Essay On Masculinity In The Pursuit Of Happyness

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Masculinity in The Pursuit of Happyness
The Pursuit of Happyness, produced by Columbia Pictures, is a movie based on a true story of an African-American man named Chris Gardner, a multi-millionaire investor and a motivational speaker. Gardner is not only a persistent, hard-working, assertive and confident man, but also a responsible father, who played both roles as a single parent. Thus, he is a clear example to prove that the negative perspectives about African-American men are wrong. As people think, most of African-American masculinity is egotistical and weak. To be more specific, they are easy to give up, lazy and not responsible for their families and even their masculinities are weak since they usually leave their wives and children,
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In the text “Becoming Members of Society”, Aaron Devor argues that “masculinity usually characterized by dominance and aggression,” but his opinion is incorrect in Gardner’s situation. Instead of showing aggression, Gardner gently behaved with his son and carefully took care of the son although he had to overcome many obstacles by him selves like unemployment. Especially, as he became a single father, he never blamed for his marital status to decline his responsibilities to his son, but he determined to follow the internship program at a stock company in order to support his son have a better life. He is, moreover, a father with a good sense of humor. Specifically, when the son asked if a bone density scanner, which he was selling, was not a time machine, then he said that “Yes, it was.” Later, to make the son forget about the fact that they did have nowhere to stay over the night, he made up a dinosaur story and played with the son. He tactfully changed the bad situation from worst to much better, and then guided his son to go to a cave, but actually that cave was a rest room to sleep over. Therefore, Gardner is an outstanding example to demonstrate that men are not aggressive as many women think, men are assertive and have a good sense of

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