Of Pleasantville - Movie Review Example

DISOBEDIENCE Review of Pleasantville The movie Pleasantville is basically a movie that depicts a simple family of the 90s. The 90s reflects the time where the social life was comparatively peaceful as the neighbors were nice and so on. This is the time where the control of the children life is handed to the parents. The movie revolves around a twin pair of brother and a sister. The sister is an outgoing personality and feels quiet against the strict family norms being imposed. While the brother is a very contented person. The favorite show “Pleasantville” on the TV at one part of the movie draws them to a fight so as to watch their favorite show. Pleasantville is the TV show that reflects the period of 50s or the 60s. The show is approximately the same as the Father Knows Best, My Three Sons, and The Donna Reed Show. The movie is basically revolving around the rational of the family values being wrong and false where these are the family values being imposed on the children of the family. In addition to this the social boundaries that have been defined and confirmed by an individual’s society are hard to confine to and therefore the individual needs to break out of those conforms. While the brother and sister are fighting over the television remote they notice that they enter the 50s world and they themselves are the cast of Pleasantville. The teenagers are in the situation where everything is black and white and the anger is the feeling that starts to take place within the teenagers. This is the part where the teenagers realize that they have to stand for the family values and for the beliefs that each of them has. In this case it is realized by the teenagers that the family values or the social conformities whether how hard they might get to get acquainted to are the ones that are important thereby they need to stand up for those values. In the case of Pleasantville we enter the typical utopian trend of the society. The society as well as their parents had expected the obedience from the teenagers. The family values and norms of the society being imposed on the teenagers seem against to what the teenager brother and sister want. The disobedience is the one way to react to the utopian family norms and values. As the teenagers in this case see that they need to stand against what is being imposed on them against their wills. However, when they enter the black and white unwanted world, they realize that the values and the norms are what they believe in and they need to stand for them which makes them to be obedient to the norms and the family values that they have. The family values were the values that they believed in and were truly important for them. When the obedience is discussed in the political terms than there are many examples that can be quoted. The countries as North Korea is one of the examples of the countries where the dictatorship is more common of the rule. In this case, the obedience can be said to be existing in the system because of the fear of the ruler rather than the sincerity or the faithfulness to the ruler. It can be said that the leader in this case is being worshiped here without any faithfulness or sincerity. In this case the leader or the authoritarian is being worshipped in the abnormal manner. In the comparison it is seen that there are other countries which have the form of the obedience as the main factor. The countries have the democratic rules where the voice of the people is always heard and the voices are always taken into consideration unlike the authoritarian countries. There are many aspects of the obedience and the pros and cons of the obedience in various aspect has been discussed in the well established manner by Fromm. It has been mentioned by Fromm that the obedience to the authority has two main faces. In one case the obedience to the authority can be destructive and in some case the obedience can be very advantageous. Authorities such as parents, kings, feudal lords have given the definition of obedience as being the moral virtue that is important and in contrast the disobedience has been considered as a bad moral value. There are many examples of disobedience given from the history as for example the story of Adam and Eve. It is said that Adam and Eve were not humans before they disobeyed the nature. Because of this very disobedience they emerged on the earth as humans. This act of disobedience considered to be as the start of human history as this is where the humans start to evolve. Similarly, the Greek myth of Prometheus also establishes the fact that the human history is lined with much disobedience. Fromm says that as disobedience has been the major factor of the development of the humans civilization, the obedience on the contrary can be the part of the destruction of the human civilization. The age in which we live in is the age of advanced technology and we are residing in the world where the nuclear age has advanced to the higher level and every country has been seeking more and more options to gain the access to the higher nuclear power. People might have the better and advanced phases of the thoughts however the authorities are noticed to have had the pre historical ideas about to rule the world. The people will obey these authorities and will seek for the ways to take over the world for greed and hatred. This is the case where the obedience seems to be the vice and the obedience seems to the virtue as the people who are being obeyed or disobeyed are the main elements. If the laws of the country are inhumane than obeying the laws of humanity will be regarded as disobedience. This defines the tem of slavery where the person can only obey and does not possess the ability to disobey. However there is a difference that needs to be made in the case of the disobedience and obedience. The obedience to the higher authority is the sacrifice of one’s own authority where the others will is taken into consideration instead of one’s own will. The great deal is the one thing that means a lot to the customers. This is the factor that deals with the customers buying the products at the discounted amount from a specific shopping mall and in this case the greater quantities of the product is bought and this bring the customers in competition with the customers who haven’t been able to get the great deal. Our caretakers are the ones who take care of us but in some cases they protect us from what decisions we make. Our caretakers can be having ways to control us and that draws us to be rebellious or be disobedient to our caretakers so as to make them realize that the disobedience is just against the rules that are being restricted upon us. The caretakers are the ones who since the start have been taking care of us and all of our needs so that the disobedience is nowhere to be expected by the caretakers in future. So the caretaking is just to nullify any possible rebellions and the disobediences in the future. In this way the true independent human in us dies so the disobedience id the virtue that becomes a need so as to discover the true own self and to gain the independence from the smother caretakers. New entries into a certain group of the people who have certain rules for the new entrants make the new entrant go against the herd of the rules are unable to be followed. This is the point that comes in the context of the consumer culture in which the person within the society is not considered to be the one who can be obeyed unless he/she has certain possessions. In all the above cases it can be seen that the disobedience seems to be necessary in some cases without considering the moral integrity of the virtue. It is the way of being independent and free and being able to make the independent decisions. Being independent may let the person give up the comforts that he owns with the smothering caretakers or the demanding society. It can be counted in regards to making no obedience to the expectations of the people surrounding the person. Disobedience can be regarded as the disobedience to the parents and the smothering pressures that they have on the children which the children cannot take as they need to do something else. The disobedience in this sense can be regarded as being rebellious however it needs to be considered in the case of the person who is being so. The disobedience can be with the myths, the histories as well as the Gods. The bureaucracy and the power are the main factors which can leads the person to be disobedient with the others. The bureaucracy is the use of the power and unlimited power over the powerless which leads the powerless people to be disobedient and so they to be independent need to be disobedient in this case. Conclusions The obedience as well as the disobedience are the two main virtues in which the one is considered to be the positive value while the other one is considered to be the negative point. However, the disobedience is to be seen in the perspective of as what exactly is being disobeyed in this case. If the disobedience is being done so as to save the humanity from disintegration, to get the independence as well as the freedom from the unhealthy power that is being forced upon the person, and if disobedience is the way to recognize one’s own self than the disobedience is in fact the obedience to one’s freedom and the self discovery. Therefore there is a difference between the obedience and the disobedience in this manner that needs to be followed and considered. Read More