Small acts of youth rebellion

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2006)

The Graduate is generally praised as one of the ultimate youth rebellion films of the 1960s. True, it was made in a time when many teens were searching for some way to rebel against various aspects of society--parents, government and other standard conventions of American society. However, it is not entirely as rebellious as it is made out to be. Benjamin Braddock is a college graduate, confused and lost. There are many occasions throughout the film where the audience can sense his feelings of entrapment and confusion. "I'm a little worried about my future," is a line that is consistently repeated in the beginning of the film when he is seemingly trapped at his welcome back party. The entire party sequence is filled with images of being trapped. The camera is extremely close to all of the people, every time Benjamin tries to get out of the room where he is he is blocked off by another guest, and he is being flooded with others' acknowledgements of his past successes. When Benjamin finally escapes to his bedroom to drown out the noise of the party, we get the sense that he is truly lost and very worried that he will be a disappointment to his family and all the people who are at this party. The opening sequence of the film, when he is in the airport on the moving sidewalk and "The Sound of Silence" is playing, we get the sense that up until now he has just been kind of floating through life, being told what to do and being taken in one direction or another without having any real say in the situation. The three acts of rebellion that seem apparent during the film are this: his relationship with his father's business partner's wife, Mrs. Robinson, his feelings for her daughter Elaine Robinson, and the waste of his mind. The relationship with Mrs. Robinson is very rebellious in the sense that it's an affair, and an affair with someone whom he has supposed to be respecting and looking up to during his life. Mr. Robinson gives Ben advice in the beginning of the film and it is at that point that we really understand why it would be so truly radical if he slept with Mrs. Robinson (besides the fact that she's old enough to be his mother). Later on, after being told to stay away from Elaine by Mrs. Robinson, he falls in love with her anyway and goes to extreme lengths to be able to share his future with her. It is apparent that he really just needed a connection with someone more his age who could understand all of the decisions he had to make and the confusion that he was suffering from. After he meets and talks to Elaine it is clear to him that although he may not know what he wants from life, he knows that he wants Elaine in his life. The biggest act of rebellion that is seen in this film seems to be the waste of his educated mind. Benjamin wastes away his summer floating in the pool of his parents' house and sneaking off to a hotel to have sex with a married family friend. He does not use the education he has just received to try to find a job or to make a difference in some way. Instead he feels comfortable with his life, at one point telling his father "I would say I'm just driftingit's very comfortable just to drift here." These "rebellious" acts are not entirely the same acts of rebellion that the real youth of America were performing at the time this film was made. Benjamin does not have long hair or dress in any way to make him stand out like the hippie generation of the time, he does not make any political or radical statements with his rebelliononly rebellion from the conventions of suburbia during this time. It is clear that he does not want to become like his parents, it is clear that he does not want to look at life as though he is looking through the lens of the scuba diving suit that his father bought for him. He is not trying to make any radical change in the world, but in himself, and that is really where the rebellion comes into pay.