Similarities Between Born A Crime And The Pursuit Of Happiness

Devon Shrives Ms.Kemila ENG3U March 28, 2024.

Forged from Resilience and Experience: The Stories of Chris Gardner and Trevor Noah.

Resilience is one’s ability to remain stronger after being knocked down by a situation in life, according to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi. In the memoir Born a Crime written by Trevor Noah and the film The Pursuit of Happiness directed by Gabriele Muccino, both the characters Trevor Noah and Chris Gardner demonstrate adaptability, optimism, and determination, which are all qualities which help build a resilient person. Hard times for resilient people.

Firstly, in both Born a Crime and The Pursuit of Happiness, both main characters demonstrate how hard times forge adaptability. In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah exhibits

In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah displays optimism when in jail for getting caught stealing a car. “This isn’t so bad,” he said. I hang around with a bunch of dudes. There’s no chores to do. No bills to pay. No one is constantly nagging me and telling me what to do. Peanut butter sandwiches - what's in it? Shit, I eat peanut butter sandwiches all the time. This is pretty sweet, too. I could do this.” This quote reveals Trevor’s naivety and optimism in how he believes jail would be a breeze. This demonstrates optimism and resilience, but optimism specifically could be a bad thing in the sense that he is underplaying how dangerous jail is for someone who is only pretending to be a thug. Chris Gardner demonstrates optimism as he fought through hard times in his relationship. Near the beginning of the film, Chris and his wife were arguing over who will have custody over their son, in the end Chris won and from then on, he wholeheartedly believed that he and his son would live a great life, and were optimistic that this life will be better. This ended up not being the case for a very long time. This is another case of optimism not necessarily being a good thing because even though there were sweet moments during this time, Chris Gardner put his son in a lot of situations which were dangerous to his son, and many situations where one would wonder to oneself,

Trevor Noah’s determination is clear, as he was in the hospital doing any means necessary in order to save his mom, who had just been shot in the head. “Lady, I have money. I’ll pay for anything. Just help us.” “Sir, you don’t understand. We have to do so many tests. One test alone could cost two, three thousand rand.” “Three thousand- what? Lady, this is my mother’s life we are talking about, I’ll pay.” “Sir, you don’t understand. Your mother has been shot. In her mind. She’ll be in the ICU. One night in ICU could cost you fifteen, twenty thousand rand.” “Lady, are you not listening to me? This is my mother's life. This is her life, too. Take the money out of it. Take all of it, and do it. I don’t care.” (Noah 278) This complete straightforward determination, even when faced with maybe even millions of rand of debt, displays how Trevor is willing to do whatever it takes in order to what he wants, which in this case, is his mother saved. Chris Gardner demonstrates determination throughout the entirety of the film, but primarily at night when he would work strenuously on his x-ray. When his son went to sleep, instead of doing the same, Chris would stay up working on his x-ray and trying to perfect it so they could make some money and eventually be able to have better living conditions. This type of determination, where one sacrifices the present in order to