This paper will choose two excellent American films as the research subject, both of which have received very high evaluations and comments。 And this paper starts from the definition of inpidualism, the development of inpidualism and the inpidualism in the United States。 In the meanwhile, through the analysis of all sorts of scenarios in these two movies it can get a conclusion that is about the showing forms of the inpidualism in all sorts of aspects。 And it also can let readers carry some points which have a thorough understanding of American inpidualism with the most direct and obvious forms and examples to improve our ability of cross-cultural communication。论文网

This paper consists of five chapters:

Chapter One is a brief introduction to this paper, and attempts to make a clear statement about this topic for discussion。

Chapter Two gives a brief introduction of inpidualism and refers to some specific parts of inpidualism in the Unit States and also offers readers the introductions of these two movies: The Shawshank Redemption and The Pursuit of Happyness。

Chapter Three analyzes the specific embodiment of American inpidualism with some specific scenes in the two movies which were talked above。 And there have three specific embodiment in this part: freedom, independent thinking and self-reliance and the pursuit of dreams。

In Chapter Four, this paper points out the influences of American inpidualism on three characters in the two movies, and they are Andy, Red and Chris。 Andy and Red are the characters in The Shawshank Redemption and Chris in The Pursuit of Happyness。 Through this part, the influences of inpidualism in Americans have showed to readers directly。

In the last chapter, a general conclusion is drawn。 Through all of the analysis in this paper above, it has explored some influences in American society。 For the Unite States, inpidualism has always been an indispensable role in its history。

II。 Inpidualism and the Two Movies

2。1 Inpidualism

    The explanation of inpidualism in The Concise Encyclopaedia Britannica is that it is a political and social philosophy, which attaches great importance to the freedom of  inpidual widely stressing on self-control with the nonconformity against external constraints。 As a philosophy, inpidualism contains a value system, a theory of human nature, and a kind of general attitude towards certain political, economic, social and religious practices。 According to these sentences, as the attitude, inclination and faith of a personality to participate in social life, inpidualism has the inevitability of its historical performance。 Put it bluntly, in the process of the western society’s civilization, inpidualism, as a way of life and a view of the world, constitutes the basic mode of the Westerners’ grasp, the relationship between human and the world and the state of the meanings of integrity and universality。 And according to Tocqueville, a famous historian and sociologist, he said that: Firstly, inpidualism, as an aim of values, emphasizes on oneself is the aim of one’s words and behaviors。 “Self” has the most important value and the society is only the method to realize “self”。 Secondly, as a thought of political democracy, inpidualism opposes any intervention from authority, nation, collective or inpiduals。 It puts high value on the slogan of “free government” which leads to the spread of anarchism。 Thirdly, as a thought of economy and possession system, inpidualism advocates sustaining private system of possessions。 (Tocqueville 198) Specifically, the penetration of inpidualism in western society in all aspects of life can be summed up as a rough outline for the contents of the performance in the philosophy of humanism, political democracy, economic liberalism and cultural requirements of self-consciousness level。 

2。2 Inpidualism in the United States 《肖申克的救赎》和《当幸福来敲门》中美国人的个人主义(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_90993.html