public administration
“The Pursuit of Happyness”
Summary
In 1981 San Francisco, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invests his entire life savings in portable bone-density scanners which he demonstrates to doctors and pitches as a handy quantum leap over standard X-rays. While he is able to sell most of them, the time lag between the sales and his growing financial demands enrage his already bitter and alienated wife Linda (Thandie Newton), who eventually leaves him and moves to New York. After Linda bluntly says she is incapable of being a single mother, she agrees that their son Christopher (Jaden Smith) will remain with his father. While downtown trying to sell one of the scanners, Chris meets Jay Twistle (Brian Howe), a manager for Dean Witter and impresses him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short cab ride. Chris does not have enough money for the cab fare and flees into a subway station where he barely escapes the angry cab driver who is chasing him but loses one of his bone scanners in the process. This new relationship with Twistle earns him the chance to become an intern stockbroker, employee.
Despite arriving at his new office unkempt and shabbily dressed due to being arrested the previous day for unpaid parking tickets (and having had to paint his apartment, as his landlord grudgingly says he will give Chris and his son a little more time living there if they get the place ready for an incoming tenant before they depart), Chris is offered the internship. Chris is further set back when his bank account is garnished by the IRS for unpaid income taxes, and he and his young son are evicted. Chris becomes broke and has less than thirty dollars in his bank account. As a result they are homeless, and are forced at one point to stay in a restroom at a subway station.
Motivation drives him to find the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which has a homeless shelter for single mothers and their children. The church's owner will not allow him to stay there and Chris will not
Summary
In 1981 San Francisco, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invests his entire life savings in portable bone-density scanners which he demonstrates to doctors and pitches as a handy quantum leap over standard X-rays. While he is able to sell most of them, the time lag between the sales and his growing financial demands enrage his already bitter and alienated wife Linda (Thandie Newton), who eventually leaves him and moves to New York. After Linda bluntly says she is incapable of being a single mother, she agrees that their son Christopher (Jaden Smith) will remain with his father. While downtown trying to sell one of the scanners, Chris meets Jay Twistle (Brian Howe), a manager for Dean Witter and impresses him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short cab ride. Chris does not have enough money for the cab fare and flees into a subway station where he barely escapes the angry cab driver who is chasing him but loses one of his bone scanners in the process. This new relationship with Twistle earns him the chance to become an intern stockbroker, employee.
Despite arriving at his new office unkempt and shabbily dressed due to being arrested the previous day for unpaid parking tickets (and having had to paint his apartment, as his landlord grudgingly says he will give Chris and his son a little more time living there if they get the place ready for an incoming tenant before they depart), Chris is offered the internship. Chris is further set back when his bank account is garnished by the IRS for unpaid income taxes, and he and his young son are evicted. Chris becomes broke and has less than thirty dollars in his bank account. As a result they are homeless, and are forced at one point to stay in a restroom at a subway station.
Motivation drives him to find the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which has a homeless shelter for single mothers and their children. The church's owner will not allow him to stay there and Chris will not