THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invests the family savings in Osteo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice as expensive as an x-ray machine but with a slightly clearer image. This white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to his relationship with his wife Linda, who leaves him and moves to New York where she has taken a job in a pizza parlor. Their son Christopher stays with Chris because he and his wife both know that he will be able to take better care of him.

Without any money or a wife, but committed to his son, Chris sees a chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, offering a more promising career at the end of a six-month unpaid training period. During that period, Chris goes through a lot of hardship personally and professionally. When he thinks he is "stable," he finds that he has lost $600 when the government takes the last bit of money in his bank account for taxes. He is rendered homeless because he can't pay his rent. He is forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a train station, and must scramble from work every day to the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which offers shelter to the homeless. He must leave work early every day so that he is there by 5:00 in the evening along with his son so that he may be assured of a place to sleep. He is seen carrying his suitcase to work because he doesn't have a home. At work, there are nineteen other candidates for the one position.

One day, he is called into an office and in it were the heads of Dean Witter. Chris thinks that he is about to be told the job will not be his as he says that he wore a shirt and tie for his final day. Then they tell him that he has been an excellent trainee and that tomorrow he will have to wear his shirt and tie again as it will be his first day as a broker. Chris struggles to hold back tears. Outside he begins to cry as the busy people of San Francisco walk past him. He rushes to his son's daycare, hugging him and knowing that after everything him and his son had been through things would be all right.

The final scene shows Chris walking with his son down a street. His son is telling him a joke, when a wealthy business man in a suit walks past. Chris looks back as the man continues on. The man in the suit is none other than the real Chris Gardner.

**Gardner’s incredible willpower and desire to become a broker eventually leads him out of scarcity and into employment. Miraculously, he lands a job as a trainee and rises through the ranks at respected companies like Dean Witter and Bear Stearns. His forceful resolve and uncanny ability to take charge of his life pays off exponentially. He becomes so successful that he opens his own brokerage company–Gardner Rich & Co. 

**The “Happyness” in the title comes from a misspelled word in the name of a daycare facility that Gardner considered for his son and ultimately rejected due to the error. The word also holds special importance to him personally due to the insight he gained while explaining the meaning of the word to his inquisitive boy.

# After watching this movie I can concluded that this is a great movie as it shows us many moral values that can be learn through the scenes. It shows how a person from nothing to be something. Chris had such a challenging journey in his life in order to gain success. Although his wife is not by his side to support him on what ever he do, but he has a smart little guy, Christopher who accompany him through the difficult journey of his life. This movie teach me that we have to be through all the challenges first before we achieve success. Without effort then we will not gain anything we want. Despite of all thing happen to Chris, he still be patient and strong, that's just because of his beloved son. He is not the one who get mad easily and also not to show his sadness, he kept inside and try to solve the problems by himself. That's the thing that I like about the main character in the movie. The father's love of his son whose willing to sacrifice all things that he have and to work harder just to make his son happy and live in a comfortable life. 

"Striving for happiness is a long, hard journey with many challenges. It requires eternal vigilance to win the victory. You cannot succeed with sporadic little flashes of effort. Constant and valiant living is necessary."
Jack H. Goaslind, Jr. 

"Happiness is not a matter of good fortune or worldly possessions. It's a mental attitude. It comes from appreciating what we have, instead of being miserable about what we don't have. It's so simple?yet so hard for the human mind to comprehend."
Bits and Pieces 

"Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it's too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow." 
Quoted by Paul H Dunn