(Im)politeness Strategies in Workplace Interviews –A Case Study of Characterization in The Pursuit of Happyness

Abstract

The Pursuit of Happyness is a famous movie directed in 2006 about the life struggle of Chris Gardner. This paper would analyse an excerpt of The Pursuit of Happyness to explore how (im)politeness characterizes Chris Gardner with Brown and Levinson’s politeness model and Culpeper’s impoliteness model. The excerpt is the scene when Chris has just left the prison to attend the interview for a broker internship. This paper argues that impoliteness reflects Chris’s underprivileged background while the use of politeness characterizes honesty, respect, confidence, humor, and wit. Despite his inherent rudeness stemming from his attire, his lacklustre educational background, and his limited stock market expertise, Chris managed to project a positive image and win the interviewers over with well-executed politeness strategies. The well execution of politeness strategies allows one to gain favours from people of higher status without compromising one's morality. Although politeness theories are originated for real-life encounter in the Anglo-American world, they also play a vital role in characterisation in western popular culture. This paper aims to complement existing literature on the implementation of (im)politeness theories in digital discourse. Future research can focus on macro-analysis across multiple discourses, cross-cultural differences in characterisation, and discourse analysis with new politeness models.