Identity Conflicts - Research Paper Example

? Race, Gender, Clash of Civilizations, and Identity Conflicts and number 11 September Race, Gender, Clash of Civilizations, and Identity Conflicts In the film “Pleasantville” (1998) by Garry Ross, David and Jennifer, two teenagers who are also siblings, are transported into a town called Pleasantville. It is a black-and-white suburban community that celebrates traditional values and practices. For this film, Ross uses black-and-white color and mixed it with increasingly vibrant colors to reinforce the development of the plot. On the one hand, as a perfect world, the world is captured in black and white and framing focused on orderliness and peace. On the other hand, the film shows the underlying individual and social issues of this utopia, by emphasizing on color, editing, lighting, and sound to express these issues. This film explores the conflicts and issues of race, gender, civilizations, and identities, using different lighting, shots, and cinematography techniques. The setting, acting, cinematography, lighting, editing, content, and sounds effectively combined to demonstrate the main argument of the story that people should also learn to accept the existence of different, even conflicting, identities and cultures, because in reality, people are not black or white, since they also have their own individual and cultural identities. The narrative structure of the film follows the three-act-structure, which stands for the “orderly” utopia that Pleasantville represents. It has a beginning, a middle part with the conflict, and ending with a resolution for the characters’ personal and social issues. The plot defies a genuine chronological order, since it is a time-travel kind of film. The characters go back to the past. Nevertheless, the plot progresses on a toward-the-future timeline as the story progresses. The setting is in Pleasantville, where the title suggests a “pleasantly perfect” environment, because the traditional values of the people seem to generate a sense of utopia. The film tackles several conflicts, particularly man versus man, man versus himself, and man versus society. In the conflict of man versus man, the non-colored people are discriminating the “colored” ones, which reflect racial discrimination. The colorizing effect of the movie is considered as a “racial metaphor” (Johnson). This conflict has been resolved when people realize the essence of accepting changes, especially when it concerns multiculturalism. Man versus himself is also a conflict in the film, such as when Mary Sue grapples with a new identity. She resolves this when she accepts the new her- the “self” who wants to study and know more about the world. The conflict of “man versus society” arises, because of the conflict between the traditional Pleasantville values and new, radical values. The people resolve this by also accepting the existence of a new, pluralistic world. The film uses several symbolisms to depict internal and social changes. One of the symbols of internal change is the use of the mirror. During the hearing of Bud and Bill’s graffiti, the mayor becomes colorized. Betty throws her facial powder mirror to Bud and the mayor “sees” that he also changed. He has felt anger, which is an unpleasant emotion. Another symbol is the burning tree. This tree burns after Betty reaches her first sexual climax. The tree stands for the tree of knowledge, because Betty learns about sex for the first time. For Pleasantville, sex is a sin and when Betty sexually gratifies herself, she partakes in this sin. When the tree burned, she achieves freedom from the norms and the will to pursue individual changes. The rain with bolts of lightning symbolizes social changes. The storm acts to clean away the Pleasantville’s superficiality. It is ironic that the rain is washing away the “purity” of Pleasantville, which is also its impurity. After the rain, the teenagers all turned into color; because they felt what it is like to be free and to experience something new. Irony is also present in the film. There is verbal irony, because the more that the mayor insists that he will not change; the more he changed. Situational irony also happens when Bud’s real mother expected for her life to turn around, but for her, it got worse instead. She expects a better life, but Bud reminds her that real life is not supposed to take shape into “anything.” He means that people should accept what happens, however different it may be from their expectations. Situational irony also takes place when Mary Sue decides to stay behind. At the beginning of the film, it is David who loves Pleasantville’s simplicity and idealism. It is quite ironic that the “slut” character turns around full circle and decides to become a “serious” brain slut instead. At the same time, it is David who leaves to make sure that the real world is turning around fine. The film also satirizes gender roles. In the bowling arena, after George complains about his missing wife and dinner, the mayor calls Roy to reveal something. The audience will think it is something quite serious, only to see a burnt shirt. Roy almost breaks down into tears. It is an exaggeration of how male expects women to behave and how disappointed they are when women behave in an opposite direction. Furthermore, gender is such a compelling issue in Pleasantville. People expect women to behave and act “certain ways” only. Mary Sue changes that when she popularizes sex in Lover’s Lane. She symbolizes the liberal woman who can change how people see themselves as sexual and sensual beings. The film helps the audience relate to the characters, because it depicts various gender, racial, and identity issues. “Pleasantville” is about the memory of the past, where gender roles are strongly defined. In this film, women ought to do household chores, clean houses, be there when their husbands arrive, cook, and to never say no to their husbands. When women started “thinking,” the noncolored people believe this to be a disgrace to their values and principles. In addition, memory in film can be used as a political power, where domination aims to “reprogram” people to certain ways of thinking and doing (Grainge 2). Pleasantville conditions people to think and act as “one.” Any difference will be castigated. The division between the colored and noncolored relates to racial discrimination, where the people hated those who are physically different. Bourdieu (1973) argued that cultural capital generates the boundary between high and lower social classes (Barnett and Allen 146). The lower classes in the film are the colored ones. The noncoloreds believe that they are the higher culture and class, while the coloreds are stigmatized as the lower culture and class. The noncoloreds fight for their share of social power and to have control of cultural capital development too. The film addresses universal truths, particularly the importance of tolerance to changes and plurality. Weber stressed that identity is not “coterminous” with culture (172). Culture creates a civilization: “A civilization is…the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species” (Weber 172). Culture follows the collective and not the individual identity per se. In Pleasantville, there is also a cultural identity that is homogenous, called pleasant oneness. It is called pleasant, because there must be no other emotion than pleasantness. There is no sorrow, passion, or rage in the village. Oneness is also significant to the Pleasantville culture and it displays traditions of inflexible gender roles. Everyone must have the same white fence- the depiction for the good old American dream of a perfect family and life. The sky is never dark, and so are their lives. Everything is black-and-white in its perfection. Conflict is absent, which creates an unnatural level of harmony and peace in the film. The film shows, however, that this utopia is false. It is false because it goes against the nature of people to be different. People should accept that they can change, as well as others too. The actors in the film are composed of veteran and new actors. The veteran character actors are William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, and J.T. Walsh. They are interpreter actors, because they interpret what the characters mean to the real world. For instance, William plays the role of a traditional husband, but who is more open to changes than J.T. Walsh. Joan Allen plays the role of Betty, who changes from within and prefers her new “self” to her old one. Jeff Daniels plays the role of a frustrated artist. J.T. Walsh is the stereotyped mayor, a person with authority and power. The new actors are the lead ones, Toby Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. They interpreted their roles well, because they adopted the thinking and behaviors of two different personalities: the real versus the Pleasantville ones. Still, it is evident that the veterans, especially William H. Macy and Joan Allen, are experts in method acting, because they exude their characters with their voices, eyes, gestures, and other forms of facial and bodily expressions. For instance, William delivers a perfect “hurt” husband narration in the bowling alley. He shows great dismay and sadness over the loss of his “ideal wife,” and subsequently, his loss of his “ideal life.” The director can also be congratulated for how he places actors to each other and helps them relate to their characters and scenes. In the bowling alley, for instance, Ross includes several people to depict the group reaction to a burnt shirt. These placements help the audience understand the range of emotions for similar-thinking people. Ross uses cinematography to depict the various inner and external changes in the film. For instance, the mise-en-scene of David and Jennifer shows that they have a comfortable life. They have material comforts and yet they are socially detached from each other. They are fighting over the remote control, because they had plans that they did not inform each other about. The lighting is at the back, which highlights the environment more than the characters. When Budd is jailed for civil disobedience, lighting is more on their backs also, as if to show the underlying tensions of their lives. The color of the film combines is at first colored, and then black-and-white. Afterwards, while Pleasantville people are experiencing changes, combinations of black-and-white and colored are used. This is the way that Ross wants to show the difference between the colored people and the non-colored. Most of the shots are also medium shots of people in conversation. The medium shots focus on the interaction between two characters, such as between Budd and Mary Sue and Betty and George. It shows them as equals, even when they feel sometimes inferior or superior to each other. A low angle shot is used to convey authority. The mayor in the bowling arena is shown in a low angle shot to express his traditional authority. Ross employed framing to explain how people see themselves and others and how they relate to other people too. An example is the frame of the new versus the old Pleasantville. The old Pleasantville has a “construed” feeling, while the new Pleasantville is more realistic, with people getting dirty and feeling different emotions. Ross also used objective camera to focus more on how the characters act and think and how different social and individual factors interrelate with each other. He used special effects only to depict the colorization of Pleasantville. Ross edited the shots by focusing on mise-en-scene and the discourses of the characters with themselves, other people, and their environment. For instance, when George tells Betty what he expects from her, Betty is included in the shot, with her back against the camera. She is “diminished” by this shot, while George is “magnified.” Ross used cuts for transitions to depict the sharp contrasts between two characters or among several characters. Most scenes employed continuity editing to show the narrative. The story has continuity in detailing the individual changes in important characters and how these changes impact their society. Discontinuity editing, nevertheless, is also used to jar people’s view, such as changing George to Bill in the ending. It sends a message of uncertainty on the man who Betty will choose. The rhythm is quite slow in the beginning in Pleasantville to establish the monotonous lives of the people. The editing and change of scenes hasten as Pleasantville “changes” increasingly. Ross employed diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The diegetic sounds are used mostly for Pleasantville before the changes in the people. They emphasize the natural sounds of the environment, or the “natural-ness” of Pleasantville. Non-diegetic sounds are more added, because of the impact of external changes on the people. Dialogue is an important part of Pleasantville’s traditions. After all, the people are supposed to be communicating with each other face-to-face. Music is used to reinforce changing moods. For instance, classical music that sounds sad and provocative plays over as the people destroy the soda shop. The music conveys a sense of anger and loss. A happier music plays in the end, which denotes success, because people have resolved their different kinds of conflict, by accepting the growing changes around and inside them. Ross shows a distinguished personality as a director, because his shots and editing, as well as sounds and lighting, have meaning on its own and together. For example, the burning of the books has ominous background music and the wide shot captures the chaos of a changing society. A rock-and-roll music also plays as the youth contemplates rebellion against the new “Pleasantville Code of Conduct.” Ross knows that rock-and-roll used to be seen as a “bad” influence on the youth, in the same way that Pleasantville demonizes “unpleasant” music and behavior. His point of view is, in addition, evident in the film, because he underlines how stupid it is for people to not embrace their nature. He is saying that Pleasantville is only a “mythic utopia” (Maio 89). Human nature is not static and the more it is controlled, the more it will express itself in alternative ways. Still, he does not impose on people what is good or bad. He does not say that sex is itself good. He does not promote anger and grief. Instead, he tells people that they should have free will to do and say what they want, as long as they do not show hate and anger without any reason or because of discrimination. This is shown in the ending when both Bill and George say that they do not know what will happen next. They are ready to try anything new, which opposes their once-rigidly-structured lives. Thus, Ross tells the message that people should decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. They should not allow society to always dictate the norms, when they, as individuals, can shape social norms and conduct. This movie addresses controversial societal or political issues. It deals with the race, gender, and cultural issues. Weber depicted a multicultural society, where people accept different forms of personalities (172). Huntington argued that a multicultural identity is better than a singular one, because it “provide[s] individuals with identities” and these identities offer personal and political security for people (Weber 172). There is personal security, because people can be secure to establish new identities, without overlooking their cultures. There is also political security, because the new society can accept the diverse individualities of the people and fewer conflicts can come up (Weber 172). Pleasantville is also transformed to a multicultural identity. Betty feels a deep-seated sadness. She feels incomplete despite the image of a happy family. When she explores her relationship with Bill Johnson and stops doing her traditional gendered role, she feels free to find herself. As she finds her identity, she colorizes. Her experience transects gender, cultural, and racial issues. George tells her that the newness will go away, and she determinedly says, with teary eyes, that she does not want it to go away. She wants her new identity and she wants to develop it even more. Pleasantville transforms from a single culture to a multicultural society, when people learn to accept social and individual changes as part of reality and human nature. The movie also fits into the Western genre, because it deals with the power of the individual over society. Pleasantville promotes homogeneity of values and behaviors. It does not condone “differences,” physical or internal. This theme is highly Western, because individuality is a particular characteristic of Western societies. The film shows that the individual can change the collective, but only when individuals also unite to fight their own share of social legitimacy. The referential content of the film is that it has a reference to the real world, where conflicts arise because of differences among people. The explicit content of the film is that difference can happen anytime, even in utopian Pleasantville settings. The implicit content of the film is that people are not always ready to acknowledge and accept changes. It also shows that utopia is not always perfect. It might seem perfect but underlying social structures and norms reveal that it is not. A contextual analysis is more appropriate for the film, because it has to be understood from its realistic context. The film is not about fantasies; it is about how people are dealing with and how they should deal with changing realities and individualities. “Pleasantville” underscores that people should learn to accept the existence of different, even conflicting, identities and cultures, because in reality, people are not black or white, since they also have their own individual and cultural identities. People must be free to develop their identities apart from what society expects from them. Ross questions traditional ideals that reinforce tyrannical control. He asks people if it is truly “good” to have utopia without free will, or maybe it is better to have reality with all its bad and good sides. The film then defines the boundaries between reality and fantasy and between individuality and social conditioning. It tells people that utopia is not utopia without free will. People can remain good, even when they sometimes act badly, because they are only human beings. What is important is that they can stand again after they fall. The ideal is not in the ideal, but the ideal of recovering from the un-ideal. References Allen, Michael Patrick and Anne E. Lincoln Critical Discourse and the Cultural Consecration of American Films. Social Forces 82.3 (Mar. 2004): 871-893. EBSCO. Barnett, Lisa A. and Michael Patrick Allen. “Social Class, Cultural Repertoires, and Popular Culture: The Case of Film.” Sociological Forum 15.1 (Mar. 2000): 145-163. EBSCO. Grainge, Paul. Memory and Popular Film: Inside Popular Film. UK: Manchester University Press, 2003. Print. Johnson, Brian D. “Terminal happiness.” Maclean's 111.43 (26 Oct. 1998). EBSCO. Maio, Kathi. “The way it never was.”Fantasy & Science Fiction 96.3 (1999): 88-94. EBSCO. Pleasantville. Dir. and Writer. Gary Ross. Perf. Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, and J.T. Walsh. New Line Cinema, 1998. DVD. Weber, Cynthia. International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print. Read More