Manohla Dargis Called the Movie the Pursuit of Happyness "A

question 55

Multiple Choice

Manohla Dargis called the movie The Pursuit of Happyness "a fairy tale in realist drag . . . the kind of entertainment that goes down smoothly until it gets stuck in your craw. . . . It's the same old bootstraps story, an American dream artfully told, skillfully sold. How you respond to this man's moving story may depend on whether you find Mr. Smith's and his son's performances so overwhelmingly winning that you buy the idea that poverty is a function of bad luck and bad choices, and success the result of heroic toil and dreams." What idea is being expressed here?

• A) that the American dream is an ideology
• B) that America is a largely class-free society
• C) that poverty is absolute, not relative
• D) that most Americans will inherit their parents' class status
• E) Paul Fussell's living room scale

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Definitions:

Generalization

The process of applying the knowledge gained from specific instances to broader situations or populations.

Unconditioned Stimulus

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a reflexive response without prior learning.

Unconditioned Response

is an automatic, natural reaction to a stimulus that occurs without the need for prior learning or conditioning.

Conditioned Stimulus

A previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with an unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response.