The Pursuit of Happyness Essay

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As you know these words come from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, perhaps one of the greatest documents ever written. However, I do have a little problem with the last four words sentence, “the pursuit of Happiness” because I believe it actually sends an easily misinterpreted message.

In society there are still differences in classes such as higher class, middle class, and lower class. In sociology, we observed a film called The Pursuit Happyness, where we witnessed the struggles a father went through to succeed. Chris Gardner, who was played by Will Smith, is living in his apartment with his wife and his son. Due to their struggles, the mother walks out on and leaves Chris struggling alone with his son. In the film Chris Gardner applies for an unpaid internship for a competitive stockbroker company where out of twenty men, only one gets the job. While he is on his internship, we see the hardships of getting kicked out of his apartment to staying at a shelter home to then sleeping in a subway bathroom with his son. Viewing the movie through a sociological lens, The Pursuit of Happyness will be analyzed according to the major three sociological paradigms: structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism.

In “The Other Wes Moore”, abandonment played a huge role in Wes life. The book states “Mary was left with two alcoholic, abusive men who shared the same DNA of her two children but no husband or dad for her boys” (p. 23). This means that Wes dad was not in the picture, he would rather drink his life away than be apart of her son’s life. Growing up without a father can affect a young man in many ways. He will grow up looking for a father figure to look up to, he will accuse himself of being the reason why his father wasn’t in his life, and without his father there to teach him how to be a man, he will have to teach himself, or learn from outside sources. Sources like “The Consequences of Fatherlessness”, states that “Children from fatherless

Mahatma Gandhi one defined happiness as “when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Barring any better definition of happiness from either positive psychologists, self-help gurus, or any other academic source, I tend to think this is a great summation of the definition of happiness. Gandhi doesn’t say anything about how these things make you feel, rather looks at it from a point of view of harmony between thoughts, expressions, and actions. Since one single accepted definition of happiness doesn’t seem to exist, and happiness is different for everyone, this begs the question; how can you increase your own personal level of happiness?

This is an influential point for both book and movie because it has the effect of showing how both mothers are in and out of their child’s life but yet the father reminds to keep everything together. Basing character tendencies on how the mothers leave and the main character (father) with stay. Yet the movie does not detail this information but is evident to the abandonment of his actual wife at one point in the film. In the film, the wife leaves at the one-hour mark (film time). The film keeps their focus off the wife/mother to put more power in the struggle of Gardner’s life as a father. In contrast, the film “The Pursuit of Happyness” featured the bigger picture of the actual story. More so the theme that Chris Gardner conveyed in the book. The film goes from struggling married couple with a son, to a struggling single father chasing the ultimate dream of successfulness. The difference from the book is that Chris Gardner and his wife were together on and off. They struggle to make the relationship work but have differences in what they want to pursue.

Success is extremely coveted in the society, however on the path to success, obstacles will stand in the way. Failure is inevitable and the response of an individual towards these obstacles and the failures in their lives determines whether or not they will have success. Failure gives allowance to learn from mistakes and motivates to do better the next time. The Pursuit of Happyness uses lighting, music and camera angles to give viewers an insight into Chris’ journey through the film demonstrating his resiliency, optimism and loving personality. Filmmaker, Gabriele Muccino, uses the protagonist, Chris’ final triumph to illustrate the significance of failure in achieving success.

People travel through life with what seems like a single goal: to be happy. This may seem like a selfish way to live, however this lone objective is the motivation behind nearly all actions. Even seemingly selfless deeds make people feel better about themselves. That warm feeling experienced while doing charitable acts can be described as happiness. But what is authentic happiness? There is an endless possibility of answers to this question, and man seems to be always searching for the solution. Although one may reach his or her goals, there is always still something one strives for in order to be happy. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert takes the reader through

For all the mothers in this novel, there are almost no fathers. Kingsolver uses this to explain the struggles of single motherhood. Taylor’s mother worked hard to support herself and her daughter without a husband. In fact, she chose Taylor over her controlling husband saying that “trading Foster for me was the best deal this side of the Jackson Purchase” (Kingsolver 6). With this influence, Taylor, also a single mother, finds herself capable of caring for Turtle without a husband. She faces obstacles and finds the strength to get through them. On the other hand, Lou Ann struggles after her husband Angel leaves her. She must cope with taking care of Dwayne Ray, maintaining her home, and finding a way to support them both. She’s just “lumping along here trying to get by” (101). Taylor’s and Lou Ann’s experiences help the readers relate to their struggles and sympathize with their

Christopher decided to find his father, he didn’t have a good relationship with him but he tried. He tried helping him even though he saw him as a stranger. When he found him, his father was already sober and had a new family. It took them time to figure out how to work things out, even though Christopher knew that he would never be able to see him as a father like figure, he at least knew he could build a small relationship with him and his

Happiness: a Human Disease -- An Examination of the Allegorical Theme of Existentialism in the Happy Man

The Pursuit of Happyness is a factual film based on Chris Gardner's near one-year struggle with homelessness, fatherhood, divorce and a desire to achieve to fend for his son Christopher Junior. It is a story highlighting a man's ambition to achieve his goals and find a way of caring for his son. Set in San Francisco, the film starts with Gardner investing his life savings in Bone-Density scanners, a white elephant project which financially breaks the family; his wife separates from him leaving him with the custody of their son Christopher. Additional problems set in ranging from Gardner's eviction from his house, garnishment of his bank account as well as his credit cards. In line with this, he is forced to live in the streets but his meeting with Jay, the manager at Dean Witter places him on the path to success; his new-found

In 1984, the concept of happiness is portrayed as meaningless and that the truth opposes happiness. According to Big Brother and the party, they can only survive by suppressing individual happiness and freedom. People are not allowed to pursue happiness because if they have the freedom they could revolt against the party, and the party wants to control people’s minds and emotions so that they follow Big Brother. Big Brother, though he never appears in the book, he is an extremely important figure. He is perceived as the ruler of Oceania and his image is everywhere, in every telescreen in every room. His image haunts Winston’s life and fills him with hatred. The party controls people through fear. The main character in 1984 is Winston, he

For our Economics subject, we watched The Pursuit of Happyness, a movie based on Chris Gardner, a salesman who was not making that much money and eventually experiences homelessness with his five-year old son. He faces problems when his wife is unwilling to accept his goal to become a stockbroker and leaves him. However, he perseveres even under all this stress.

When it comes to predicting how something will make you feel in the future, you will most likely be wrong. In the book Discovering Pop Culture, edited by Anna Romasino, is the article “The Futile Pursuit of Happiness”. In the article, author Jon Gertner talks about how people think certain things bring them happiness but aren’t as fulfilling as they may think. Gertner gives examples by writing about four men that have been questioning how people predict what will make them happy and how they feel after it happens. Among these men are a psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, psychologist Tim Wilson, economist George Loewenstein, and psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Gertner uses facts from scores of

What is being happy actually like? With the money, school, work, friends, family, etc. issues, how is it possible to become fully happy if there is always something that could be interfering with it? We live in America that promises us to to be all equal and can experience the “life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” But every news show that’s turned on, we hear about a 13 year old “entertaining” child who’s trending on every social media network about her disrespecting her mother more often than the issue on two American adults making terrorist threats and waving a confederate flag at a black child’s birthday party. We Americans get the free education until we graduate to find out that we actually don’t know what