Watch The Pursuit of Happiness (2006) and link scenes/characters/themes to sociological concepts

The One Thing You Have to Pursue on Your Own: Understanding the Socio-economic Context of the Film The Pursuit of Happiness * Introduction …that maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what… -Christopher Gardner[The Pursuit of Happyness. Dir. Gabriele Muccino. Perf. Will Smith. 2006.] Released in 2006, the movie The Pursuit of Happiness, which was directed by Gabriele Muccino offered a heart-warming story of a father who was struggling to make ends meet for him and his son. This movie will be the main focus of this paper`s discussion primarily because it is giving us an opportunity to carefully analyze what the story is saying about the kind society itreplicates. The movie The Pursuit of Happiness offers us no magic and definitely no super heroes, for it is based on a real life story. Indeed that is how a real life story goes, no spell to erase negative events and there is no "good guy" to catch you when you fall. This movie reflects nothing but reality, and as we all know, reality bites. Being deeply seated in what the real world offers, this movie is a perfect picture allowing audiences to see the interplay of social problems like poverty, inequality, unemployment and homelessness. This paper aims to discuss these social issues vis-à-vis the social and temporal context presented in the film. Central to this paper`s discussion is the view that this movie directly describes a point in American history that some (strong) societal forces, during 1980s, tried to mask.. To generate the conceptualization of the main ideas this study aims to answer the following specific questions at the end of this discussion; * Why the movie The Pursuit of Happiness suggests a macro-level analysis of poverty? * How did the movie describe social inequality during the 1980s? * What does the story of Chris Gardner reveal about the medicalization of homelessness during the 80s? Who are the real homeless in America? To fulfill the goals set in this study the discussion of classical and contemporary sociological theories will be necessary. Moreover so as not to delineate from the settings of the film, second hand data analysis of the socio-economic conditions of 1980s will be the priority in this study. * Brief Movie Summary Life, liberty and happiness, these three were mentioned in the Declaration of Human Rights and among these three, happiness seemed to be the one we are never really assured of. This, probably, is one of the things we need to pursue and provide our self with using our own two feet. Same is true with Chris Gardner, the main character in the movie The Pursuit of Happiness, whose will to find happiness through a better life for him and his son is unwavering and totally inspiring. Gardner was among the "economically-challenged" people in the streets of San Francisco during the 80s. He used his family savings to invest in a load ofportable bone density scanners, which unfortunately are not wholly necessary yet expensive medical equipment. Despite the difficulty in finding interested clients to buy his products Gardner never lose hope that one day he could sell them all. Gardner seemed to be life`s least favorite for aside from the difficulty in making enough money to support his family`s needs, more interconnected hardships fell into his head. From being fined and jailed for unpaid parking tickets to his wife leaving him with his son, from living in an apartment to a motel to shelters and to subway station, Gardner showed resilience and persistence like no other as he hang on to his dream. Chris then entered a six-month internship without pay moreover no guarantee that he will be hired after the program since out of 20 hopefuls only one will make the cut. Surviving has been the main challenge for Chris and his son thus the six months training with no pay has been a tough journey he had to go through. At the end of the day Chris` perseverance paid off well when he got the job as stockbroker and as he described it, this was the part of his life called "happiness." What makes this movie more inspiring than inspired is that it shows how a man could fight against life difficulties with nothing but his will to push through to reach his goals. This was well described in the film without presenting candy-coated scenes to make people think that life is all good and that they can have whatever it is that they want easily instead the film showed how difficult it is to survive when the challenges are situated in the political and socio-economic aspects of society we are living in. * Findings Poverty.One of the major themes in the movie The Pursuit of Happiness is poverty. Chris Gardner and his family were among the many people who cannot find financial stability despite having the right and admirable working attitudes. Poverty seemed to be a common denominator for every society across time and space. Several studies have been made to understand the right medicine to cure this social illness however until now, poverty remains as an incurable disease. Poverty is all around us. There is no need to define this illness for it is just right in front our eyes. We live with it day in and day out. This however makes the situation more confusing, how come we find it hard to discover a solution to a problem that is just around the corner for so long a time? Some theories try to analyze poverty at the micro level that is within the individual level and no regards to larger social scales. These theories suggest that changing the individual behavior of the people is the only key for them to be freed from the chains of poverty. A perfect example would be McClelland`s concept of Need for Achievement (NAch). According to his theory, Need for Achievement is a trait that inspires people to be successful and unfortunately poor people lacks this kind of character CITATION Bla03 \l 1033 (Blank). This point of view is directly contradicted in the film through the character of Chris Gardner. Gardner is succumbed into poverty yet he is more than inspired to accomplish his goals and pursue his dreams. Despite all the hindrances he encountered his spirit did not frail. Understanding poverty at the individual level could not suffice thus some theories try to look at the larger picture in trying to come up with a suggested solution on how people can escape from poverty traps. One of a more sociological perspective on poverty is offered by Rank (2005). He mentioned in his book One Nation, Underprivileged (2005) that poverty is caused not by individual failings rather it is due to the structural failures of the American society itself. Rank mentioned crucial points essential in understanding poverty within the American context. For instance he mentioned that America`s emphasis on self-sufficiency has an automatic characterization for the rich and the poor, the ric...