GroupGraduate

PLOT SUMMARY

Benjamin Braddock is a recent college graduate who comes back home and finds that his life has no purpose. His parents persist that he go to graduate school, but never offer to listen to Ben’s wants. Ben has an affair with an older woman, Mrs. Robinson, to try and break out of the boring summer life he has at home. However, Mrs. Robinson becomes jealous whenever Ben tries to date her daughter, Elaine. Ben finally overcomes all the obstacles that Mr. and Mrs. Robinson throw at him and he escapes with Elaine towards an uncertain future.

GROUP ANALYSIS

The classic film, “The Graduate” was set in the late 1960s, a time of war, political movements and most importantly, the age of youth and rebellion. The youth of the 1960s, unlike the conservative 1950s, were now all about changes in America in the areas of education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment.

Changes were also shown throughout the music world. There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960's, caused in part by the drug scene and the emergence of the “British invasion” and other forms of music that soon broke the mold that was carved by the 1950s. This includes “Simon and Garfunkel”, which displayed its innovative and fresh sound on “The Graduate” soundtrack. Nichols made the films soundtrack into be the inner voice of Benjamin Braddock, the title role played by Dustin Hoffman. Benjamin is a confused character who, out of boredom rather than desire, sleeps with his father's partner's wife, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and then falls in love with his mistress' daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). The music helps to emphasize his conflicts, and plays an enormous part in setting the tone of the film. Nichols' use of Simon & Garfunkel was in some respects trail-blazing, integrating their music into the fabric of the movie to underline his themes and illuminate his hero's subconscious. Simon & Garfunkel’s "Sounds of Silence" appears many times throughout the film. It's heard under the main titles as Benjamin's airplane descends to Los Angeles, bringing him home from school, and then again at the end as Benjamin and Elaine ride ambiguously away in a bus, having broken away from the numerous middle-class pressures that have plagued them during the course of the film. The song “sounds of silence” is used to show the character’s struggle. Ben toils against the dynamic times of society in the 60s, struggling with the thought of what he will do for the restof his life, and what his function in society is. The repetition of the song at the end, along with the young couple's expressions, would seem to damage the somewhat the up-beat ending. “Hello darkness, my old friend; I've come to talk with you again,” heard in the beginning of the movie denotes Ben’s indecision about life. This line again heard while they are on the bus in the end can indicate the same feeling of uncertainty that Ben and Elaine have.

As stated before, youth rebellion was a huge force that guided society through the 1960s. Ben ,played by Dustin Hoffman, was supposed to be the rebellious guiding force throughout “The Graduate”, having graduated from college, and now sleeping with his next door neighbor’s mother, the infamous Mrs. Robinson. He then steals Elaine, Mrs. Robinson’s mother, away from her family and boyfriend, and throws away the chance to better himself by not going to graduate school. Because of this, Hoffman’s character can be seen as an antagonist or an anti-hero because he never fulfills anyone’s wishes and ruins nearly everyone’s lives, even though he tries to break out of the routine by sleeping with Mrs. Robinson and essentially rebelling against his parents. Even though the movie is meant to idolize rebellion against parent and authority figures, it fails because Hoffman ends up with the girl that his parents wanted him to go out with in the first place.

Hoffman’s character, Ben, is an antagonist in the movie. He recently graduates from college and attends a party thrown by his parents. He receives plenty of advice at the party, but simply spurns most of the guests and advice with “I need some time alone to think.” Skijah Pegong. Every time someone asks Ben what his future is, he responds apathetically with a shrug and says that he hasn’t given any thought to it. Despite being intelligent and talented, Ben does not care about bettering himself or looking towards the future, and disappoints his parents with his uncaring views of having a future career. A protagonist would probably overcome the apathetic feeling and become determined to better himself by going to graduate school, yet Ben embraces the feeling with a pleasure.

As a true outsider of affluent Los Angeles society in the 1960s, one is to think everyone is living a perfect lifestyle and has everything anyone could want in life. But the realization is that everyone in “The Graduate” is an outsider in their own world. In the opening shot of the film, a close up of Dustin Hoffman’s blank, lifeless face is shown as he is making his way through the LAX airport, after returning from the University of Berkeley. This shot was almost a fore-shadowing event that continued throughout the film, showing close-ups of Benjamin’s lifeless face, and displaying how he never felt secure with his position in the materialistic society. This shot was repeated after he had finished having intimate moments with Mrs. Robinson which showed the lack of connection and emotion that he lacked from both the society and Mrs. Robinson. This shows how Benjamin seems to be running through the motions of society. He just graduated college and now he knows its time to go back home to Los Angeles where life seems to be pre set for him. He must now find a woman to marry, which his parents seem to have already set up in Elaine.

In The Graduate, Hoffman’s character Ben is shown as an antagonist because he ruins everyone’s lives and never fulfills the role of being a hero. He is unconcerned about his future and the view that others have of him. He acts like Oedipus Rex by sleeping with Mrs. Robinson, a mother figure to him because he’s known her for all his life, and destroys the life of the father figure Mr. Robinson by having an affair with his wife. It is interesting to note that Ben has limited interest in anything, but Mrs. Robinson is the only person in the movie who seems completely happy with Ben (Roger Ebert, www.rogerebert.com). Elaine doesn’t seem very happy with Ben; after all she already has a boyfriend and she finds out about her mother’s affair with Ben. But Ben also ruins a happy future for Elaine by taking her away from a definite future with her boyfriend. Perhaps he wants her because “she’s everything her mother isn’t: respectable, safe, ready to forgive him for having no vision at all” (Robin Dougherty, www.salon.com). Even though the movie tries to portray Hoffman as a kind of hero who breaks away from his parents’ culture and rebels by having a sexually liberating affair with Mrs. Robinson. Unfortunately, Ben never comes across the rebel, because he eventually meets his parents’ wishes by ending up with Elaine, the girl that they wanted him to go out with in the first place. The characters within “The Graduate” seem to act more out of passion and curiosity instead of love because I feel as if none of the characters truly know what love really is because they have grown up in a society where love and morality are non –existent. Overall, I feel that this film was a film not about someone leaving college and entering the real world, but Ben actually leaving the real world and entering this distant world where people are trying to become ‘the graduate’ of life, love and misunderstandings.