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1.3 Previous studies on the two films
As two classical, popular and excellent American films, The Shawshank Redemption and The Pursuit of Happyness have aroused much interest in scholars with different cultural background and as a result studies from different perspectives, such as theology, representation, comparison, imagery thinking, gothic conflict, relevance theory and so on are carried out.
In the essay “Deep thinking on humanity: From The Shawshank Redemption”, Chinese author Yu Zhixin analyzes the embodiment of humanity in this film. He comments that the film reflects the lack of the humanity in modern society. Besides, the name of this film is with symbolic meaning. “Shawshank” symbolizes darkness and evil while the word “redemption” symbolizes the practice of Christian thought. Andy persists in his own kind humanity and finally gets freed and reborn instead of waiting for the redemption from the god. (Yu Zhixin, 2008)
In the essay Brief Talk on American Cultural Values: From The Pursuit of Happiness, Chinese author Bai Jiao comments that this film reflects the hardworking and struggle process of some ordinary people in American society. It presents the audience the value of America, the core of which is inpidualism. (Bai Jiao, 2013)
Yu Xing Xing considers in the essay View on western cultural values: From The Pursuit of Happyness, that film can reflect culture in a special way, so it is a window through which people manage to realize the cultural values of a country and a nation. The Pursuit of Happyness is a typical inspirational movie in which the protagonist Chris persists in pursuing a happy life with an optimistic attitude when he faces bankrupty, unemployment, homelessness, porce and other crucial situations. Whatever in him that supports him and drives him to persist through hardships and strive for the better is in the belief of the American.
2 American Value of Inpidualism
Among all the American values, Inpidualism is undoubted an important one. In the following two paragraphs, the definition and origin of Inpidualism will be discussed in detail.
2.1 The Origin of Inpidualism
Inpidualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the inpidual. Inpidualists promote the exercise of one’s goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the inpidual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one’s own interests by society or institutions such as the government. Liberalism, existentialism and anarchism are examples of movements that take the human inpidual as a central unit of analysis. Inpidualism thus involves “the right of the inpidual to freedom and self-realization”. It has also been used as a term denoting “the quality of being an inpidual; It is also associated with artistic and bohemian interests and lifestyles where there is a tendency towards self-creation and experimentation as opposed to tradition or popular mass opinions and behaviors with humanist philosophical positions and ethics.[ ]
2.2 Inpidualism from past to present
When it comes to the Inpidualism in America, the origin can be traced back to the beginning years of its history, when early settles came to the North American continent looking for better life and shaking off the control of European feudal tradition and the oppression from all kinds of powerful classes. It seems that elements of anti-oppression and searching for freedom should be the American people’s character. This is the original demonstration of American Inpidualism. Concerning this, what American people are always proud of is the Declaration of Independence: “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The Declaration of Independence made the rights and potential of the inpidual the cornerstone of American Values. (Mei Yiren, 103) Value of inpidualism is the core of American culture and is blood in American spirit. In the 1740s, famous French politician and thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville first used “inpidualism” to overview the core values of America in his book Democracy in America. On the basis of theory of inpidualism introduced by Tocquevilla and other famous western thinkers, it is not hard to see that inpidualism is not only the mainstream of American values, but also a system of values.