Ricerca della Felicità (23797)

La Ricerca della Felicità:

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and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and

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establish this Constitution for the United States of America.>>

The Supreme Court declared in 1897, the Constitution is the body and letter of which

the Declaration of Independence is the thought and the spirit, and it is always safe to

read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, as

the Founders established the foundation and the core values on which the Constitution

was to operate. Therefore, It should be clear that the Constitution must never be

interpreted apart from those values expressed in the Declaration.

 1.2. The American Dream

America is also known as the Melting Pot. As a matter of

fact, it is perhaps the only State where you can find people

of all nationality. Everyone brings with him an important

history and can tell you about the positive or negative

events involving his ancestors. So you could hear about

exiled people or political refugees, emigrants, adventurers

and very often of African slaves and if you are lucky you

could also find yourself talking to one of the few

descendants of a tribe of American natives. This mixture of

different races, cultures and religions shaped the New

World.

The growth of the American mind was deeply influenced by the idea that man’s effort

was the only way to achieve the success and also by the

ideals of reason, faith in human progress,

cosmopolitanism and philanthropy typical of the

Enlightenment, the movement born in Western Europe

and that exactly in the years of the issue of the

Declaration and of the following Constitution reached

also North America. All these beliefs concurred to the

creation of the well known American Dream. The

American Dream is a national philosophy of the United

States of America in which democratic ideals are

supposed to be a guarantee of prosperity for its people. In

the American Dream, first coined by the American writer

2 www.us_constitution.org 6

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and historian James Truslow Adams in 1931 in his book “Epic of America”, citizens

of every status feel that they can achieve a "better, richer, and happier life”.

<< The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and

richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or

achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of

social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest

stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they

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are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.>>

The meaning of the "American Dream" has changed over the history. While in the past

centuries it represented the availability of land and the continuing American

expansion, the ethos today simply indicates the ability, through participation in society

and culture of the United States, to bring prosperity to oneself.

the United States, unlike most other nations, defines itself not on religion, language,

geography or shared history, but on a set of ideals expressed in the Declaration of

Independence and consolidated in the Constitution. At the center of these ideals lies

the idea of the American Dream, a concept that has proven to be incredibly elastic and

durable for centuries and across racial, religious, historical and cultural difference.

 1.3: “The pursuit of Happiness” a 2006 movie by

Gabriele Muccino

Main Characters:

 Will Smith as Chris Gardner

 Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner Jr.

 Thandie Newton as Linda Gardner

Plot:

In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman Chris Gardner invests the family funds

in Osteo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice as expensive as an x-ray

device. This machine financially shatters the family, bringing troubles to his

The Epic of America

3 (1931). Simon Publications 2001 paperback: ISBN 1-931541-33-7 7

La Ricerca della Felicità:

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relationship with his wife Linda, who leaves him and moves to New York where she

has taken a job in a pizza parlor. Their son Christopher stays with Chris because he and

his wife both know that he will be able to take better care of him.

Without money or a wife, but loyal to his son, Chris sees a chance to concur for a

stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, offering a more promising career at the

end of a six-month unpaid training period. During that period, Chris goes through a lot

of adversity personally and professionally. When he thinks he is "stable," he finds

that he has lost $600 when the government takes the last bit of money in his bank

account for taxes.

He finds himself homeless because he can't pay his rent. Therefore, he is forced to stay

in a bathroom at a train station and must scramble from work every day to the Glide

Memorial United Methodist Church, which offers refuge to the homeless. He must

leave work every day so that he is there with his son by 5 in the evening, in order to be

assured of a place to sleep.

He is seen carrying his suitcase to work because he doesn't have a home. At work,

there are nineteen other candidates for the one position. One day, he is called into an

office and in it were the heads of Dean Witter. They tell him that he has been an

excellent apprentice and that tomorrow will be his first day as a broker. Chris

struggles to hold back tears. Outside he begins to cry as the busy people of San

Francisco walk past him; he feels realized and as he’s very happy and proud of

himself… he looks at the world around him and discovers that it has another light: the

light of hope.

His first thinking is to share this happiness with the only person who believes in him:

his son Christopher. So he rushes to his son's

daycare, hugging him and knowing that

everything is going to be all right. After all the

efforts and the pain Chris Gardner feels he has

realized his dream: to find a stable job to ensure a

better life to his family. The final scene shows

Chris walking with his son down a street. His son

is telling him a joke, when a man in a suit walks

past. Chris looks back as the man continues on.

The man in the suit is none other than the real

Chris Gardner. 8

La Ricerca della Felicità:

dalla Dichiarazione d’Indipendenza Americana alla Movida madrilena

REMARKS: This is one of the best and deepest movies I’ve ever seen. What really

strikes me is the fact that it is based on a true story and that now Chris Gardner

(February 9, 1954 Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a successful and rich man, founder of

his own stockbrokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co. We know about his story because

on May 2006 he published his book of memories with the title “the Pursuit of

happiness”. Some months after, precisely in December, G. Muccino and W. Smith

were already working at the homonym movie.

Maybe in that years of homelessness and desperation Chris often thought about the

words of T. Jefferson, as we can see in the movie, when he wrote that the happiness

had to be pursued , but at the same time, as many others before him in the US- history

did, he worked hard and believed in his capacity till the end, when his effort, his

perseverance and his commitment have been

rewarded.

In my opinion his life is the real proof that the

American Dream is still possible and that like

Chris did, many other people have found their

Happiness in the USA, because there they have

had the possibility to get involved and to let the

world know what they were capable to do if

they were given the “instruments” and the

opportunity to show their talent.

This is what happened in the 1980s, but also today, in 2010, we can see that the

American dream is still possible… The greatest example is the figure of Barack

Hussein Obama, the FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

OF AMERICA elected in 2008; he is of humble origins

and knows how poor and unjust life can be when you

belong to the difficult, violent and poor suburban black

society that still has a life of hardship. Therefore, he’s

trying to change the situation through important reforms

that, if will enter into force, will mark radically the

course of the history. 9

La Ricerca della Felicità:

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CAPITOLO II: Art Nouveau nell’ Epoca dell’ottimismo

 2.1 : Contesto storico: Belle époque

La seconda rivoluzione industriale(1830-90) aveva portato in Europa innovazioni

dovute all’impiego di materiali quali acciaio e carbone, non solo nel campo specifico

della produzione industriale (che sicuramente aveva aperto la strada allo sviluppo dei

trasporti ferroviari ed all’impiego dell’elettricità), ma anche nel settore artistico ( si

ricordi a questo proposito la costruzione della Tour Eiffel che rappresentò, proprio in

quegli anni, la massima espressione dell’impiego di un materiale industriale nel campo

architettonico); si crearono, perciò, i presupposti per un

diffuso benessere ed una relativa quanto mai apparente

stabilità politica per una società che si sarebbe

identificata in un periodo ben preciso, compreso tra la

fine dell’Ottocento ed i primi dieci anni del Novecento,

che fu chiamato “Belle époque” e che investì tutti i

maggiori centri europei.

Contribuirono all’innovazione tecnologica e,

conseguentemente, sociale: l'automobile, l'applicazione

del motore elettrico ai treni che permise di costruire le

prime metropolitane; in Francia nacque il

cinematografo dei fratelli Lumière; due costruttori di biciclette, i fratelli Wright

crearono il primo aereo, era il 1903. Le applicazioni della radiotelegrafia di Marconi

portarono in breve alla costruzione della Prima Radio (1906). Il 31 maggio 1911 dai

cantieri navali di Belfast venne fuori la più grande nave del Mondo, il transatlantico

Titanic. La manifestazione più

concreta di questo periodo

fu certamente la metropoli.

Protagoniste indiscusse

furono le capitali europee,

Londra, Vienna, Milano e

Torino ma soprattutto

Parigi, capitale del bel

mondo, con i suoi Café

chantant e le ragazze in calze nere che danzavano il Can Can. La città ha un fascino

irresistibile con quelle sue luci sfavillanti e le sue dame all’ultima moda che si

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accompagnano al braccio di uomini in frac, tra il brulichio dei boulevard pieni di gente

e le prime corse in automobile. Fu proprio questo il periodo di

maggiore proliferazione di

iniziative artistiche e culturali

che coinvolsero soprattutto

esponenti della media borghesia

e dei ceti urbani più benestanti.

Tuttavia, bisogna sottolineare

che il mito di questa bella epoca

non fu uguale per tutti, anzi c’è

da dire che le diverse classi

sociali vissero questi anni con aspettative diverse. Miseria e povertà si affiancavano al

lusso e al divertimento.

Le rotative dei giornali sfornavano decine di riviste a colori e

quotidiani. La spinta a sapere, a informarsi, a conoscere

faceva sì che al mattino alle 8 le edizioni fossero già esaurite:

si faceva a pugni davanti all'edicola. Negli ambienti della

“bella epoca” arieggiava una leggerezza, una puerilità e una

fede nel progresso che si tradussero spesso in frivoli incontri

tra borghesucci e donne di facili costumi all’interno di

piacevoli luoghi quali Cabaret,

Caffè e Teatri. Tipiche attività di

questa società superficiale erano

le escursioni al parco, le

promenade e i rendez-vous, le sfilate di moda, le gite al

lago o al mare, la vita notturna, i veglioni, i casinò, le

passeggiate a cavallo, i riti mondani, le galanterie ma anche

i vizi e gli eccessi che mascheravano il malessere politico

che serpeggiava tra i vari Imperi ed i neo-Stati Nazionali

che di lì a poco avrebbero abbattuto quella società che si

era illusa o si era imposta di cercare e trovare la felicità ad

ogni costo, quasi fosse un obbligo finalizzato a raggiungere