Pursuit Of Happyness

From Rags to Riches

The movie The Pursuit of Happyness directed by Gabrielle Muccino and released in 2006 follows the life of Chris Gardner who is played by Will Smith. Mr. Gardner is a black man living during the 1980s in northern California and struggles in all aspects of his life. He is forced to constantly make changes in his life because of past decisions and must adapt to the everchanging world around him. His story begins with him working as a salesman who is trying to balance life as a father and husband while seeking financial security. Examining Mr. Gardner’s life during poverty as well as how he adapts to the struggles before him will determine if the choices he made to achieve success were worth the price his family had to pay.

Gardner and his son when they utilize shelters is the time constraint put on their lives. They must be in line or they risk losing access to the shelter and having a bed. Mr. Gardner must leave work in a hurry to pick up his son from childcare and rush to the shelter line. The whole process turns into a rat race forcing even more stress onto an already fragile situation.

Hope

When Mr. Gardner loses everything, it is his son that keeps him going. The thought that he can once again give his son simple things that most people take for granted. He wants his son to be able to enjoy dinner, be tucked into his own bed, and have a routine. The desire to give his son a better life is what pushes Mr. Gardner through bad times.

What If If Mr. Gardner was not selected for the intern job, it would have been devastating for him and his son. He would not have given up and most likely would use the disappointment as motivation. Mr. Gardner would have given his son everything he could and found a way to seek out a similar job. After the internship, he proved to himself that he could do the job and do it well. It would not have been long before someone realized how talented and driven Mr. Gardner

Gardner and his son find themselves in shares similarities with structural explanations defined in Chapter 8 of the book, Social Work, Social Welfare, and American Society. Mr. Gardner’s son struggles through poverty in the movie, but it is his dad that the story is based on. Popple and Leighninger (2011) states, “The largest single age group among the poor is, in fact, children who are too young to work and who thus cannot improve their own status” (p. 245). Mr. Gardner’s son did not ask for his mom to leave or hope that he and his dad would become homeless. Children in poverty are often overlooked and blamed for the failures of their parents. As a single parent, Mr. Gardner was predisposed to financial struggle. According to Popple and Leighninger (2011), “single-person households appear to do rather poorly in economic life” (p.246). Mr. Gardner does not fit the mold of any of the poverty theories regarding a black man that are discussed by Popple and Leighninger (2011) in Chapter 8. The “secondary job market” discussed by Popple and Leighninger (2011) best describes Mr. Gardner’s job prior to his internship (p. 269). His job did not have benefits, was demanding, and offered no