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<p>The way that the film enmeshes happiness and economic success is typical of the ideological structure called the 'American dream.'</p>

<p>Generally, class is a category that is easily overlooked. Notably, despite its focus on money and on getting a job, the film stills comes off as _not_ wanting to talk about class, which is reflective of many popular US-American texts, where class is there but not really engaged with.</p>

<p>This is in line with Bennett and Royle's comments on the hero usually being the person we identify with. ### This point is picked up in a sample essay on the movie The Pursuit of Happyness</p>

<p>This use of a more vernacular language marks Linda as both more working-class and 'more black,' speaking to the intersectionality of these categories.</p>

<p>Secretaries, along with teachers and nurses, are also one of the stereotypically female jobs that female characters have had in (American) literature.</p>

<p>Of course, the picture Linda paints in this scene goes against the stereotypical division of gender in the family, which would usually have the husband "pulling double shifts" as the provider of the family. This evocation works to further undermine Chris's masculinity, instead positing Linda, at least in terms of economic success, as the stereotypically more 'masculine' part of their relationship. </p>

<p>Note that 'real' is set in single quotation marks here to denote the author's recognition that there is no such thing as a 'real man,' a differentiation between real and unreal, true and false, supposedly based on authenticity, but that, instead, masculinity is a constructed, discursive concept.</p>