Pleasantville And Grover's Corners: A Literary Analysis

Knowledge comes from experience and if you don’t experience life, then you will float through it without knowing. In Pleasantville and Grover's Corners a routine causes the fear of change among the citizens, ultimately leading to a narrow point of view. By the end of their stories, however, the residents of Pleasantville begin to understand life, while the residents of Grover’s Corners stay in the cave until death. The residents of both cities get too caught up in a routine to notice the outside world, which leads to the fear of change. The people are shunned for thinking about the world, making them have a narrow point of view. Citizens of Grover’s Corners don’t realize their ignorance until after death, while the citizens of Pleasantville
After Emily died in Grover’s corners, Simon says “that’s the happy existence you want to go back to, Ignorance and blindness” (109). Her worst days were actually not bad, she just focused on petty things. After attaining this knowledge that her life was a cloud, she freaks out. Coming out of a narrow point of view is overwhelming and stressful. After Emily realizes this she discusses with another ghost, “where you happy?” “No... I should’ve listened to you, that’s all human beings are! Just blind people” (109). Emily wants to try to bring her friends and loved one out of the cave of ignorance, but she can’t. She escaped, while her friends were left behind. In Pleasantville narrow points of view are also demonstrated. “What’s outside of Pleasantville? Like, what’s at the end of main street?” “Mary Sue, you should know the answer to that, the end of Main street is just the beginning again.” No one knows what’s outside become they were forced to not think of that, even the teachers do not know what is outside. Everyone is too shallow to realize their is an outside world until Mary Sue tells them. “There are some places that the road doesn’t go in a circle. There are some places where the road keeps going.” They were happy, until they earned that there was much more to be discovered, then they became greedy for knowledge. They did
The ignorance in Our Town is shown in the following quote, “anything going on in the world since wednesday?” “Yessir, my school teacher, Miss Foster is getting married to a fella over in Concord” (8). When you ask about world news you expect to hear much more important things, than a teacher getting married. Another quote demonstrating the narrow mindset is when Rebecca asks, “George, is the moon shining on South America, Canada, and half the whole world?” “Well - prob’lly is” (43). They are so ignorant, they think that the moon is only shining on them. They are never taught about it in class and thinking is not part of their social standards. In Pleasantville the store owner says “Must be awfully lucky to see colors like that, I’ll bet they don’t know how lucky they are.” He is starting to see famous works of art and he realizes the cave he has been in his whole life. The colors symbolize the knowledge, so the more colors, the less ignorance and the more intelligence. Once the townspeople get a glimpse of knowledge they go crazy. When David explains a book, the pages fill in and everyone goes crazy. They all pick up books and ask “what’s this one about.” When people being discovering, they can not