Critical Analysis of Pleasantville Film - Essay Example

Pleasantville Question The first character is Jennifer, who starts up the show as a shallow minded egoistic, fashionista who does not care about others but herself. Her intention was to shake things up in a suburb, but realized the importance and values of education and earned her color. We see Jennifer as manipulative as she goes out with a boy and seduces him to have sex. The boy does not know anything about sex and mistakes his erection for a disease. Jennifer, however, teaches him the ways of the world and ways to see things in color (Simon 67-8). Jennifer at the start wanted to change the livelihood of the people in Pleasantville as she saw no one could be happy wearing a sweater and a poodle skirt. She tries to convince David, who thinks it is okay to be the way they were. The family set-up does not go well with her as she finds it boring and sort of a routine. She feels lost and does not belong in the town where people follow same patterns day in day out and where it is forbidden to have their personality. Jennifer however adapts to the new lifestyle as she finds the attention from boys and becomes famous. She together with David helps the people of Pleasantville to have their way of thinking (Simon 67-8). The second character is David, who is a quiet, unpopular kid who many people in Pleasantville depended on. He is a loner who is glad to be in Pleasantville, which he thinks of as an escape place. He grows to have leadership characteristics and earns color when he punches out a thug who was attacking his mom. He is protective of his sister and many people in the suburb depend on him for guidance and protection. He is glad that he ends up with a family with values and home cooked meal at dinner. His primary aim for the town is to have some flexibility and to be able to adapt to the new ways. He empowers the people of Pleasantville to have their mindset (Simon 67-8). However, it does not go so well as not everyone is for empowerment. David helped in putting out fire from a tree in the suburb. Initially, had been no fire in Pleasantville, and all the firefighters ever did was rescue a cat stuck in a tree. David brought light and color to the firefighters as he helped them learn to put out a real fire. He is a romantic character when he becomes so happy that it rained for the first time in Pleasantville on the first date with Margaret. Margaret offers him an apple, and when it starts raining, David shields Margaret from the rain using his umbrella. Margaret is surprised by this action as they kiss under an umbrella (Simon 67-8). David grew from the introvert self that he was to a more jovial, romantic person who had leadership traits in Pleasantville. We see him as a good student as he learns how to be social and how to talk to people. He even defends his mom, which earns him color. Jennifer also grows a lot in the film and learn that it is not all about sex and having boys that makes her. She takes time before earning her color because she had not realized that she needed to have a different mindset of how life is not about sex only. David changes his boss way of thinking by letting him know that things do not have to be a routine all the time. He tries to show people of Pleasantville that change is not a bad thing as they viewed it (Simon 67-8). Question 2 One of the forms of stereotype in the film is a double standard.. In the 1950s setup, the women were supposed to stay indoors and prepare meals for the family as seen in David and Jennifers TV mom. Her work is to stay at home and take care of her family. The women were supposed to be perfect, look beautiful, and never worry about anything. They were supposed to be puppets controlled by their husbands who always went to work, and expected dinner when back home. They even discussed it in a meeting and cited it as unbelievable and an act that needed immediate change (Hull 45). The second thing the film touched on is the Biblical story. The American culture shows how it is not rooted in the bible, which is a big concern. The film used color to tackle several social issues and allude to the bible. At first, Pleasantville could be viewed as the Garden of Eden, a pure place with no sin. However, as the film developed and people changed, it reflected how the change to have color could be viewed as having sinned against the black and white people. A tree of evil that tricked Eve into eating fruit from it as is in the bible (Zack 1). As seen in Pleasantville, the eye opener of the people was reading books, which is good, and the discovery made to them by Jennifer, sex that they viewed as evil. As the kids discovered books in the library and sex, they changed from black and white to color. Jennifer’s mom is a housewife who is innocent and knows nothing about sex until Jennifer, who is portrayed as evil helps her discover it. Margaret giving David the apple is also biblical as the rain and the rainbow they saw resembled Noah and the ark story from the bible. It showed God’s disapproval of the people of Pleasantville (Zack 2). To kill a Mocking Bird: the film touched on social problems of the 1950s. The film was shot in the error when America had not embraced change and had not accepted people of color. The use of color to show changes in the filmed expressed the view of the director in regards to racism. The aim was to show that people of color should be accepted in the society. As people change from black and white to color, the people who do not change believes that the people of color are corrupt and evil. The mayor has a problem with the people of color and urges Pleasantville natives to have a town hall meeting over the matter. This is the same to an episode from the movie ‘To kill a Mocking bird’. The majority of the people by then had changed to people of color already. The meeting was held in the courtroom, and the black and white people segregated themselves from colored people by sitting at the bottom of the courtroom while the colored sat at the top (Hull 45). The mayor and the black and white citizens of Pleasantville create a code of conduct, which had eight rules. Rule no. 7 indicated that the only permissible color would be black, white, or gray. This proved that the people of color were evil. This resembled the battle against racism as in the 1950s where people of color were discriminated against (Hull 45). The stubbornness of the population in Pleasantville was a symbol of the stubbornness the whites had to accept change during that time. The people of color were prejudiced against for finding themselves and knowing who they were. They broke from the usual social routine in the town, which made them get looked down upon. This made Jennifers mom wear black and white makeup when going out so as not to be viewed as different (Hull 45). Third Reich – the setup in Pleasantville film depicted Hitlers regime. The dictatorship ruling is illustrated when the mayor of the town ordered all book to be burned and ordered a town hall meeting for the ‘true citizens of Pleasantville. The town was perfect until people started to change, and now the scenes were evil. The burning of the books in the library showed the Mayors wrong attitude. He tries to gain power using the divide and rule criteria. He turns the people of Pleasantville against each other by his rules (Hall 45). Question 3 The people of Pleasantville lead a perfect black and white life before David and Jennifer enter the town. Their lives are not having a personality and an essential routine. The lives of the people made it difficult to realize who they are and accept change. Jennifers mom was a housewife who kept to herself and did not know much about many things (Hull 45). This made it difficult for her to adapt after discovering herself with the help of Jennifer by wearing black and white makeup when going out. She was afraid of being judged for who she was. Personal repression of the people in Pleasantville led to a rise in Political oppression by the mayor of the town. The mayor comes up with a code of conduct that doesnt help the colored people as he rules that people should be in either black, white or gray (Simon 67-8). The personal repression of the people made it hard for them to adapt to change. The black and white people were made to believe that colored people were evil, and this led to segregation. The people eventually adopt to the changes, but it took time. Jennifer was an outgoing girl whose life was based on boys and sex. She loved being popular and the attention that came with it. Her lifestyle made it difficult for her to experience change from black and white to color. Jennifer wondered why she was still black and white despite the fact that she always had sex. David explained to her that it was not always about the sex; she had to discover that life was not all about it and that she had to discover life in a different perspective (Simon 67-8). She eventually came to see that there is more to life and this helped her change eventually. David went to Pleasantville to be a loner, but ended up having a girlfriend and being a leader to the people. He helped the people discover that life should always be a routine. This change she brought to the people took a minute because he was not really an outgoing person. He felt that he fit in the society and this helped him get love in the process (Zack 2). The families in Pleasantville were happy with the routine life they led. The men went to work and were always at their homes by 6 pm where they found dinner already served by their housewives. The people found this as a happy thing. The fact that it never rained in Pleasantville was also a happy thing. To change from this happy place to be an own person was difficult for the citizens of Pleasantville. This led to many protests from the mayor and citizens who felt it was not right. They went as far as burning the books in the school library (Hull 45). Eventually, the people change from black and white to color indicating they have accepted being their own person and leading a different life. David and Jennifer helped the people of Pleasantville discover who they were and brought change to the town. The change came at a price as more trouble ensued in the town, but the change made people grow and open their minds to different ideas and different kind of lifestyles. This made them a better student as they eventually accepted the change. Works Cited Hall, Lucia. “Pleasantville (Review)” The Humanist Jan. 1999: 45-. Academic OneFile. InfoTrac. Michigan Electronic Lib., Roseville, MI. 19 Apr. 2007. Simon, John. "Pleasantville." National Review 50.24 (1998): 67-68 Zuck, Jon. Pleasantville: The Garden of Eden Revisited. 9 Jan. 2004. Read More