Abstract:As a multiracial and multicultural country, America is often obsessed by its complex and profound racial and ethnic problems in its long history. However, under the concept of American contemporary multi-culture, the racial issues no longer seem sharp and the differences of social status between each race also seemingly to be masked. The paper attempts to analyze the role of main American races in the social culture from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness and also to bring some enlightenment for cross-cultural research.

The movie The Pursuit of Happyness tells the story of a black American who makes efforts continuously to pursue happiness and finally achieves the success. The characters in the movie involve with the main racial people including the black, the white and the yellow race. This paper will start with the definition of race and take the American racial issues as the breakthrough point. It will analyze the different racial roles which represent the white, the yellow and the black race in the movie based on related research of American racial relations both at home and abroad. By observing the utterances, plot and backgrounds of the movie, the paper will focus on the status of the three main American races, the present state of their relations and their respective efforts with self-position, and give related explanations according to the history. The study will help people further understand the racial culture and racial relations of American society and probably inspire people who are going to immigrate to America, and enable people of different races to get better adapted to the multicultural society of America.

Keywords: race; The Pursuit of Happyness; racial role

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Literature Review-3

2.1 Definition and Classification of Race-3

2.1.1 Definition of Race-3

2.1.2 The Classification of Race-3

2.2 Studies on American Racial Issues-4

2.2.1 An Overview of American Racial Issue-4

2.2.2 Studies on American Racial Issue-5

2.3 A Brief Introduction of the Movie and Previous Studies-6

Chapter 3 Analysis of Different Racial Roles in the Movie-7

3.1 Social Status of Each Role-7

3.1.1 A struggling class: the blacks-7

3.1.2 Successful upper-class: the whites-8

3.1.3 Confused Asians: the yellow race-10

3.2 Racial Relations-10

3.3 Self Positioning of Each Race-12

Chapter 4 Evaluation and Conclusion-15

References-17

Acknowledgements-19