Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit Of Happyness In today’s society, people spend their whole life searching for happiness. Millions of people today in America still have belief in the “American Dream” myth. The “American Dream” gives a person the right of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Happiness can only be found once a person achieves the American Dream through hard work, determination, and persistence. The movie ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ asserts the American Dream myth through the life of Chris Gardener that every man can achieve what one wants in life if he or she is ready to struggle for it.

Chris Gardener is a salesman who is unable to meet his ends, but still dreams of being financially free and happy one day. The first scene in the movie creates the characteristics that are required for a man to be able to conquer the American Dream. One of the characteristics being: Hard work. The first sequence in the movie takes place in San Francisco where large numbers of people are walking to their jobs with happy faces with happy background music. Chris is shown as a person who looks up to them and relinquishes the happiness in their faces.

Chris sells Bone Density scanners to make a living, a medical instrument that does not sell easily. He is portrayed as a hardworking, unfortunate, browbeaten human who dreams of being able achieve the American Dream. He also has problems with the police and IRS for parking tickets and tax respectively. To be able to meet ends, he works hard and goes to multiple hospitals to sell the scanners and earn money. As we all know, everyone needs these qualities to be able to achieve something in life.

Thus this portrays the idea that if you are like Chris you also will be able to achieve the American Dream. This is an example of logos since it uses the idea that no result will come without hard work to depict an image that ones who do not struggle with not get anywhere in life and ones who will. The only way people are able to achieve anything in today’s world is by hard word, this is mainly due to enormous competition. May it be a student or an executive, everyone these days are expected to work to their fullest to be able attain their dreams in life.

Another characteristic that is portrayed in the movie is that of attitude, various attitudes towards dealing with things in life will always give you a different result at the end. An example of this is witnessed in the next scene of the movie that consists of a conversation between Chris and his wife Linda about how they are going to manage their financial problems. This scene portrays the attitude by which one must approach a goal with. Chris tells her that he is planning of joining an internship program as a stockbroker at Dean Witter, such that he would be able to take care of the family.

Linda on the other hand scorns him and makes a sarcastic comment such as, “Stockbroker why not an astronaut”. Chris has a positive attitude to how he is going to manage their ends, whereas Linda on the other hand has a very negative approach to matters in life and has given up all hopes they will be able to fix their problems. The background has no music to provide an element of anticipation for the viewers. The use of pathos is noticed since it displays contrasting attitudes of a Dreamer and a Failure in life.

The result for being positive is witnessed at the end when Chris is able to get the job and lead a happy life whereas, Linda on the other hand leaves to New York and never seen again. Since Chris is portrayed as the Dreamer it shows the audience that one must always look at things with a positive attitude to achieve the American Dream. People always agree that once you lose your willingness to reach something in life you will never be able to get it. Being able to face problems with a positive attitude is required to able to think clearly and correctly.

Thinking clearly provides the Dreamer with clear thoughts and motivation that he is needed to be able to achieve his or her goal. Persistence has become a key element in people’s lives these days due to the large competition for each job opening. Even if one fails the first time, they must try again and again till one is successful in life. This can be seen later in the movie; Chris turns in his application personally to the head of recourses Mr. Jay Twistle. Once he had submitted his application he was persistent in trying to impress Mr. Jay such that he would be guaranteed a spot for the internship.

To make sure he impresses Mr. Jay he shares a ride with him and tries to solve the Rubik’s cube which is thought to be impossible to solve. Due to his success in solving the cube Mr. Jay is impressed with his talents and is called in for an interview. Throughout this sequence Chris is once again displayed a person who will never give up. Just the night before his interview he was arrested but still does not give up. He does everything he can such that he can make the interview on time. This scene shows that every positive action towards a goal is stepping stone towards the achieving the American Dream.

Since this is the start of his change in life the background music creates a joyful but surprise theme hinting that this man is going to succeed in life if he keeps up with these qualities. This provides an element of ethos since it explains the qualities needed for successfully achieving the American Dream through the life of Chris. In today’s world if one gives up pursuing what they want in their life it will never come, dreams are things that never come and fall in your hands; it constantly needs thoughtful advances made by the Dreamer.

As seen in the movie Chris never gives up till he gets the job therefore portraying the amount of pursuing one must do to achieve something in life. It provides evidence that if one person is able to achieve the American Dream through persistence, then everyone who tries to achieve the American Dream will also be able to fulfill their dreams. Determination is one of the key elements behind any successful American Dream dreamer. Even though by this time he has lost wife and house he does not give up. To be able to survive during his internship he would work twice as hard as he used to.

He would try to finish an 8 hour job in 6 hours, and sell the remaining scanners he had during that time for money. When he thought that he could start living peacefully since he was able to sell enough scanners to make a living, the IRS takes all his money for not paying taxes. He lives in community homes with his son but never gives up hope in his dream. At the end of the internship, he is called in by Mr. Frakesh to congratulate on his new job. This shows the amount of determination one must be willing to put forward. To be able to achieve such a huge dream one cannot relax until their dream is fulfilled.

As seen from the movie every second is precious when one is dreaming, a perfect example is shown when Chris does a 8 hour job in 6 hours, this shows that one can never waste time when they are determined to accomplish something in life. With today’s growing competition for every job opening, people have to work harder and harder. Even a small hint of withdrawal from a hundred percent effort will lead one’s dream to vanish in no time. As seen in Chris’s life even though he had lost everything in his life he did not give up his efforts he put into his internship. This in turn allowed him to be successfully hired as a full time stockbroker.

As the saying goes “There is always hard work and sweat in every success”. In conclusion, hard-work, persistence, and determination are the key elements that will help and guide a man who would like to live the American Dream. Even in today’s world people still believe in that efforts would pay off someday or another as they wish. These people are the great dreams whom still feel that the American Dream still exists and has not vanished just like Chris dreamt. So if anyone one of you have a dream then you should never give up, all you need to do is keep trying.

The Journey movie I chose to talk about is The Pursuit of Happyness. It is an inner journey. The movie starts off showing the scenery – the Golden Gate Bridge, an American flag and the crowded busy street full of business people and the homeless. The camera then focuses on Chris Gardener and his son Christopher. Chris says throughout the movie the 6 stages of his life. It starts off with ‘Riding the bus’.

In ‘Riding the bus’ we learn that he lives in an apartment with his partner Glenda and son and that he sells portable bone density scanners to make a living, however they are quite hard to sell as they are seen as unnecessary – a luxury item. We also find out that his wife works very long and hard hours at a factory to support the family. One day he walks down the street and sees a really rich guy and asks him what he does for a living. The rich man says that he is a stockbroker and that you don’t need to have gone to college to be one – all you need is good maths and people skills.

Chris then aspires to be a stockbroker as he has those skills and mainly because “they all looked so damn happy. ”

‘Being stupid’ – in this stage he is about to go into Dean Witter to apply for a stockbroker internship but realises he doesn’t look professional with his big heavy scanner so he asks a busker to look after it. However the busker runs away stealing his scanner after he went inside. He then gets told that he doesn’t have a great shot at the job as he has no further education, there are bucket loads of applicants and only 20 people get accepted into the internship but only 1 gets the job after 6 months. He then gets very determined to keep on trying to show them why he should get picked despite the weakness on his application.

‘Running’ starts off with Chris spotting the busker with his stolen scanner and chasing her down. He manages to get it back however his wife is not very pleased as then they now have more to sell – she was getting very stressed and upset. Next he goes to Dean Witter and waits outside the building for Jay Twissel to come out so he can try to convince him to let him have an internship. He then shares a taxi with him but Jay was very distracted trying to do the ‘impossible’ new rubix cube.

Chris then shows him how he can solve the rubix cube and Jay is shocked and starts to reconsider Chris. Jay then gets out of the taxi leaving Chris to pay the fare, however Chris does not have enough money on him so he does a runner at the traffic lights. The taxi driver chases him so Chris quickly jumped on a train however the scanner he was carrying got stuck on the platform. Glenda then decides to leave Chris and take Christopher with her. Chris then thinks about how the Declaration talks about the pursuit of happiness.

But wonders how did the man writing know that happiness is something you need to pursue. That night he then gets a call from Jay Twissel for an interview for the internship at 10am in a couple of days. He then sees Glenda and tells her that Christopher is to move in with him. The next day his landlord tells him that he was getting evicted but could stay one more week if he painted the place. Chris then spends the day painting but is interrupted by the police knocking on his door taking him down the station as he had one too many parking tickets he hadn’t paid.

He is told he had to stay at the station till 9:30am the next day as the cheque has to be processed. He then calls Glenda to pick Christopher up from day care and keep him for the night. He is forced to run to the interview at 10am from the station in his bad clothes covered in paint. He still just manages to pull off a great interview but is told the internship has no salary. He then figures he may be able to just get by if he sells the rest of his scanners. Glenda lets Christopher permanently stay with Chris as she knows how much Chris loves him and that he will look after Christopher.

Glenda then leaves to New York to work at her friend’s restaurant. Chris and Christopher have to leave their apartment and stay at a cheap motel across the road.

‘Internship’ and yes Chris got it and now starts his 6month internship. He gets told that generally the one who brings in the most money for the company gets hired. He starts off as very unappreciated as he was the one who was always asked to buy coffee and donuts for his bosses. He is also disadvantaged, as he has to leave the office at 4pm to pick up Christopher when everyone else stays back till 7pm.

Later on he manages to get a meeting with Walter Ribbon that if it goes well he could get the company lots of money but he is forced to run an errand for his boss, which consequently makes him miss his interview with Walter. The next day he goes to Walter’s house to apologise for missing the meeting. Walter invites him and Christopher to the NFL game. He tries to convince Walter to come to Dean Witter but Walter says no but Chris meets plenty of other people interested in Dean Witter. Chris had now sold all his scanners after 4 months, he felt like things were going okay.

Until he reaches the 5th stage of his life – ‘Paying taxes’. The government had sent him a letter saying that he was way overdue in paying his taxes and that they had taken the money he owed out of his bank account only leaving him with $21. 33 left. He takes Christopher to the park when he spots a man with his machine that he had left on the station. He manages to get it back and goes straight away to find someone to buy it. He manages to find a doctor who says he will buy it but the scanner was not working anymore.

He and Christopher then go home to find all their belongings outside – they had been evicted. They end up having to stay the night in the train station bathroom. The next night they find a homeless shelter to stay at. However the night after that all the rooms were full so they spend the night on the train while Christopher sleeps and Chris tries to fix his scanner. He realises that it may work if he buys some new parts. The next night they get a bed at the shelter and Chris manages to fix the scanner after he replaces the parts.

He then sells the machine and gets $250 so they are able to afford a hotel for the night. The next morning he gets told he got the well-paid job! He is ecstatic and happy. Which takes us to the final stage – ‘Happiness’. He is so joyous that he runs to Christopher’s day care and picks him up early. The camera the focuses on Chris and Christopher walking down an empty street. They appear very happy and the camera also shows the great relationship that they have with each other. The movie finishes with telling us how Chris went, as the movie was based on a true story.

We are told that after Dean Witter Chris went on to found the investment firm Gardener Rich in 1987. In 2006 Chris sold a minority stake in his brokerage firm in a multi-million dollar deal. Journey through an important phase of Chris’ life. Journey looking to move to somewhere else whether emotional or physical. Obstacles, challenges and barriers on his journey. Guy in red car sparks his dream to be a stockbroker. Takes risks accepting the internship. Christopher’s journey moving home around and around – following his dad.

Feelings shown. Chris was very prepared to go on the journey to get to his goal, his destination – his dream job of a stockbroker. Chris had a strong vision of where he wanted to be. A journey is a passage or progress from one stage to another. Story of Chris in his pursuit of happiness. Chris was very motivated. Incredible twists and turns and obstacles on his journey.

Actual Speech

The Journey movie I chose to talk about is The Pursuit of Happyness. The dictionary defines journey as a passage or progress from one stage to another.

This journey is about an important phase of Chris’ life – it is about Chris’ pursuit of happiness. Chris is a guy who is struggling to make ends meet and he and his wife are living in a situation where money is a major stress in their life. For a living he sells portable bone density scanners which hospitals find unnecessary and see a luxury item. He sees what he wants to do, what he wants to become – a stockbroker. The spark of his dream is when he saw a guy smiling driving a Ferrari and he asks him what he does for a job.

The guy then says he is a stockbroker and that you don’t need to have gone to college to be one – all you need is good maths and people skills. He then sets out on his journey in pursuit of a dream that comes from a sudden desire. Chris sets out very determined to get that dream job of his. He makes it in the end but his journey is filled with numerous barriers and roadblocks and moments where you feel like he could easily quit and other times where you feel like circumstances might completely overwhelm him because he ends up homeless and left to raise his son alone.

There are multiple times where you feel like no matter what he does you feel like he isn’t going to get there despite his best efforts. He sets out on his journey knowing very little – he takes many risks. He faces many obstacles throughout the movie some being: being kept in jail for the night for not paying his parking tickets, most of his money being taken away for not paying taxes leaving him with $21. 33, some of his scanners being stolen and not in working condition when found, being very unappreciated by his boss, his wife leaving him to raise his son alone and getting evicted which made Chris and his son homeless.

To get the stockbroker job he had to not only overcome these hurdles but had to get chosen to get the job out of 20 people after a 6 month unpaid internship. The amazing thing is that in the end he overcomes all these obstacles and gets the job. In the end we are told that after his stockbroking job at Dean Witter Chris went on to found the investment firm Gardener Rich in 1987 and in 2006 Chris sold a minority stake in his brokerage firm in a multi-million dollar deal. Even more amazing, the movie is based on a true story. This movie shows us that if we set our mind to something and are very determined we will get there in the end.