Hep C and could be told it was a mystery, or diagnosed wrongly with a known condition. If it was after 1983 her doctors still may not have been familiar with HIV/AIDS as the disease was still stigmatized and somewhat obscure into the 1990’s.
lol. It certainly has its moments. That’s part of the trouble with a sequel film. Of course many involved felt- especially after the film became such a phenomenon- artistically they figured they didn’t have anything left to say and left it in a good place. But there is a sequel book and studios like money- and a sequel would almost certainly mean that- but they just couldn’t figure out a way to adapt the book or come up with something separate from the books that all the folks needed for the project could agree on for the longest time.
She tried to sleep with him before he was anything but a kid on a football scholarship remember? She loved him then- at least as a friend- but they made it clear that her upbringing and all but spelled out molestation caused her trauma and to see the only value she had to others as sex too. But he was immature and also had difficulty with that form of expression. She then posed nude (not always a sign of trauma but in her case most likely as part of her sexual issues from the abuse she suffers growing up and a search for validation-) got kicked out of school and started to spiral.