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    Pursuit of Happyness: Study Questions For

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    Catalin Ciubotariu
    This document provides study questions for the film "The Pursuit of Happyness" directed by Gabriele Muccino in 2006. It asks students to consider connections between the film and concepts from philosophy, including works by Nietzsche on overcoming obstacles and Black existentialist philosophers like MLK and Malcolm X. It also prompts analysis of the main character Chris Gardner's relentless pursuit of becoming a stockbroker despite tremendous challenges and hardships.

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    Pursuit of Happyness: Study Questions For

    Uploaded by

    Catalin Ciubotariu
    660 views2 pages
    This document provides study questions for the film "The Pursuit of Happyness" directed by Gabriele Muccino in 2006. It asks students to consider connections between the film and concepts from philosophy, including works by Nietzsche on overcoming obstacles and Black existentialist philosophers like MLK and Malcolm X. It also prompts analysis of the main character Chris Gardner's relentless pursuit of becoming a stockbroker despite tremendous challenges and hardships.

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    Pursuit of Happyness

    Original Title

    Pursuit of Happyness

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    This document provides study questions for the film "The Pursuit of Happyness" directed by Gabriele Muccino in 2006. It asks students to consider connections between the film and concepts from philosophy, including works by Nietzsche on overcoming obstacles and Black existentialist philosophers like MLK and Malcolm X. It also prompts analysis of the main character Chris Gardner's relentless pursuit of becoming a stockbroker despite tremendous challenges and hardships.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    660 views2 pages

    Pursuit of Happyness: Study Questions For

    Uploaded by

    Catalin Ciubotariu
    This document provides study questions for the film "The Pursuit of Happyness" directed by Gabriele Muccino in 2006. It asks students to consider connections between the film and concepts from philosophy, including works by Nietzsche on overcoming obstacles and Black existentialist philosophers like MLK and Malcolm X. It also prompts analysis of the main character Chris Gardner's relentless pursuit of becoming a stockbroker despite tremendous challenges and hardships.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Dr.

    Ari Santas’
    Study Questions for
    Pursuit of Happyness
    (Gabriele Muccino, 2006)
    (running time: 117 min.)

    Things to Look For:


     Connection and juxtaposition to Wall Street, Into the Wild, Little Miss Sunshine
     The ideal of financial success, as related to Thomas Jefferson and the inalienable right to life, liberty and
    the pursuit of happiness
     Connection to BBC Philosophy: A Guide--Nietzsche and to the Nietzschean theme of overcoming, how
    the character approaches obstacles, and how he meets major setbacks
     Connection to the African American philosophies of self-reliance in Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X,
    and Black Existentialism

    Discussion Questions:
    1. Chris wanted to be a stockbroker (not an astronaut?). Why did this seem like such an impossible
    ideal and challenge? Why didn’t he shrink from it?
    2. Being stupid/bad reasoning play a role in Chris’ development (losing the scanner, getting the
    scanners to begin with). Explain, keeping in mind the following dictum: good judgment comes for
    experience; experience come from bad judgment.
    3. Why is Linda (Chris’ partner and son’s live-in mother) unwilling to ride out the storm with him?
    Why does she see him as dragging them down? Why does she blame him for her unhappiness?
    4. Compare Chris’ intelligence, determination in creating opportunity to that of Bud Fox in Wall Street.
    What’s different about them?
    5. Chris seems to embody William James’ notion that under the right conditions belief in something
    can make it true. Compare Chris’ persistent belief in himself to others who fail, like, for instance,
    Richard (the father) in Little Miss Sunshine. Why is Chris able to make it when Richard could not?
    6. Explain the purported wisdom of Jefferson’s “pursuit of happiness” (pursuit of ≠ happiness). Why
    does Chris see this concept as so important?
    7. How did Chris survive his interview “dressed as a garbage man”? Why did they pick him? What got
    him into the internship? Into the job?
    8. Discuss the moment when Chris counsels his son at the basketball court. What does he mean
    about protecting the dream? Compare his lesson to his son’s story about the drowning man
    waiting for God’s help. (Hint: his mother has told him that “The cavalry ain't coming.”)
    9. Chris describes himself as underrated and unappreciated, often serving as a go-for for office
    manager. How did he respond to this ostensibly inappropriate treatment? Compare his office trials
    to those of Andy in The Devil Wears Prada.
    10. Chris’ happiness seemed to come from realizing his dream—but would it have been the same had it
    not been for the adversity, struggle, and pain he suffered in pursuing it? Compare to the self-help
    philosophies of Nietzsche, Malcolm X, ML King, and Black Existentialism.
    11. In the moment of his “making it,” it would seem that money made Chris happy. Compare Chris
    Gardner’s journey with that of Chris McCandless (Into the Wild), who saw money as a threat to
    happiness. Two seemingly opposite directions in life, but in what way are they different? In what
    way similar? Consider the claim in Happy that a wealth level change from $5,000 to $50,000
    matters, but that a change from $50,000 to $50,000,000 doesn’t. Now consider the role of
    achievement--the pursuit realized through effort.

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