Gary Shemano

Gary Shemano:

Gary Shemano is discribed as a „skinny little mieddel-aged guy“ (p. 269 l. 1-2) who is looking and talking „like a white Sammy Davis Jr.“ (p. 269 l. 22).

He is a Jew and seems to be a decent and motivated guy.

Gary works as „the managing gerneral partner for Bear Stearns in San Francisco“ (p.269 l. 23-24), so his job is it to look for talented stock brokers which works in other firms and are good enough to work for „Bear Stearns“ and hire them if it`s possible.

He observes Chris Gardner and decides that he is very talented, so he gives him the possibility and realize his Amarican Dream.

Character file: Andy Cooper:

Andy Cooper:

 

 

Andy Cooper is a profit oriented business man and one of the top producers at “the brokerage

firm in which Chris is hired as a trainee”. He is selling tax shelters before the tax laws change

in this area.He is an idol in his firm , an guy other guys look up to.

This is why Chris Gardner hooks up with him and wants to learn from this man.

When Andy Cooper sees how disciplinated Chris is working at the phone he is giving him the

chance to arrange the meetings with prospective investors. Trough this it is possible to see he

is not a racist.

Donald Turners brother is a friend of Andy.

Later on Chris is dissociating oneself from Andy , he wants to do his own thing and not to

work for Cooper anymore.

 

written by Isabell Pfeiffer

Chris Gardner

Chris Gardner

 

Chris Gardner is the author and the main-character and his telling based on a true story. He was born in a poor family in February 9, 1954 in Milwaukie.

 

First he lived with his mother and his stepfather. He does not know his real father. Chris had a bad childhood, because his stepfather does not treat him very well.

 

With eight years he moves to Willie one of his three uncles, because his mother must go to prison. His three uncles Willie, Henry and Archie help Chris very much to forget his unlovely childhood.

 

With 18 years Chris goes to the Navy. After the Navy he gets married and a son with her wife. After a while the wife of Chris leaves him and the son.

 

After this passage in his life he becomes homeless with his son. But he never gave up his life. Because of his son he tried to follow his dream to become stockbroker. At one time he hired in a stock company. At the end of the story he started his own company and became very successful and rich.

 

Chris Gardner typified a very strong character. He is right down on the bottom; he is homeless and can’t carry for him and his son, but he never give up. He fights for his dream and wants his son to have a better future. So Chris Gardner could be a good example for a lot of other people, which want to get from rags to riches.

 

For motivate other people he published his life story and raise hope.

Character file: Gary Abraham

Gary Abraham is one of Dean Witter’s top producers at the stockbroker market from Las Vegas, Nevada who gives advice and help to Chris and other new stockbrokers.

Gary is described as a very smart man who never has to push people to buy something from him but with whompeople want to work with.

Chris gets to know him at work when Gary visits San Francisco to help newer stockbrokers at the company to build their own business. For Chris he turns out to be a mentor who has always time for Chris, being a role model at the same time.

Gary started his professional career by going from house to house asking for investors. His method of selling that he teaches to Chris, is to find out what the customer wants to buy and showing him similar products to what he already owns rather than telling the people what they should buy.

All in all he helps Chris to find out how to use his strengths and shows him new ways and strategies for work to become a successful stockbroker.

Character file : Bessie

Ms Bessie, like Chris calls his aunt, is Freddie´s and Baby´s sister.

She is the owner of the ´Big House´ at Eight and Wright and the owner of her beauty salon ´Bessie´s Hair Factory´.
Bessie has a lot of children. Her thirteen-year-old son Terry is on his way to be a rowdy. Moreover he is an illegitimate child because Bessie hasn´t married his father Paul Crawford.
Chris likes her because she is nice to him and generous to the whole family.

All in all Bessie is a lovable and an industrious woman.

Character file: Baby – Freddie’s sister

Baby is the sister of Freddie Triplett and Bessie.  Both, Baby and Bessie, were the only good thingin connection to Freddie. They always cared about Chris and his sister’s.

Sometimes Chris met Baby or he stayed there with his sister’s. In addition Baby did not like the wayFreddie treated Chris and his siplings. That was the reason why she tried to be as friendly as possible to Chris. She said nice things and gave them some money if she could.

Baby remembered Chris to his Momma because she was always accessible for him.She also gives Chris advices how to deal with Freddie’s behavior and she warns Chris, because he talked about killing Freddie. Finaly, she said that Freddie would take his gun and kill Chris if he notices something about Chris plan.

All in all, Baby always gives some good advices and in some place she replaced Chris mom.

Samuel Salter

Characterization

Samuel Salter, also just called Sam, is a really kind hearted man. He is nicely dressed, has warmth and a southern gentlemen’s charm. Moreover he works as a high school teacher.

Samuel is Ophelia’s real father; Ophelia’s mother is Bettye Jean Gardner. Sam fell in love with her while he was married with his wife. Later the relationship was broken. Sam changed his mind and left Bettye as she became pregnant.

He ended up with his family in Milwaukee. Moreover Sam does not live with Ophelia together because she lives with her mother, Bettye; but he often comes for a visit. Whenever he appears there, he greets everybody in his nice and special charming way. He always brings for Ophelia and her brothers and sisters small presents, for example some money to make the children happy and to enable them to buy something for themselves.

His pleasant and kind character is highlighted by his good handling of the kids. For example he treats Chris, Ophelia’s half-brother, like his own son. Sam recommended him for his good work at school and he accepted that Chris calls him Daddy too. He makes children happy and gives them the feeling that they are loved and respected.

Because of all the visits he gets to know Freddie Triplett, the new man of Bettye and the stepfather of Ophelia and her brothers and sisters. They turned out to be good friends and became special drinking buddies.

Compared with Freddie he is completely the opposite. He is educated and is able to read and to write; Freddie is not. Also he talks like a lawyer and in contrast to him Freddie uses lots of swearwords and street language. So they are very different and they have nothing in common except that they have both children by Bettye Jean Gardner.

All in all he is a really friendly person, a good father of Ophelia, a good surrogate father of Chris and a nice drinking buddy of Freddie.

Christopher Paul Gardner

 

Chris Gardner himself is the main character of the book „The Pursuit of Happyness“ and he is an example to live your dreams. The author raised up from the rags to riches and it is the perfect example of the American Dream.

He was born in February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee and lived with his mother Bettye Jean Gardner and his stepfather Freddie Triplett.

He had not a successful and lovely childhood, because he had never had a real father. His stepfather was a kind of brutal and aggressive man, who drunk all the time. He was a bad role model to the children. He always wanted to have a real father and Freddie could never be that for him. He thought that he was the only one who had no dad and his plans for the future were definitely to be a good daddy for his children, not like Freddie.

One day, his mother tried to kill his stepfather. For that she had to go to prison for a while and Chis, his older sister Ophelia and the other two younger sisters Sharon and Kimberly were placed in foster care. In fact his childhood was not simple.

 

Now Chris Gardner is an American stock broker and entrepreneur, who grew up under very difficult social and familiar conditions. Temporarily he was forced to live in a nursing home while his mother was in prison. As an adult he joined the US navy, after that he worked with little success as a salesman for medical devices.

In the beginning of the early eighties he became father of a son and was determined to find a career that he would find both fulfilling and lucrative. Out of curiosity one day in San Francisco he spoke to a man with a red Ferrari wanting to know how he got so successful. It turned out that man, named Bob Bridges, was a stock broker, who then offered him a chance to start working in the financial business. In the beginning he was very poorly paid, being forced to spend some nights with his little son in a refugee for homeless people. After his training course he became a broker himself and founded his own company, Gardener Rich. Only a few years later he became a millionaire, too.

Chris Gardner’s aim, by speaking engagements and media projects, is to help others to achieve their full potentials. Gardner also published his autobiography, particularly to highlight the problems he has experienced and show they do not have to define you. Therefore he supports many charity organizations in order to improve the equality of social conditions.

-Eva-

Lieutenant Commander Charlotte Gannon

Christopher Gardner had to work with Lieutenant Commander Charlotte Gannon, when he was in CampLeujeune. She comes from the Massachusetts   GeneralHospital and Chris really likes to work with her. He describes her as an authoritarian person wearing “her white uniform with her navy cap”, who runs her ward “with excellence, and compassion.”(p.130)

After a while Gannon really likes Chris because he was that much focused on his work. That is why he became on of her favorite people. This can also be observed when Chris went AWOL twice and Charlotte Gannon helped him and saved him before he got punished. She just said to him “Just do your job and I will forget about it”, so she really likes Chris and thinks he is important for her work. (p.135)

Chris also liked to work with Commander Gannon. He explained that at the begging of his description of his time in the hospital at CampLejeune when he says: “I pulled a lucky card and was assigned to work with Lieutenant Commander Charlotte Gannon, an absolute jewel”. (p.130)

Characterisation: Belinda

Belinda is a character presented in the novel “The Pursuit of Happyness”, written by Chris Gardner. She is introduced to the reader at the end of the first part of the book, but still she plays a decisive role. Belinda and her family live in the City of Milwaukee in the United States and there she visits the high school. She is about 17 years old and has African ancestors. Furthermore, she is a colored girl, with big lips and feminine curves. She is characterized by her charming smile and her African hairstyle. That makes her a real beauty.

Belinda is a smart girl and because of that she earns a lot of respect from other people. She is very mature despite her young age, and Chris Gardner isn‘t the only one who‘s impressed by that. She meets Chris in Milwaukee and they quickly realize that they are soul mates. They run a serious relationship based on many similarities, such as reading. They have fun with philosophical discussions and the exchange of various topics. Belinda expands Chris‘ knowledge about Africa and encourages him to intensive reading. Chris admires this intelligence and alertness of his girl, but he also thinks that she‘s very sexually attractive .

The love between them is profound and Belinda is something like a surrogate family for Chris. Their separation isn‘t a result of a failed love, but of the immaturity of Chris. Belinda had to cope with the death of a friend , but Chris couldn‘t be there for her. Their relationship is over now, but however it was a great time.

Even though Belinda only plays a minor role in the novel, she‘s important for Chris, because she was his second girlfriend.