ABSTRACT

The American dream was born since the Puritans left Europe for the northern America to get rid of the religious precaution, it has been through a lot of development and changes over the past few centuries, and there are countless researches about this topic in China and the west. The American dream is represented both as the pursuit of the material and the desire for the spiritual freedom, everyone has a different American dream, but as long as it is practical and within one’s reach, through hard work and perseverance everybody will realize his or her American dream. The movie Forrest Gump is a typical example of the American dream, the leading role Forrest Gump is a retarded person and he is supposed to be a failure, but on the contrary, through his own hard work and perseverance, he wins continuous success and realizes his dreams. Moreover, his behavior has much influence on Lieutenant Dan and Jenny, which makes them realize their errors and mend their ways. They realize what the practical goal is and find the meaning of their lives. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to make people understand that it’s meaningless to pursue those visionary things and only the practical goals can be achieved, then realize the rational regression of the American dream by analyzing the main characters of the movie. 

Key words: The American Dream  Perseverance  Influence  The Rational Regression  

摘  要

从清教徒逃离欧洲来到北美躲避宗教迫害那个时候开始，美国梦就诞生了，在过去的几个世纪它经历了不断的发展与变化，国内外关于美国梦这个主题的研究也是数不胜数。美国梦既象征着人们对物质财富的追求，也代表着人们对精神自由的渴望，每个人都有着不同的美国梦，但是只要是实际的、触手可及的目标，那么经过不断的努力与坚持，每个人都能实现属于自己的那个美国梦。
《阿甘正传》这部电影是美国梦的典型代表，主角阿甘是一个智障，按照常理来说他本该注定是个失败，但是相反的是通过不断的努力与坚持，他取得了一个又一个的成功，实现了自己的梦想。并且阿甘的行为给丹中尉和珍妮带来了巨大的影响，使得他们迷途知返，认清了什么才是实际的目标，找回了生活的意义。因此本文的目的是通过对电影人物的分析，让人们意识到追求虚无缥缈的东西毫无意义，只有实际的目标才能实现，实现对美国梦的理性回归。

关键词：美国梦  坚持  影响  理性回归