The Pursuit of Hapyness, 2006

November 14, 2022 | MAGGIE CRONKHITE

The film, The Pursuit Of Happyness, portrays the struggles and success of a single father, Chris Gardner, trying to make a living for himself and his son, Christopher. Life is not easy for Chris Gardner. He lives with his wife, Linda, and son in a one-story rental home that is months behind on payments. Chris makes a living by selling bone-density scanners, Linda makes her living as a hotel maid, and Christopher resides in daycare for most hours of the day. Things do not start well for this family. After months of success, Chris had failed time and time again to sell his bone-density scanners forcing Linda to have to take double shifts as a laundry attendant. Not only has Chris failed at his job, but he has also started to fail as a father. He often is too busy to pick up his son which forces his wife to be late or even miss her shifts at the hotel. On top of this, the family is behind on house payments, parking tickets, and daycare fees. They are barely making it by as it is yet Linda’s double shifts are keeping them afloat. At the same time Linda is working endless hours to support her family.

Chris stumbles upon a man that introduces him to a new job opportunity, a sales broker. While Chris is in awe over this new opportunity, he slips up by leaving one of his bone-density scanners with a homeless woman while he goes inside to sign an application form. She ends up running away with this $600+ scanner forcing Chris to flee the interview in a wild chase around the city after her. Chris struggles to sell bone-density scanners yet somehow manages to finagle a way into sharing a taxi ride with one of the head employers at Dean Whitters, the stock broker company he would like to work for. Here, he manages to shock Mr. Twistle with his knowledge and ultimately won him over with how fast he can solve a Rubik's Cube, something no one has done before. Although his meeting went well, he is stuck in another dilemma when he cannot pay the taxi cab fine and ends up fleeing from the scene.

After getting their family car towed, repeated warnings of eviction from their landlord, and Chris now losing one of his bone-density scanners, it all becomes too much for Linda. Following countless conversations with her husband about providing for the family, she decides the best thing for her and her son is to leave. She gets offered a job by her sister and her brother-in-law in New York City as a waitress so she finds it best for her and Christopher to move there instead. Growing up, Chris never had a good relationship with his father and he made it a point that this would not be the same for him and his son. When Linda tells him her new plan, Chris immediately shuts her down and refuses to give up Christopher. Linda does not want to leave her son yet she agrees since she does not want to move him away from his home.

After Linda leaves, everything begins to go downhill yet Chris somehow finds a way to make it all better. The landlord of their rental home tries to kick them out yet Chris makes a deal with him that he will paint the entire place himself if he and his son can stay for a couple more days. On the same day, Chris finds himself in Dean Whitters’ office for another interview yet this time covered in paint soaked clothing. Through his knowledge and persuasiveness, he manages to gain the trust of these board members who ultimately accept his invitation into the internship program. Chris is skeptical of this since it is an unpaid program but ultimately he sees that it is the best decision moving forward. When he goes to work the next day he is met with a whole new set of problems. He moves his boss's car into an illegal spot and gets a parking ticket, he gets hit by a car trying to chase down his stolen bone-density scanner and is forced to walk back into work dirty and missing a shoe because of this incident. If this wasn't enough to handle, the payments become too much for Chris and force him and his son to move down the road to the motel where they reside for a few more days.

During this time, Chris uses his knowledge of brokerage to advance faster up the call list of businesses he needs to try and persuade to partner with his company. Instead of calling every person, he immediately jumps to the top of the list which is the hardest yet most profitable company to partner with. He lands an interview with them yet misses it since he has to pick up his son Christopher. This is likely his last chance to win this internship opportunity so instead of giving up, he goes directly to the company’s head, Mr. Ribbon, to personally apologize. While there, he manages to land him and his son box tickets to the 49ers game with Mr. Ribbon. This is a great opportunity for Chris since it allows him to make connections with other business partners and ultimately get ahead in the internship program.

Just when everything seems to be going well, Chris receives a letter from the government noting that they have taken $600 out of his bank account for tax purposes. This has officially left Chris broke with now only $21 in his bank account. Chris is now homeless. He ends up getting back another one of his bone-density scanners from the homeless woman while at the park with Christopher yet is now faced with a new problem, they get kicked out of the motel for lack of payments. Chris is forced to think on his feet about where to go for the night yet the only place that comes to mind is the train station. They live in fear for the night while they sleep in the bathroom but Chris works on getting his bone-density scanner fixed while Christopher sleeps so he can try and profit off that in the meantime. Going forward, Chris and his son must now wait in line at homeless shelters for a place to stay.

Things start to look up for Chris. He gives blood for some money, sells another bone-density scanner that puts them in a hotel for the night, and wins the internship program. This is a huge success for Chris and ultimately allows him to go on and live a happy life with his son Christopher.

Care ethics, also known as ethics of care, is an ethical theory that centers around the idea that care and dependency are essential in human life. This originated as a feminist perspective that uses relations and context-bound approaches toward morality and decision-making. Unlike traditional ethical theories, care ethics heavily takes into account relationships and emotions and their correlation to one another.

The film, The Pursuit Of Happyness, represents countless instances of care ethics and can even be seen solely in the title. This entire movie revolves around care ethics and can be seen numerous times throughout the hour and fifty-seven minutes of the film presented. Chris Gardner works endlessly to support his family, especially his son since he desires to build an endlessly happy life with him. Chris’ son, Christopher, is the main thing he cares about and hopes to build a healthy relationship with, especially because of his nonexistent relationship with his father.

When Linda tells Chris that she is leaving for New York with Christopher, Chris does everything in his power to put a stop to it. He knows that he is poor and cannot afford much for his little boy yet the only thing important to him is building a good relationship with his son since his father did not do that for him. When Chris got a little bit of money to keep them on their feet, the first and only thing he did was look to see how he could make life better for his son. Although he could not give him presents like a car or an actual home, he did what he could at the moment by buying him a candy bar or putting them in a hotel for a night.

When times got tough in Chris’ life, he knew everything was going to be okay because his son who cared for and admired him was always there by his side. Although Christopher is the main thing Chris cared about and worked to build a relationship with, he also had to build various work relationships to move up in his job. When Chris got stuck picking up Christopher at daycare and had to miss his meeting with Mr. Ribbon, he made the effort to go out to his house and personally apologize because he cared about the relationship he was building. From this experience, Chris was able to grow his knowledge of stock broking as well as gain better connections to help him move forward.

Care ethics is one of the most important aspects of Chris’ life. The care he displays for his child, his job, and his future is prevalent constantly throughout this film in how he puts others and their care above his own. The film, The Pursuit Of Happyness, is an astonishing representation of care ethics and the ways in which Chris values his relationships and connections over all else.

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