The Pursuit of Happyness is directed by Gabriele Muccino, starring actor Will Smith and son, Jaden Smith; a tale that is inspired by successful stockbroker, Christopher Gardner.
In this movie, Chris Gardner is a salesman and a single father who struggled through life with his five year old son. Chris often finds himself broke and nowhere to go since they have been forced to leave their apartment due to late rent payment. He was struggling to make ends meet and winds up spending nights at shelter homes with his young son. He lost his entire life savings on an investment that eventually grew into a financial instability, which gave him a strong determination to turn his life around. In the long run, Chris finally earned a job as a broker in the
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His catch on the content of this story is that it is universal and relatable to anyone who understands hardship. I personally feel that he achieved this because even though this movie is set in the States, I feel like I can relate to it as with the high-cost of living in Singapore, I realised that I do sometimes find myself or my family in tight financial conditions. This movie got me thinking twice about “money can’t buy happiness” when my biggest barrier was money. However, the message of this movie was clear; if you work hard, you will succeed. Muccino wanted to emphasize that perseverance pays off.
The mise en scene that I feel had the most impact on the film is the scene that’s set in the bathroom of the subway station. Gardner and his son were lying on sheets of toilet paper on the bathroom floor, with their belongings and luggage in the bathroom. Gardner was tearing up while his son was asleep in his arms. I think that this scene depicted utter desperation of how Chris handled the situation and how terrible their situation was. This scene was definitely a vital factor as the film progresses in Chris’ pursuit for
In his article "In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac," Mark Kingwell describes how there has been many debates on the meaning of happiness for many years yet still a singular, justifiable definition eludes society. The pursuit to define and understand happiness has invited several debates, questions, arguments, and suggestions alike. In 1996, a hand full of genetic and behavioral studies suggest evidence that one’s achievable degree of happiness is genetically decided, with evidences showing that no achievement will change your happiness, you are either happy or you’re not. Some studies demonstrated a correlation between dopamine levels in the brain and expressions of personal satisfaction, while others indicated that
“Sometimes he tried too hard to makes sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often” (18). His personal identity is tied so much with his childhood and his parents. Chris was unable to comprehend why his father had done so many wrong things. His heart led him to search for the answer throughout his adventures, making him the man he was. “He intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience.
In Happiness: Enough Already, Sharon Begley makes a case for the modern views of happiness and sadness by providing different professional opinions on the the happiness industry, some believe happiness is the sole purpose of life while others believe it is equal to sadness. Jerome Wakefield, a professor at New York University, is approached by many students with complaint concerning their parents’ opinions on dealing with depression, which consist of antidepressants and counseling. Ed Diener, a psychologist, at the University of Illinois, raised to question the idea of a national index of happiness to the Scottish Parliament. Eric Wilson, a professor, at Wake Forest University, tried to embrace becoming happier but ended up embracing the importance
He was a confused soul that had been lost for many years luckily on his journey Chris had found independence, and self-reliance he was able to create a new life for himself even if it was towards the end of the line, that life was filled with meaning, purpose, and, “the raw throb of existence” (Krakauer
He wanted to divorce his parents and flee from society. “No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.” (Chris pg.163). Chris had been gone for two years living off the land and a few bags of rice to get him by. He had all the freedom in the world and then he started to realize that everyone makes mistakes.
Throughout Chris’s journey he made mistakes that cannot be replaced. As Jon Krakauer said in the beginning of Into the Wild Chris McCandless even went as far as to burn his money. He describes how McCandless took “A pathetic little stack of ones and fives and twenties and put a match to it,” (Krakauer 29). This quote tells that McCandless burned his money for absolutely no reason.
Chris was on a journey to find out how life is without the normal things people needed. Throughout the story I focused on his decisions and how he would react to negative outcomes. When I read that Chris had burnt the rest of his money I knew he had made a bad mistake. Even though he might not have needed the money it would have been some sort of insurance and security just knowing you'll be able to buy food when you're close to starvation. Chris failed to do so and I feel like his death was an outcome to that decision.
Growing up African American is introduced to a sport, hoping to stay fit and stay on a positive road to success. “Glory Road” is a 1966 movie based on Texas Western Basketball team, who was the first team in history to have an all black starting line up that, won the NCAA title against an all white team from University of Kentucky. There are several Blacks who are not athletes and there are several who are and love what they do, but do not want to be used just for their talent. “Glory Road” shows how African Americans are recognized for being an all-time athlete who takes their team to championships, but are not respected or given the chance from no one, but Don Haskins who was white and recruited them. If we live in a world where
I think he just wanted to pursue life in a different way. Chris was not seeing life the way anyone else was, so he decided to brush off into the wild and be free on his own. Though he did not survive, he was still a very bright, arrogant human being. Shaun Callarman states, “He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.” Chris knew going into the wild that he did not have much survival skills, but that did not stop him from doing what he wanted to do because he did not care about society and was just completely over everything which was why he made the move to the wilderness.
He also endures hunger, exhaustion, and nature’s most challenging hardships to attain his happiness. Chris McCandless does what most people in normal society are too afraid to do. He does everything possible, including giving
One day, he met his turning point, Jay Twistle, a manager from Dean Witter. He offered Chris with a stockbroker at the end of a six-month unpaid training period.
Introduction Organizational Behavior is the field of study which investigates the impact that individuals, group and structures have on behavior within the organization. We are born in an organization, we live, we work and most probably we will die in an organization. Yet most of us do not understand how people function, behave and interact between each other within these organizations. We also do not understand if people shape an organization or an organization shapes people. Different people work differently in different situations.
His story argues that success isn’t important and neither is being admired by others, but that rather, having people who love and care about you is more important. In the story, there is an old man at a cafe who is very depressed and tried to commit suicide the week before. The young waiter knows that the old man has plenty of money so he can’t understand why the old man would be grief-stricken or need to hang out at the café (Hemmingway 9).
One day, he met his turning point, Jay Twistle, a manager from Dean Witter. He offered Chris with a stockbroker at the end of a six-month unpaid training period. During that
It is through the versatile and therefore valuable medium of short films that a wide variety of continually relevant issues are explored and interrogated, greatly impacting on society. Cutts’ Happiness (2017) demonstrates the consumerist values of society underpinning every failed pursuit of a glorified happiness, with an unrelenting proliferation of consumerism suppressing any depth of plot. Cutts adeptly prioritises the dim message of a