crydun
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Somebody was talking once on this forum about Pleasantville. I mentioned that I'd written a paper on it. Just got around to posting it. Here it is. Enjoy. Feedback is welcome.
Crystal
Social Work 300
Prof. S. Cooper
Final Exam
Pleasantville: The Many Faces of Color
In the film Pleasantville, color is used to define difference. The movie’s setting is in an ideal Leave It To Beaver world. Everything is in black and white and nothing is improper or out of place.
Suddenly, the town of Pleasantville turns topsy-turvy when two siblings, Sean and Melissa, from our present-day world, are transported to Pleasantville through a magic remote. As they incorporate the morals of our modern world into the minds of the people of Pleasantville, as the characters of Bud and Jenny, the town of Pleasantville gradually becomes tainted with color.
Many interpretations can be made of the use of color in this film. Freud saw color as the expression of our inner emotions and conflicts. This is certainly evident when Melissa (the sister from the modern world) goes out with Derek and they experience some passion. As he is dropping Melissa off, he watches a rose turn the color red. The fact that the rose turns color after they have had an argument indicates that color can express anger. Red is the color of passion. Passion can be experienced through anger. Therefore, this scene supports Freud’s viewpoint.
Another interpretation of color in this film is the coming of change. In this film, change was expressed in many circumstances. When double beds started selling in the furniture store, anyone who looked in the store window turned colored. This tells us two things. 1) This person is seeing something that they never saw before and 2) They walked away with new knowledge of that experience. This is especially illustrated in the bathtub scene. While mother is in the bathtub pleasing herself, she gradually turns color. The more intense her pleasure gets, the more colored she becomes. This satisfies both of the above interpretations. Mother experienced passion and gained knowledge about something she hadn’t seen or experienced before.
The most obvious interpretation of color in this film and the one that most relates to this course is the idea of color as race. Once more and more people in the town turn colored as they grasp the new knowledge they gain from Melissa and Bud, the town mayor becomes perplexed. In a calm way, he sets new rules for the changing town of Pleasantville. Standing out the most from the long list of rules was the rule that “coloreds must live among themselves on the other side of Pleasantville and may not interact with the non-coloreds.” Segregation is the word here. It is apparent that the town is changing and many of the people with it. So, the coloreds are separated from the non-coloreds “to maintain peace and do what is best for everybody in our town.”
Two interpretations can be made from the mayor’s speech. The obvious connection is that of race. But, a connection with class is also possible. The mayor seems to be saying “These people are lower than we are and they don’t deserve our attention so we’re going to put them somewhere where we don’t have to see them.” This statement applies to the mayor’s speech in the case of race and class. Both were considered lower forms of human life in the fifties.
You can also make the interpretation of good versus evil in this film. Everybody who was black and white was considered good, colored people were considered bad. The mayor sees color as the snake in his Eden. He couldn’t kill the snake so he made it the lowest life form as possible. Lower life forms were separated from good life forms until the mayor turns colored himself in a fit of rage. Once he turns colored, he becomes accepting of everyone because he realizes that they are just like him. Human beings that feel emotion.
Gender inequalities are also brought to the surface in this film. When mother goes to visit the waiter and stays gone, father is outraged. Mother’s job was to stay home and take care of him and the children, not off galavanting somewhere. Where was his dinner? This attitude was typical of a husband of the fifties.
A man married a woman for procreation purposes only. Once the marriage was sealed, the man was the head of the house. His wife was expected to cater to his every whim. Most wives in the fifties didn’t question this power. It was what they were born into. It had been handed down from generation to generation. Modern women cry out in disgust at this old-fashioned behavior because we were not born into it. We were raised not to depend on any man but think for ourselves. Therefore, we can not understand the passiveness of our ancestors.
This film may have been set in the fifties but it carries over to everyday life. People are still prejudiced against people of color, women and lower-class citizens. Though we have come a long way in the modern world, many people are still set in their old mindsets. They believe that what they are raised with will always be gospel truth. Reality is, times change and people change. So must our attitudes. This film dealt with it in a perfect way by transporting modern teenagers into the culture and minds of their parents generation. They were faced with the issues of gender inequality, racial conflict, and sexual ignorance. Through their instruction, the people of Pleasantville not only gain knowledge from Bud and Jennie, they learn a lot about themselves as well.
This film sends the message that nobody knows everything. In Pleasantville, so much is assumed. Nobody talks about sex, gender issues, womanhood, puberty, change and growing older. The culture is so structured that nobody even knows what is at the end of Main St. Everything is supposedly the way it should be and it is taken for granted that everyone knows. It’s like when you are younger and you ask questions and the grown-ups tell you “Don’t worry about it. You’ll know what you need to know when you get older.” As if, at the onset of adulthood, everything just comes to you. We need to stop assuming and make sure that people understand what we are trying to tell them.
I think this film ended the way it should have. Reality sets in and everybody goes on with the new knowledge they have acquired and accepts it for what it is and how it has affected them. Sean goes home to the present and makes amends with his mother who is suffering from a broken relationship. When he returns, he is more understanding than when he left. Melissa gets responsible and studious. She decides to stay in Pleasantville and go to college there. Mother and Father make amends, sort of. The entire town rejoices because now they are all colored and therefore have the knowledge that they lacked before. Overall, the film came to a fair and sensible end.
I loved this film because it brought so many issues to light that I hadn’t thought of before. Gender issues, structure and how it relates to the environment, and growing up. I loved the metaphor of color in this film. The first time I watched it (I’ve seen it three times now), I knew I wanted to write a paper on it. I thought Don Knotts’s character was rather annoying. He could have disappeared, as far as I was concerned. The movie would just be getting intense, then he would interrupt. Overall, I thought this was a powerful movie worth writing a paper about.
Crystal
Social Work 300
Prof. S. Cooper
Final Exam
Pleasantville: The Many Faces of Color
In the film Pleasantville, color is used to define difference. The movie’s setting is in an ideal Leave It To Beaver world. Everything is in black and white and nothing is improper or out of place.
Suddenly, the town of Pleasantville turns topsy-turvy when two siblings, Sean and Melissa, from our present-day world, are transported to Pleasantville through a magic remote. As they incorporate the morals of our modern world into the minds of the people of Pleasantville, as the characters of Bud and Jenny, the town of Pleasantville gradually becomes tainted with color.
Many interpretations can be made of the use of color in this film. Freud saw color as the expression of our inner emotions and conflicts. This is certainly evident when Melissa (the sister from the modern world) goes out with Derek and they experience some passion. As he is dropping Melissa off, he watches a rose turn the color red. The fact that the rose turns color after they have had an argument indicates that color can express anger. Red is the color of passion. Passion can be experienced through anger. Therefore, this scene supports Freud’s viewpoint.
Another interpretation of color in this film is the coming of change. In this film, change was expressed in many circumstances. When double beds started selling in the furniture store, anyone who looked in the store window turned colored. This tells us two things. 1) This person is seeing something that they never saw before and 2) They walked away with new knowledge of that experience. This is especially illustrated in the bathtub scene. While mother is in the bathtub pleasing herself, she gradually turns color. The more intense her pleasure gets, the more colored she becomes. This satisfies both of the above interpretations. Mother experienced passion and gained knowledge about something she hadn’t seen or experienced before.
The most obvious interpretation of color in this film and the one that most relates to this course is the idea of color as race. Once more and more people in the town turn colored as they grasp the new knowledge they gain from Melissa and Bud, the town mayor becomes perplexed. In a calm way, he sets new rules for the changing town of Pleasantville. Standing out the most from the long list of rules was the rule that “coloreds must live among themselves on the other side of Pleasantville and may not interact with the non-coloreds.” Segregation is the word here. It is apparent that the town is changing and many of the people with it. So, the coloreds are separated from the non-coloreds “to maintain peace and do what is best for everybody in our town.”
Two interpretations can be made from the mayor’s speech. The obvious connection is that of race. But, a connection with class is also possible. The mayor seems to be saying “These people are lower than we are and they don’t deserve our attention so we’re going to put them somewhere where we don’t have to see them.” This statement applies to the mayor’s speech in the case of race and class. Both were considered lower forms of human life in the fifties.
You can also make the interpretation of good versus evil in this film. Everybody who was black and white was considered good, colored people were considered bad. The mayor sees color as the snake in his Eden. He couldn’t kill the snake so he made it the lowest life form as possible. Lower life forms were separated from good life forms until the mayor turns colored himself in a fit of rage. Once he turns colored, he becomes accepting of everyone because he realizes that they are just like him. Human beings that feel emotion.
Gender inequalities are also brought to the surface in this film. When mother goes to visit the waiter and stays gone, father is outraged. Mother’s job was to stay home and take care of him and the children, not off galavanting somewhere. Where was his dinner? This attitude was typical of a husband of the fifties.
A man married a woman for procreation purposes only. Once the marriage was sealed, the man was the head of the house. His wife was expected to cater to his every whim. Most wives in the fifties didn’t question this power. It was what they were born into. It had been handed down from generation to generation. Modern women cry out in disgust at this old-fashioned behavior because we were not born into it. We were raised not to depend on any man but think for ourselves. Therefore, we can not understand the passiveness of our ancestors.
This film may have been set in the fifties but it carries over to everyday life. People are still prejudiced against people of color, women and lower-class citizens. Though we have come a long way in the modern world, many people are still set in their old mindsets. They believe that what they are raised with will always be gospel truth. Reality is, times change and people change. So must our attitudes. This film dealt with it in a perfect way by transporting modern teenagers into the culture and minds of their parents generation. They were faced with the issues of gender inequality, racial conflict, and sexual ignorance. Through their instruction, the people of Pleasantville not only gain knowledge from Bud and Jennie, they learn a lot about themselves as well.
This film sends the message that nobody knows everything. In Pleasantville, so much is assumed. Nobody talks about sex, gender issues, womanhood, puberty, change and growing older. The culture is so structured that nobody even knows what is at the end of Main St. Everything is supposedly the way it should be and it is taken for granted that everyone knows. It’s like when you are younger and you ask questions and the grown-ups tell you “Don’t worry about it. You’ll know what you need to know when you get older.” As if, at the onset of adulthood, everything just comes to you. We need to stop assuming and make sure that people understand what we are trying to tell them.
I think this film ended the way it should have. Reality sets in and everybody goes on with the new knowledge they have acquired and accepts it for what it is and how it has affected them. Sean goes home to the present and makes amends with his mother who is suffering from a broken relationship. When he returns, he is more understanding than when he left. Melissa gets responsible and studious. She decides to stay in Pleasantville and go to college there. Mother and Father make amends, sort of. The entire town rejoices because now they are all colored and therefore have the knowledge that they lacked before. Overall, the film came to a fair and sensible end.
I loved this film because it brought so many issues to light that I hadn’t thought of before. Gender issues, structure and how it relates to the environment, and growing up. I loved the metaphor of color in this film. The first time I watched it (I’ve seen it three times now), I knew I wanted to write a paper on it. I thought Don Knotts’s character was rather annoying. He could have disappeared, as far as I was concerned. The movie would just be getting intense, then he would interrupt. Overall, I thought this was a powerful movie worth writing a paper about.
