The Pursuit of Happyness

When Bettye Jean is released from prison, she is reunited with her children, including Ophelia, who had her baby, DeShanna, in the detention center. How this pregnancy occurred is not discussed, or perhaps even known, by Gardner. As Freddie continues his pattern of leaving and then coming back and being violent, Gardner wonders how much agency his mother has and why none of his uncles will help. Garner continually harbors rage towards Freddie, feeling “like a volcano” ready to erupt (80). Ophelia, who is not able to endure the violence, leaves the house with her baby. There is the sense that she and Gardner grow more distant, when they had once been very close.

Although money is tight, Bettye Jean finds the funds to give Gardner the trumpet lessons that he hopes will make him a future Miles Davis. Gardner practices hard, but he also joins a gang and is often drawn into confrontation. When he gets sent to jail for shoplifting, it is Bettye Jean’s “disappointed expression” that corrects him. (85) She reveals that all the fights she has with Freddie, including the violent ones, are about Gardner, and warns him to behave himself.

 Now a teenager, Gardner reaches the “dawn of (his) consciousness as a person of color” and experiences firsthand that the world “isn’t all black” (88).