Outline

Time:

The story takes place in 1981.

故事发生在1981年。

Places:

San Francisco, USA

美国旧金山

Beginning:

Chris Gardner rushes about persuading doctors to buy his medical instrument.

克里斯·加德纳忙于到处推销说服医生们购买他的医疗器械。

Development:

Chris Gardner goes through a lot of hardship personally and professionally.

克里斯经历了很多个人和职业上的困难。

Ending:

Chris Gardner is told that the job as a broker will be his.

克里斯·加德纳被告知，他将获得经纪人的工作。

In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invests the family savings in Osteo Nationalbone-density scanners, an apparatus twice as expensive as an x-ray machine but with a slightly clearer image. Chris Gardner rushes about persuading doctors to buy his medical instrument. He works hard, but fails to make his family live a better life. This white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to his relationship with his wife Linda, who cannot endure the pressure of supporting the whole family and left him, leaving with him their 5-year-old son, Christopher, because he and his wife both know that he will be able to take better care of him. 

Without any money or a wife, but committed to his son, Chris sees a chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, offering a more promising career at the end of a six-month unpaid training period. During that period, Chris goes through a lot of hardship personally and professionally. When he thinks he is"stable," he finds that he has lost $600 when the government takes the last bit of money in his bank account for taxes. He is rendered homeless because he can't pay his rent. He is forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a train station, and must scramble from work every day to the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which offers shelter to the homeless. He must leave work early every day so that he is there by 5:00 in the evening along with his son so that he may be assured of a place to sleep. He is seen carrying his suitcase to work because he doesn't have a home. At work, there are several other candidates for the one position. Chris has to continue selling bone-density scanners while concurrently taking on this unpaid internship as a stockbroker,with slim chances for advancement to a paid position. Before he can receive pay, he needs to outshine the competition through 6 months of training, and to sell his devices to stay afloat.

One day, he is called into an office and in it were the heads of Dean Witter. Chris thinks that he is about to be told the job will not be his. Then they tell him that he has been an excellent trainee and that tomorrow he will have to wear his shirt and tie again as it will be his first day as a broker. Chris struggles to hold back tears. Outside he begins to cry as the busy people of San Francisco walk past him. He rushes to his son's daycare, hugging him and knowing that after everything he and his son had been through things would be all right.

The final scene shows Chris walking with his son down a street. His son is telling him a joke, when a wealthy businessman in a suit walks past. Chris looks back as the man continues on. The man in the suit is none other than the real Chris Gardner.

★扩展

更多详情解析请参见推荐论文试析《当幸福来敲门》中的中美文化差异.pdf(下载附件 179.34 KB)