When I was eighteen years old, I embarked on an adventure to get back home to Anaheim from a trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. My ride fell through, as did my plans. On my journey toward home I went to Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the hope that I might be able to work with a ministry there on that notorious street. We went out on the street after work and would stop strangers to talk with them. We’d offer to pray for them or offer help for more immediate needs such as food or a place to stay. What an eye-opening experience that was for me. Picture Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) of Happy Days. That was me—naïve to so much of what I was exposed to over those few weeks in 1972. Walking up and down the street, going back and forth to work and walking back to my room at the YMCA, I would see people in all kinds of conditions. Some were partying, some were prostitutes, and some were looking for any kind of fun. Almost anything was for sale—drugs, alcohol, sex of various kinds. I was barely making enough money to keep myself fed and still save money for a flight home. I was young and believed that God could do anything. I was dangerous and didn’t know it. There were posters and billboards of sexy women, barely dressed in an attempt to entice the men to stop in, have a few drinks, and watch the girls dance. As I walked home each night I kept noticing the picture of one particular girl. Among the hundreds of banners, the one with her picture stood out to me. I prayed for
In Happy by Roko Belic (a 2011 documentary), “All I want is to be happy in life” was a reoccurring statement from the people in the film. A majority of people in today’s world agree with that statement. Everyone wants to be happy, but what truly defines happiness? The Happy documentary presents different things that make certain people happy, and what influences their feelings. The film does not only imply that direct message, but also paints a bigger picture for the audience. The bigger picture being: how ecology is the main factor behind people’s happiness. The director of this film combines real experiences from people around the world along with research from scientists to explain our simple emotion, happiness.
The movie 28 Days stages an out of control alcoholic and drug addict Gwen Cummings. Sandra Bullock is the main character in this movie. Gwen is an alcoholic writer who lives with her boyfriend up north Manhattan. It starts one night when Gwen and her boyfriend is partying and causes her to oversleep and be late to her sister's wedding. She created a disaster in which ruined her sister’s wedding by getting to drunk and messed up the cake. Gwen then stole her sister's limo to look for another cake and drove it into someone's house due to her heavy intoxication that caused her to be sentenced in rehab or jail; she chose rehab for help. Gwen was so happy and high off life that she wasn't expecting to be forced to give it all up. She was determined to get through her 28 days of rehab so that she could get back to her partying ways. Once she entered rehab she wasn't quite interested in participating in any of her therapies or her group projects.
Based on the real life story of Chris Gardner, the Pursuit of Happyness looks at the crests and troughs in Chris' life on his way to becoming a stock broker, and eventually as everyone knows, a multi-millionaire. Will Smith played the role of Chris Gardner while Smith's son, Jaden Smith played Gardner's 7 or 8-year-old son.
During the week in Chicago, I grew closer to God, learned how to be a better leader, and learned to put others before myself, which is what helped me become a better person. Serving others that had situations worse than I could imagine was life changing. The idea I could make such a tremendous change in someone’s life while doing activities I enjoyed, opened my eyes to the potentials of serving. After the week ended and I returned home, I wanted to do more for the people around me who were less fortunate. Going into freshman year, I made the decision to volunteer at Urban Vision. I help kids who have newly immigrated to Akron and the United States find items at a holiday shop for their families and themselves. Many of these kids went directly to the necessity aisle, (i.e. toilet paper, laundry detergent, and soaps) to get these items for their families, even though there were plenty of toys for the kids themselves. These kids helped me realize I should be grateful for everything in life, from shelter over my head to the clothes on my
Have you ever played a game of mahjong? Mahjong is a solitaire matching game which used mahjong tiles. This game brings people together to create and reminisce memories while feasting on Chinese delicacies. In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan reinforces the mothers’ bonds through meeting up to play mahjong in their club. They try to influence their daughters to take part in this Chinese tradition, but the girls have different views. They try to become part of an American society, and look back at their Chinese descent with distaste. While the mothers of The Joy Luck Club are determined to keep their Chinese heritage, their daughters are open and willing to experience a new American lifestyle, which causes conflicts between the mothers and daughters.
The movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness” is a film based on a true story of Chris Gardner, where Will Smith shines a tale of rags-to-riches filled with love, family, and outcome of the American dream. Chris Gardner is an American businessman, investor, stockbroker, motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist. Based on this real-life story of Chris Gardner, Will Smith takes the role of Christopher Gardner, who was a salesman struggling to satisfy the needs of his wife, Thandie Newton, and their son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith. With the financial problems, his wife gives up the struggles, abandoning him and their son. Things get worse as Gardner and his son are evicted from their residence leaving them with no option but to try surviving on the streets of San Francisco. They are forced to move from one place to another in the bid to get a shelter wherever they are lucky to get one. The movie demonstrates us how vigorously he is eager to chase his happiness in many burdensome ways. It exhibits how Chris Gardner becomes homeless in the beginning of the movie, but later he becomes a successful dream achiever after putting all his hard work.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. The film was released on June 11, 1986. It stared the likes of Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller), Alan Ruck (Cameron Frye). Mia Sara (Sloane Peterson), Jeffrey Jones (Ed Rooney), and Jennifer Grey (Jeanie Bueller). Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is about a high school senior, Ferris Bueller, that pretends to be sick to get a day off from school. He convinces his friend, Cameron Frye, to join him. They devise a plan to get Ferris’ girlfriend out of school as well.
Amidst John Hughes movie Ferris Buellers Day Off, main character Ferris Bueller is depicted as being a favorable person despite the fact that he embodies many careless traits. Possessing an immense influence over his school, many people idolize him over his ability to escape the consequences he deserves for neglecting school policies. From hacking into the school system through his own personal computer, to passing as the “sausage king” to get into a fancy restaurant, he is able to get away with these things not only because of his charm but because of all the advantages that come with being a white middle class person during this time. (you mentioned because he is white middle class person..make sure you elaborate more on this idea in the
In It’s a Wonderful Life, the main character, George Bailey, is a good, giving man who faces a rough patch in his life. I think that this story teaches us a great lesson on being thankful. I liked the part when, at the end, Clarence finishes his job and earns his wings. The part I didn’t like was when George said that he wishes that he was never born. The lesson that It’s a Wonderful Life teaches us about thankfulness is that you need to appreciate how blessed you really are and not to take it for granted. To apply this message to our daily lives, you can focus more on the little things and not so much on the big things. You can do this by focusing more on the house you have and the food that is being provided, rather than focusing on if it’s what you like or not or wanting to own more. George Bailey never got the opportunity to travel the world and build skyscrapers liked he hoped because he feels tied down to the family company he never wanted to own and work for. As George Bailey got older, he began to see everyone grow up to be what they wanted, and he sees all of his youth and opportunities go right past him. George decides to end his life because he believes he is worth more dead than alive. When Clarence, his guardian angel, sees this, he decides to show George what life would be like if he had never existed.
Every family functions in their own unique way, even if they attempt to model themselves after the social norms of what a family “should be”. Little Miss Sunshine gives insight into how individuals with their own variety of dysfunction manage to function within the family. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Little Miss Sunshine in the context of four different ways of communicating as explained in the textbook, Family Communication: Cohesion and Change. The following paragraphs, organized into sections by theme will explore the Hoover family’s system, the degree of adaptability and cohesion within the family, the productive or destructive ways they manage conflict, and their use of power or decision making processes. Each section will contain a brief review of each of the aforementioned topics that apply, concepts that exist within those topics that appeared in the movie, and examples taken from the movie.
For many years, the United States has been the destination for a variety of immigrants. Undoubtedly, the majority of immigrants that seek lives within the U.S borders are from Mexico and most often embark on the journey to states in the Southwest such as Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, and California. “A Better Life” takes place in East Los Angeles, California and tells the story of an undocumented man named Carlos, who has to struggle with the obstacles that come along with being illegal. The director, Chris Wietz, established a film that not only shined light on such a talked about controversy and the issues surrounding it, but also presented it from the perspective of someone who has to fight the system on a daily basis. In this review, I will touch upon the symbolism within the film, and the theme of hardships of immigrants.
In life there are a number of challenges that everyone will go through. This is a part of discovering who they are and what they want to do with themselves. To help explain these differences, Erikson introduced his development theory. This helps to address some of the challenges and needs that person will go through at particular stages in their lives. To fully understand these phases there will be a focus on two characters from the film The Breakfast Club and contrasting them with Erikson's theory. Together, these different elements will provide specific insights that will highlight the transformations and challenges that everyone will go through during the course of their lives.
The movie, The Breakfast Club, is a movie about five students who get Saturday school and become friends as a result of it. The characters were: Allison, the quiet girl who would sit in the back and refuse to talk; John, the troublemaker who always talked back to the teachers; Claire, the popular girl who always got what she wanted; Brian, the nerdy student who only cared about having good grades; Andrew, the wrestler who was only focused impressing his father. While watching the movie, I mainly related to Brian. He is pressured to have good grades by his parents and is labeled as the nerd because of it. I am also pressured to have good grades; however, I am labeled as the smart kid in many different classes, but I’m not classified as a nerd.
In spring of 2016, my youth group and I began planning a trip to a neighboring city. This wasn’t just any trip however, we were going on a mission. Each of us there were bound and determined to
1. Address 2 ICC scenes/themes you can identify with. Reflect on these and include examples.