The Pursuit of Happyness

(Reaction Paper)

Upon viewing the movie film entitled The Pursuit of Happyness, it undeniably captures
the emotional interest of the audience as it portrays absolute realism of life. With its
inspirational sense, the story takes place in San Francisco, 1981. It revolves around Chris
Gardner (Will Smith), together with his wife, Linda Gardner (Thandie Newton) and their son
named Christopher Gardner Jr. (Jaden Smith). Inspired by a true story, the chronicles of the
family traces ups and downs as Chris struggles to keep his family plummeting into poverty. A
film full of hardships before attaining success and finally taste the happiness.

Focusing the image of the main character, Smith, is actually a great father who carry out
his paternal duty of sending his beloved son Christopher to day care which is commendable
part of him. A touching role of father is being strengthened by him that it symbolizes how
father must value his son and his family as a whole despite of busy schedule of doing his routine
of selling scanner machine.

In addition, he has this exceptional vision of optimism that gradually ignites his string of
hope as he continuously encounters a lot of failures on his way. He utters to his son that if you
got a dream, you have to protect it and if you want something, get it. This teaching is quite a
positive remark in pursuing dream which is then injected to his son’s morale. Likewise, it has
something to do in boosting individual’s self-esteem in doing sustainable action as shown by
Chris in the story.

By then, Chris is really smart man the way he could easily solve a Rubik’s Cube in just a
minute yet his poor status is pulling him down to the bottom. Believe it or not, unfortunate
status deliberately drives man to pursue achievable dreams at most. And this is what Chris’
journey in the film goes on which is truly an aspiring flight.

On the adverse side, Chris being a salesman did not worked well. There are many ill-
fated events that happened on his track of selling his bone density scanners. One is him easily
trusting a stranger girl who is performing some sort of instrument in the sidewalk. He requests
a favor to take care of his machine in exchange of little cash while he meet up Mr. Twistle. But
it turned out to be disastrous when that girl stole it. This scenario reflects how a person could
act unwisely sometimes.

Their family is hardly facing the situation of financial problem, as a result. The scanner
invested by Chris venturing his savings enables him to sustain the financial need of his family.
But no sales are considered zero revenues that gradually resulted to financial instability. This
part of the story could be the ultimate downfall that one household could ever experience.
Such issue ignites an intense argument between him and his wife Linda, who then decided to
leave him and his son in the apartment.

Consequently, the father and son are forced to move from other shelter even spending
one night in the bathroom of subways. They have to rely on a homeless shelter. It is agreeable
that this scenario has verify the problem that is faced in the American society in day-by-day
living. The painful truth that having insufficient money leads no option but to bear with the
consequences ahead.

But this does not blinded the dream of Chris to be a certified customs broker in spite of
obstacles that get in his way. Impressive it is, the way Chris together with his son battled their
unpredictable journey aiming the best out of life. There are times when his character appears
to be down yet he instills the confidence that lies in his personality. That he could do the best
with the span of his intrapersonal skills and talent until he made his coveted full time position
at Dean Witter.

In overall, the heartwarming film greatly deals with the American dream in particular. It
focuses on “pursuit” as mentioned in the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson
that he did not promise Americans happiness but only the right to pursue happiness. In the end
Chris states “I am happy right now” when he now owned his multimillion-dollar brokerage firm.
Like him we people are also chasing the true happiness that awaits us. And this might be our
future career that somehow pushed us to aim for stable job in the near future so that desired
things are now attainable and this what makes each one form a genuine smile of satisfaction.
Let us be reminded that happiness is not free-given instead it is acquired when one manages to
pursue it wholeheartedly.

The film, indeed, exhibits such outstanding story line emphasizing the relationship
between father and son amidst the roller coaster ride of life. This movie from my own judgment
accurately illustrates the authenticity of life. Reality emerges failures, defeats or unwanted
events that are naturally occurring which are later on converted into perceivable triumph when
one ultimately elevates the pursuit of dream and lastly reach there with a smile. With that, the
sentimental tale of rags to riches is now disclosed.