Analysis of The Pursuit of Happyness Through a Sociological Lens

The film “The Pursuit of Happyness”, directed by Gabrielle Muccino, tells the true-life experiences of Chris Gardner who faces many hard obstacles. He struggles to overcome these obstacles in order to create a better life for not only him but for his son as well after his wife leaves him. He finds himself being evicted from his home and having a little amount of money in his pockets for his own daily expenses due to him taking an unpaid internship. Despite the series of challenges that Chris battles with in his everyday life, he preserves to be persistent and determined in order for him to achieve his goal to become a stockbroker. Mr. Gardner’s life can be viewed through a sociological point of view with concepts such as Functional Analysis Theory, Social Mobility, and Symbolic Interactionism Theory.

Analysis of Chris' Life Struggles Through a Sociological Lens

The division of class has been a part of the American culture for several centuries. Society forms social stratification between individuals depending on their access to resources and power. This concept is demonstrated in Chris’s work environment. In the Dean Witter Company, we can see that the most educated individuals hold a more high and important position for example Jay Twistle who served as a manager for the company. Mr. Twistle repeatedly ignores Chris every time they would encounter each other. He didn’t believe that Chris had what it took for such a position as being good with numbers and good with people. When they share a taxi ride, Mr. Twistle is impressed by Chris’s ability to solve a Rubik’s cube in a short amount of time. He eventually offers him an interview for the Dean Witter training program. The internship was a pathway to help Chris get a chance to gain knowledge in a new form of trade with the hope of receiving a job as compensation otherwise the opportunity would be worthless. The Dean Witter Company served as the functionalist theory because only best intern would receive a job considering that the program only chose one out of twenty candidates.

In the film, Chris shows a shift from one social class to another. Social mobility is demonstrated by the experiences that Chris went through from being down the social ladder to eventually reaching it to its highest point. He went from being homeless to having a job where he is economically stable. Social class is based on an individual’s efforts. Chris wanted to improve his social class therefore, he was determined to do whatever it took. An example of his effort would be when he would wait for Mr. Twistle outside the company just to get a word with him so that he could show his true interest with becoming a part of the company. During his internship, he suffered from poverty. There’s a scene in the film where he finds his belonging outside his motel room. He has absolutely no money nor a place to stay at. As a result, he gets desperate, so he goes to a clinic to get blood drawn in exchange for money in order for him and his son to survive another day. There’s a social class shift change when he earns a position to work for the company which leads him to be at the top of the ladder by overcoming being on the streets and to achieving what he wanted by working hard for it. Today he is millionaire who serves as a businessman of his own investment firm “Gardner Rich and Co” and a motivational speaker.

The representation of symbolic interactionalism is depicted by Chris trying to chase the American Dream throughout the whole film. Relationships among individuals within a society help each other meaning that the people that an individual associate with learn from within one another. Society views the lower class to have a low self-esteem. Chris accepts the fact that he was part of that class unlike his wife Linda who had a hard time coping with the fact that they didn’t have much which led her to eventually leave her family behind. The symbolic interactionism supports the idea those individuals who are considered to be at the “top” have worked hard unlike those who are the “bottom” who don’t have no type of skills what so ever. Chris firmly believes that with hard work and dedication anything is possible no matter if others tell you that you can’t. There’s a scene in the film where he tells his son not to let anyone stop his dream which was becoming a basketball player.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, this film displayed many sociological elements. Chris demonstrated the ability he had in order to see a change in his economic status to help provide for him and his family. The function of class and status shows how much of success a person could gain. A person’s social standing does not determine a person’s worth and this film demonstrates that anyone can achieve the American Dream if they put their full potential and set their mind to.