essay

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Andy Zhou

Mr. Haynie

English 4

The Pursuit of Happyness Movie

“Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream,

you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it.

You want something, go get it. Period. All right?” (The Pursuit of Happyness 2006). This is the

adaptation of director Gabriele Muccino the The Pursuit of Happyness. The movie tells the story

of a nearly bankrupt, his wife left the home of the underdog salesman, how hard to do the good

single-parent responsibility, work up to become a stock market trader, finally become a well-

known financial investor inspirational story. The author explores the aspect of American

individualism as portrayed by the movie’s main character, Chris. The author defines

individualism in two ways: the action or feeling which make an individual happy without

considering other’s feeling; or the theory which talks about individuals’ freedom in each believe

and action. The movie has various elements of individualism.

According to Elizabeth Winter, “From the mean streets to wall street”(Library Journal,

04/01/2016). The Pursuit of Happyness is based on a true story about a man named Christopher

Gardner. Played by Will Smith this inspirational film is about a San Francisco salesman

struggling to build a future for himself and his 5 year old son Christopher. When his girlfriend

Linda walks out, Mr Gardner is left to raise his son on his own.The first element is self-reliance

which entails individual action followed high obligation. A person has to determine what is bad

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and good of himself/herself. Self-reliant individuals have a duty of being pro-active, and they

will be careful and act consciously in whatever they do to avoid failing. With individualism, a

person believes in him/herself in addition to knowing what is best for him/herself. The second

element of individualism is self-confident; the self-confident person will state his idea with

confidence. Chris is confident that he will support his family more the son and his wife and make

them happy. Hence, individualism makes Chris achieve happiness due to his self-confidence. The

last element of individualism is non-self-egoism. Although a person believes he/she is the best,

he/she forms part of the society. This enables an individual to work and live with other people for

society's benefit. This is demonstrated by Chris’s life in the movie.