Poverty

One of the biggest life struggles a person can go through is poverty. Poverty can be defined as the scarcity or the lack of material possessions or money. As you can see, this word is a multifaceted concept, which may include social, economic, and political elements. A person can be poor in different ways like: love poor, family poor, money poor, etc. Being money poor is a very challenging thing to live with now a days. The world’s society right know revolves around money and without it you are limited in almost everything. Nevertheless, a lot of people with perseverance and determination overcome this and find their way out of this horrible problem.

The movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” shows this idea of being poor and desperate because of money. It talks about a poor man that tries to succeed to give his son a better life. Through this journey he faces a lot of difficulties. First, he started to sell bone density scanners and since they did not sell as he wanted, his wife leaves him and his son and they are forced to live out in the streets. He then loses everything he had so he decides to apply in a 6-month competition for the position of stockbroker in a company. During this non- paying internship/competition, nobody believed in him and took him as a joke since he didn’t have education nor the tools to win this top position. He tries to make his little son think it was all a game, so he didn’t get scared. With tears in his eyes, he starts to give his son trash food and they start to sleep in places like public bathrooms and streets, so they can stay afloat. As the movie goes on, a lot of devastation scenes are showed until he finally gets what he wants with determination. As you can see, it’s a very inspirational movie that gives the message of never giving up. Even though they were evicted from their home and faced a lot of financial problems, he stayed positive and found small bits of happiness with his son until he got what he wanted. At the end he says: “This part of my life… this part right here, this is called “happiness”.

After I watched this movie, I can say I changed since it made me have another perspective on what is really important in life. It also made me more determined to always achieve what I want. Few months after watching this movie I went to Santorini, Greece. I was very excited to see the famous white buildings and houses everybody talks, and I just imagined a beautiful place with happy people. When I got there, I was surprised with what it really was. The place was beautiful but most of the people were not as happy as I thought they were, the majority was very poor. There were kids begging for money in the streets but there was one kid in particular that caught my attention. He was a 14-year-old kid carrying his newborn sister. They were both crying, and he was begging for food not money. I stared at him for a couple of seconds until I started to tear-up. I went to him and gave him a lot of money, so they could eat for a couple of days. He looked at me like I was some kind of angel and then he hugged me as a way to say thank you. At that moment, I remembered the movie and told him something the man said to his son: “Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. You got a dream, you got to protect it. When people can’t do something themselves they’re going to tell you that you can’t to it and they’re not going to help you. You want something, go get it. Never give up, it will get better… I promise”. After I said this something inside of me told me he really heard me and that now he was going to be strong and fight for his sister and him. This made me feel happy with myself and it made me realize how one can get all he/she really wants with determination and a will to succeed. I can say this experience has definitely been an important part of my life’s journey since it made me a better person.

Seven pounds, , The pursuit of happyness [Video file]. (n.d.)