A movie named “The Pursuit of Happyness” is inspired by the real life story of Chris Gardner, who struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son. Chris is a single father since her wife no longer able to cope. His wife could not handle under the constant strain of financial pressure, so, she decided to leave and went to work in a restaurant in New York. He continues tenaciously to pursue his life and his son using every sales skill he knows. His top priority was to be a good father to his son, Christopher. Finally, he rose from being homeless to become a stock market tycoon and eventually as everyone knows he now is a multi-millionaire. From this inspirational movie, I need to choose any four scenes and do analysis based on the six theories, which are social morality, personality virtues, utilitarianism, egoism, the principle of duty and the principle of existentialism.

The first scene I chose is when Chris plays basketball with his son. His son says he really likes to play basketball, and wanted to become a famous basketball star. Then, he said to his son, “Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something, not even me.” Scene closes. This dialogue from the scene makes people feel a father’s love, and it is the point impressive people. Based on his dialogue, it is clearly shown that he wants and teaches his son to practice the theory of egoism. It means that, Christopher must take consideration of his self-interest the most in making decision and doing something. Eventually, Chris forgot the theories of personality virtues which emphasis on character building and acquiring of personal attributes to obtain a good life. Once Christopher practices the theories of egoism, which only takes his own consideration on all decisions, at the same time, he practices selfishness which may trouble to other people. Parents should inculcate good virtues to their children from the young age.

Next scene I chose, while Chris is going to one more hospital that day, he calls his wife at work and tells her she needs to pick up their son from day care because he needs to sell the bone density scanners to pay their house rent and buy some groceries. That night he gets home and he is still carrying two bone density scanners. His wife is very angry and complains that she missed a shift at work because he was messing around. The scene ends. From this scene, Linda portrays the theories of egoism. She only considers her own interests. She angry and said she has missed her shift at work because he is messing around but she did not think that his husband actually did his responsibility as a head of the family to earn a living. In terms of the principle of duty, as a wife she should not get angry at her husband, but, conversely, she should support and give motivations to his husband to keep moving on. She has to understand his husband situations and business problem as well.
Moving to the next scene, when Chris and Jay Twistle, who is a manager for Dean Witter, sharing a cab. As Jay gets out from the cab and leaves Chris in the cab, Chris just realizes that Jay forgot to pay the cabby. He looks the fare meter then he looks in his wallet, seeing that he does not have enough money to pay the taxi fare, he jumps out of the car and starts to run away. He runs toward the subway and thinks he is in the clear until he heard the screaming cabby comes around the corner and still chasing him. The scene closes. From the theories of social morality views, Chris action that ran away from the cabby is not good because society’s need is more important and not individual. His action may cause conflicts and troubles to the cabby and also other people in around the subway. But from the views of the theories of egoism, he did the right action. He takes his own personal interest because he realizes that he could not pay the taxi fare. Furthermore, the cab should be paid by Jay as he is the one who wants to go to his destination.

The last scene I chose when he has to go for the interview wearing bad condition clothes and his body and face flecked with dry paint. The group of men interviewing him include Jay Twistle. They ask Jay if he is usually dressed that way and Jay tells that he was nicely dressed in a suit and tie every time they met. One of the interviewers asks Chris, "What would you say if I told you we once hired a man who came in without a shirt on?” Chris pauses but he able replies wittily, "Those must have been some really nice pants." He makes everyone in the room laugh. The scene ends. From the theories of utilitarianism his action is right because he did spontaneous humours that made all interviewers laughing. But based on the theories of egoism, his action is not right because he ignored his own interests. He makes other people laughing but deep inside his heart, he sad and thinks about his personal problems that should be solved. He should not hide his sorrow and speak frankly that he needs a job for his family.

To conclude all the analysis of the movie, all the theories are right or wrong depending on the situations and consequences. “The Pursuit of Happyness” which is based on the real life of Chris Gardner is one of the most motivational and inspirational movie. He had through many difficulties before he became a multi-millionaire today. Some of his actions may be wrong from any six of the theories views but it is for the sake of his family life. He did what a father should do for his son. He also said when he had children, “My children were going to know who their father was.” His son is his inspiration to keep him moving forward in their life.
(1, 021 words)