Ideas for Resilience Story Analysis

In your responses, let your fellow classmates know which of the two movies you think is the better option for the assignment and explain why. Share any resources that you think might be useful for their analysis. 1) In the movie "The Great Gatsby" Jay Gatsby pursues the American dream resilience no matter how flawed the dreams is. Gatsby does not let his poverty and low social class to hinder him from pursuing the dream. Had he lacked resilience, he would give up after losing Daisy to Tom...however he fights to the end so that he can have her. His affection for Daisy is resilient too and it motivates him to keep striving. The movie on the passion of Christ (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30o18n) depicts supernormal resilience. Christ endures pain and suffering because he is God; hence, he is not broken by the suffering which humanity subject Him. His endurance and resilience sets an ideal example for Christians. Had Jesus been fully human, he may have given up and the story of human redemption would have failed...Christ teaches Christians the essence of resilience in their spiritual lives. 2) The Shawshank Redemption was underrated in 1994 but popular later on. It tells the story of banker Andy, who is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he suffered various spiritual and physical torments and finally escaped through a secret passage he had spent years excavating through the wall of his cell. While the other prisoners succumbed to their fate, Andy dominated his own with his intelligence and resilience. In the same year, To Live, by Zhang Yimou, China’s contemporary leading director, was released. Although it is not as famous as the former, it won many awards and nominations, such as the three awards at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Grand Prix, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the best actor. This film follows a trajectory of the hero Fugui in the context of China's tumultuous history between the 1940s and the 1970s. Fugui suffered continuous losses in his life, like losing his land due to addicted gambling or losing his children caused by absurd accidents. Despite these heavy blows of fate, Fugui learned to live humbly with his undying hope. Well, I have a question about the assignment. Is there a detailed prompt like the previous one for the comparative analysis to guide us this time? 3) Movies that I find very admiring and are similar to real life resiliency are movies such as the Blind Side and Pursuit of Happyness. The Blind Side, based on true events, includes a young homeless teen that had lost touch with his family and drifts in and out of school. The young man, Michael Oher, has little to no money and no real stability in his life. The one thing that Michael does have is passion for the game of football. When a family of higher wealth sees this, they give him a chance to get back in school

and give him a home to stay in. His dreams for getting into the NFL soon become reality through much hard work and dedication as well as help from the family. In my second movie, Pursuit of Happyness, also based on a true story, talks about a man named Christopher Gardner believes he has a good product to sell. However, he soon learns that selling them does not go as planned and loses his wife and apartment, and begins to live on the street with his son. It is Christopher's determination for a better life and better outcome that allows for Christopher and his son to live a better life. There is a famous quote that I love from this movie that states, "You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period." In my opinion, Pursuit of Happyness is a better example or better option for the assignment because while both characters in both movies are very resilient, in the Blind Side, Michael Oher gets help from a family. This allows him to get a better chance at life. This is not very common. I think that goes more with luck while Christopher in the Pursuit of Happyness relies more on his determination and dedication to get out of the situation he is in.