Examples Of Breaking Conventions In Pleasantville

Pleasantville is a film about two teenagers from the 90’s who mysteriously find themselves in a black and white 1950s television show. They become residents of Pleasantville; a suburbia where sex doesn’t exist, the high school basketball team always wins, married couples sleep in twin beds, books have no words, and everything is pleasant. The citizens of Pleasantville don’t seem to question their “good life,” until Bud and Mary Sue come along and disturb the conformity. Suddenly parts of Pleasantville become colorful, repressed desires surface, the 50’s lifestyle is broken apart, and its citizens lives change in a strange, yet exciting way. Some people are opposed to the transformation, but in the end the entire town turns to color and the citizens are liberated.

The consequences of excessive desire to be someone else, a recurring theme I evaluated from an accumulation of texts ‘All the bright places’ written by Jennifer Niven, ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ directed by Anthony Minghella, Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol and Catch me if you can directed by Steven Spielberg. To examine this theme in detail to further an understanding of how the same theme can be expressed in a number of ways, I used three questions to help develop a conclusion-, has society alienated the protagonist and if so how, how does the characters struggle with their identity , also what consequences this desire has caused.

As an individual goes through their life they will be involved in several situations that have been studied by various sociologists. Some films display these sociological concepts in such a way that they can be easily identified. One film in particular, is titled Pleasantville. This movie was filmed in 1998, and was directed by Gary Ross. Throughout this essay, I will summarize the movie Pleasantville, while at the same time discussing the various sociological concepts presented in the film.

I strongly believe that David's character development was a necessary part of the story because throughout the events that happened, David helped make some decisions that were possibly big factors of them surviving this terrible storm. If David’s attitude hadn’t changed, he might have done something that would have led them to their death instead of preventing it. For instance, on page 103 the text said; “He pulled the hatchet out of his belt loop, reached up, and smashed it against the roof”. This was a part of the text when David and Elizabeth were trying to break the roof to get to higher grounds. Lets imagine that David had not experienced the transformation in his attitude and was still a rude and ignorant boy. I highly doubt that he would be doing anything to help Elizabeth break open the roof to create an escape route. There is a possibility that Suzie, Elizabeth and David could have drowned right there and that would be the end of their story. This is proof that David’s transformation was a great part of this story. Personally, when I first started reading this book, David was not my favourite character because of his rude and hurtful personality. But after his transformation, I started thinking that maybe David was only acting like that because of a reason and that maybe he is actually a very kind hearted person on the

Characters’ similarities and differences help the reader develop insight in the characters. In the short story A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, Eckels is given the chance to go back in time to hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and he is ecstatic for the opportunity. However, after the dinosaur becomes too much for him to cope with, Eckels behavior changes. In the story Go Carolina by David Sedaris, David recounts his experiences with speech therapy. David remains negative about the sessions and is therefore unable to lessen his speech impediment, which makes him a static character.

Pleasantville was filmed in 1998 by director Gary Ross. Although Pleasantville shows us the life of two teens in the 90s, it also takes us to the ideologies of Americans family values in the 50s as it would be view on TV. During the 90s there was a growing trend of teen’s movies, which talk about sexuality and other social issues. Now in the other hand 50s film showed aspects of happier days traditional values and family life.

In the movie, a change is considered when a person changes from black-and-white to color. Now as this change may seem very unpleasant for the mayor Big Bob, it always happens when someone changes for good, not for something bad they had done. As stated earlier, David happens to be one of the last people to turn color, as he at first liked the pleasantness of Pleasantville. His sister, Jennifer, was one of the first to find out as she pretty much began the change of Pleasantville with her stunts at Lovers Lane. She tries to explain to David why nobody is happy in Pleasantville, but he denies her, as he believes that Pleasantville will always remain so simple and cheerful. “David: They're happy like this. Jennifer: No, David. Nobody's happy in a poodle skirt and a sweater set.”(Pleasantville-1998). David still had not seen what Pleasantville, was all about. Throughout the rest of the movie, he slowly begins to change by little events that affect him. He fell in love with Margaret, who turned into a colored girl thanks to him. During one there dates at Lovers Lane, it began to rain, something nobody had ever seen in Pleasantville. That's where he showed his true love for Margaret, when he was with her, under the rain. Then he changed Bill, the owner of the soda shop. During the period when Bill would paint on his windows and when the black-and-white trashed his shop, David really saw what kind of mess Pleasantville was. The person that changed David the most however was his “mother” so to say, Betty. After cheating on her husband with Bill, she turned color, and was made fun of by the black-and-white boys of Pleasantville. At one point, they even ganged up on her, but David came to the rescue and did something nobody had ever seen in Pleasantville. He punched the bullies and defended Betty. It was at that point he really changed, because that's the point when he changed color.

The threat of never coming back from the war “bonded [the men] together”; however, David is further estranged from the men who are closest to him. David feels “a blind hatred of Toby” (390), he felt like “he was seeing - his life stolen before his eyes” (390). The aggressive imagery of David yet again watching someone else's life move beyond the mountainous landscape of Entremont signifies his entrapment and sense of alienation. The reader is left with an image of David stranded in the field, “immobile” (388), thinking about how “there had been a war [...] he hadn’t been in” (388) and the other events that happened “when he was alive and young” (388) which had “all been for the other men” (388). David's unmoving stance signifies his monotonous, unchanging life.

Conformity is the enemy in “Pleasantville”. The discrimination of the lesser groups is as a result to maintain traditional values present in the film, a place where according to Mr. Johnson it never gets any better or worse, this change was feared because it was thought impossible. This film effectively portrays societal and historical issues by avoiding the factor that is the human condition, once it begins to become significant the citizens of Pleasantville begin to form a type of apartheid restricting the “coloureds” from entering shops, this is an example of two worlds clashing that for one reason are not willing to join, it is much like the apartheid was in South Africa. Michael Moore too, effectively portrays societal issues in today’s society. He goes inside the corporate world and brings to light the fact that companies prefer profit over human lives. He discovers the discriminations which some blue collar workers and those on welfare (who are discriminated against by Tommy Thomson who thinks that they leech off of tax payers) experience in the United States as they are over looked and not utilized by American employers for the reason that they can pay other workers in other countries substantially less and some up

When David decided to return to school as a more aged person. He felt like he couldn't fit in with the teenagers studying there. The first satire that was use in his story would be the list. David came in as newbie as the rest had already studied there. David felt: old, insecure, intimidated, and the impressions that students gave. For example,"I arrived early,watching as the returning students greeted one another in the school lobby". This made feel uncomfortable because everyone else fitted in already and it was going to take him some time. Another things is David used juxtaposition because he compared himself to all the young teenagers where he said," causing me to feel not unlike Pa kettle trapped backstage after a fashion show". This represents

David makes a strong choice consequent to his own daughter, Phoebe, who was born with a disability known as down syndrome. The author demonstrates the audience that, “He thought of his sister, pale and thin, trying to catch her breath, and his mother turning to the window to hide her tears. ‘Don’t you see?’ he asked, his voice soft. ‘This poor child will most likely have a serious heart defect. A fatal one. I’m trying to spare us all terrible grief’”(Edwards 18). Edwards character, DAvid shows, that he fears to relive and bear that same grief upon his wife, Norah. David gets taken back to the time where, Edwards expresses “Still, he remembered the depth and endurance of his mother's grief, the way she walked uphill to the grave every morning, her arms folded against whatever weather she encountered”(Edwards 17). Having a child with a disability can cause a considerable distress on one's physical, emotional, and mental well being. Edwards character, David, feels as if he were real, because just like him, when a certain event occurs, many react in a way that is not understandable until later on, or

that David is still using his telepathy with other members of the group, as well as being careful

Lowis Lowry, author of The Giver, and Gary Ross, director of Pleasantville, both present a world that lives in conformity. This however is shown to have exceptions. These exceptions in life is what allows us to live a more colourful life than to just exist. They are experienced through individuality, memory, and many diverse experiences, that allows us to change. What follows is an analytical analysis that highlights the similarities and differences in which the characters learn to overcome many boundaries and do certain actions that is purely not about fitting in.

In the fantasy film Pleasantville which is directed by Gary Ross. The film is about David and Jennifer two siblings who grew up in a dysfunction life. Whose parents don’t seem to care for them and are forced to raise them-self. One day they start to fight for the TV remote and break the remote. A men claiming he was a TV repairmen show up at their doorsteps and gives them a special remote. The TV repairmen gives them a one in a lifetime chance to travel to another universe. The universe they travel to is David’s favorite sitcom called Pleasantville. In Pleasantville the whole entire town is perfect in the sense that no one fights and everyone is happy. Ross says the main theme in this film is that accepting change is acceptable, since the whole

The film Pleasantville written, directed and produced by Gary Ross shows a time period in American History where life was more comfortable, stable and ‘perfect’ if you would generalise it. However, as the film ironically shows, this was a time when people were more ignorant, racist and most certainly sexist. Ross demolishes this illusion of the great 1950s American society by showing how its defects are gradually changed from black and white to colour. Ross uses various settings to help show the viewer the imperfect aspects of Pleasantville’s