Today we watched scenes from the 1967 film "The Graduate". As we watched the film I could not help but feel repulsed by Mrs. Robinson’s character yet felt sorry for the bumbling Benjamin. At the party that his parents throw him following his graduation he is constantly smothered by people barraging him with questions about his future. It seems that no one sees who he really is and the only way that they relate to him is through his accomplishments. He is addressed as “the athlete”, “the graduate” and his mother rattles of his many accomplishments from his yearbook. Try as he might he cannot have an actual conversation with his father or anyone else for that matter. Everyone seems more interested in telling him what he should do with his life and what he should be. Through Barkers perspective Benjamin is the prime example of the Sociological subject. Benjamin is being molded left and right by the people around him and he’s being shaped into the person that everyone thinks he should be. As one of the older men at his party told him, he had just one word for Ben, “PLASTIC”. Like pliable plastic Ben is being handled and shaped into something he isn’t even sure he wants.
Then along comes Mrs. Robinson with her domineering and seductive ways. Like an innocent puppy Ben falls into her trap and is so easily manipulated it’s pitiful. Mrs. Robinson joins the crowd in telling Ben what it is he wants and despite repeating several times “I’d rather not, I’d rather not” he does what he’s commanded anyhow. During the scene when Ben and Mrs. Robinson are having drinks in Mrs. Robinson home and Ben apologizes for accusing Mrs. Robinson of seducing him, we get an interesting look at who Mrs. Robinson is. Despite being an extremely manipulative person she seems hungry for attention and control. It almost seems that she is trying to relive her youth and envies her daughter Elaine who has what she can never regain. After Ben’s apology she changes the subject by asking if he would like to see Elaine’s portrait he replies “Very much so”. Granted it may just have been part of Mrs. Robinson’s ploy to get Ben upstairs but by using Elaine’s room to do her dirty work it appears that she is trying to channel Elaine’s youth. Knowing the movies background one could argue the Mrs. Robinson is this way not by choice but because she has been forced into this position by society. She has been denied the opportunity to pursue the things she felt fulfilled her. She felt forced to take a path she regretted and therefore chose to assert herself and follow her every whim.
The scene that I found most interesting was on Ben’s 21st birthday when his parents parade him around in the new scuba gear that they bought him. Reluctantly Ben goes outside to the pool and despite trying to get his father to talk to him. His father is more interested in letting everyone see the expensive scuba suit that he purchased rather than listening to his son’s concerns. His Father rants on and on about how Ben is leaving boyhood behind and is taking his first step into manhood. As Ben steps out, he sees everyone through a mask. This scene is very symbolic in the sense that his first step into manhood is done while wearing a mask. It seems that the lesson his father is teaching him is that to be a man you must wear a mask and be the person that everyone else expects you to be. Ben puts on the mask to please everyone else and as he dives in the water his father keeps pushing him down while smiling. As Ben is submerged in the pool it symbolizes how he feels overwhelmed and smothered under the overbearing expectations of society. Like Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Ben is learning that the only way to be a man in his society is to learn the art of mendacity.
Mendacity
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