graduate comment

Rating: Null/10 (26 January 2006)

The Graduate is a perfect example of youthful alienation that many post graduates and young professionals were feeling during the sixties. The pressure and expectations of a stable future and income no matter what the field applied by society and an older generation did not mend with the wants and needs of the youthful and idealistic sixties generation. There are many examples throughout the movie in which the main character, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), feels put upon. The use of water imagery exemplifies this feeling of entrapment. The movie opens with an excellent scene in which Ben arrives at LAX and is moving along the conveyor belt on the long walkway through the airport. The fact that he is not moving by his own accord but is being pushed symbolizes his struggle throughout the movie. He feels as if forces not under his own control and dictating his future. The next scene is Ben's face behind his fish tank which gives the impression that he is under water. Water is used constantly: speaking to the idea that Ben is struggling to get his head above water in the sense that he is battling the expectations of his parents and his feelings of loneliness and alienation. When Ben is forced to display his awkward birthday present (a scuba suit) for his parent's friends, again more for their benefit than his, he is seeing the elated crowd through the mask of the scuba suit. All he can hear is the sound of his own breathing. His parents and their friends look like raving lunatics as they smile and clap. There is a definite feeling of aloneness and alienation. When he finally descends into the water, he attempts to resurface only to have his father push him right back into the water. This is a prefect example of the oppression that he feels. The end of the scene is Benjamin sitting idle at the bottom of the pool. There is a feeling of defeat as he succumbs to his parent's wishes. When Benjamin finally ventures down to the graduation party that his parents seemingly forced upon him (more for their benefit than his), he is escorted outside by one of his parents friends. "One word Ben, plastics." Plastic is the epitome of fake substance. Ben does not want a fake and meaningless future. He is looking for more than just a hollow way of making money and establishing a future, which seems to be the unbearable word that Ben has trouble passing his lips. Isn't there more? His parents give him a brand new car as a symbol of his coming out into society. When Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) asks him for a ride home, he tells her to just take the keys, and that he doesn't want them. The car is an omen to the oppression he feels. He even ends up leaving the car on the side of the road when he and Elaine (Katherine Ross) hop a bus to a relieving "nowhere".