The Relationship Between Father and Son in The Pursuit Of Happiness and Road To Perdition

The Relationship Between Father and Son

The relationship between father and his son be assumed to be without a doubt the most important relationship that a man has all through their lives. To an extra mile, the relationship between a father and son mostly depend on each other so as they can survive the struggles they encounter every day in life. Father and son relationship should be positive and thus lead to productivity in whatever they are doing. Therefore, this paper will focus on comparing the relationship between father and son in The Pursuit of Happiness film and in the Road to Perdition film.

The Pursuit of Happyness

In both films, the directors depict a tale of a father and son using each other as a way of surviving when faced with hard conditions. When they are in difficult situation both father and son have to form a symbolic interrelationship for them to survive. Based on the real-life experience of Chris Gardner, the Pursuit of Happyness considers the crests and troughs in the life of Chris while he was in the quest of becoming a stockbroker, and particularly as everyone understands, a multi-millionaire. Will Smith was the one playing the role of Chris Gardner while Jaden Smith the son of Smith was playing the role of Garner’s old son. At one point even though the film is named The Pursuit of Happyness it is not impressing at all. Markedly, it is because the film is supposed to concentrate on the efforts of the major protagonist as he was chasing what was considered to be a chimerical dream (Nelson 500). On the other hand, every time you assume that matters are going to be fine, they were getting even worse for Chris.

Road to Perdition

On the other hand, in the Road to Perdition, there was a good relationship between father and son. This was shown when Michael Jr. drives his father to a farm after he collapsed where there were elderly couples who helped him recover. There is a strong bond between Sullivan and his son where he found out that Connor has been misappropriating his father for many years by the use of names of dead people. As the Sullivans were going, they gave the couple the money that they had stolen. Sullivan convinced Rooney with the data while they attend a Mass. Rooney was aware of the embezzlement and that Connor was about to pass away and if not for the hand of Sullivan then Rooney would have died. During one night which was flickered by darkness and rain, the whole entourage of Rooney was killed by Sullivan. There was no any other reason to protect Connor and therefore Nitti decides to reveal his location because he had promised Sullivan to finish the dispute. Sullivan then decided to look for Connor in a hotel where he was hiding and still murder him. Sullivan decided to drive his son at the house of his aunt known as Sara in a beach on the shore of Lake Michigan. On the other hand, he is trapped and shot by a blemished Maguire.

Maguire was attempting to take a photo of Sullivan who was dying when Michael Jr. appears and points him a gun but he was not having the courage to fire. This shows that Michael Jr. was caring about his father and he mourned his father’s death but he went back to stay with the childless elderly couple. While he was growing up, Michael, Jr. said that his father did not want him to be like him and this shows that his father wanted a good life for Michael Jr (Callahan 380). The fact that Michael has never held a gun before anyone else until when his father has killed shows that he cared about his father and that their relationship was good. When he was asked whether Sullivan was a good or a bad father he said that he doesn’t know and all he knows is that he was his father.

The Lesson Learned

In both films, the boys were taught to learn how to handle different struggles of their day-to-day activities. Both were raised in the cruel environment and they learned how to survive with nothing and they tend to become more mature because of these circumstances. Both boys were willing to look up to their fathers to learn different lessons when placed in hard conditions. Chris said told his son not listen to anyone who told him that he can’t do anything, not even his own father. His son was a good listener and he listened to all the advice of his father when he was being told that if you have a dream you will have to protect it (Javier Díaz Pérez 40). This is because his father was aware that some individuals cannot do anything thus they tell you that you cannot do it too. This relationship was good as his father made sure that he teaches his son life lessons so that he could mature. Both fathers made sure that they had told their sons that one day they will not be around and the sons will still have to survive in the harsh environment.

Work Cited

Nelson, John S. “Film Essay: Conspiracy as a Hollywood Trope for System.” Political Communication, 20.4 (2003): 499-503.

Javier Díaz Pérez, Francisco. ”Wordplay in film titles Translating English puns into Spanish.” Babel 54.1 (2008): 36-58.

Callahan, John F. ”F. Scott Fitzgerald’s evolving American Dream: the” pursuit of happiness” in Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and The Last Tycoon.” Twentieth Century Literature42.3 (1996): 374-395.