In intense situations, a person's instinctual reaction causes him/her to react for self-preservation whether that means fighting or taking flight. Henry for The Red Badge of Courage and Forrest from .
Forrest Gump may not seem to have anything in common with each other but, in fact, they do. Both Henry and Forrest were being driven by their fear while they were running.
Henry ran out of fear for himself without once caring about the welfare of others. He got scared that he would get hurt of die, so he decided to run away. He ran "like a blind man" or a "proverbial chicken," not knowing where he was going and at the same time, not caring. He was fleeing the battle to save himself, letting fear get the best of him.
Though Forrest too ran out of fear, his fear was for someone other than himself. At first, he ran just because he was ordered to by his superiors, but when he realized that his best friend Bubba was unaccounted for, he ran to try to find him. He was not thinking about himself at all. He ran into the war instead of out of it; risking his life even though he knew that the chances of finding Bubba and saving him were slim. Uncaring of his own self-preservation, he ran, and because of it, a lot of people were saved.
Both Henry and Forrest ran because of fear but Forrest's self-less fear was much different than Henry's selfish flight mentality.
