Pleasantville Essay
Pleasantville Essay
“The characters in Pleasantville were happy enough. Jennifer and David ruined everything. Discuss.”
Pleasantville, a movie filmed in 1998, is based around two siblings who are transported into a 1950’s sitcom, the morals of the story strongly focuses on change. The director, Gary Ross, expresses things like following beliefs, showing how different characters grow to have no hesitation in doing what they feel is right. The film has emphasis on family, the film shows how David and Jennifer grow a stronger bond between themselves and their family members. Tradition is upheld greatly by the senior members in the society of Pleasantville, and is probably the biggest thing that David and Jennifer change during their time at Pleasantville. When Jennifer and David are first sent into Pleasantville, they seemingly destroy what the community had, but in the end we can see that, Jennifer and Davids actions caused it all to end up superior to its original state.
The films emphasis on tradition and customs is made clear to the audience, through the characters’ reluctance to change. Bob says to George “we can’t just sit back and watch this kind of thing happen, can you?” this symbolises how Bob is trying to prevent the changes in tradition from happening. The people of Pleasantville’s efforts to avoid change turn against them when David uses reason and logic to convey that what’s happening to them is inevitable and not a bad thing. He shows that they are only making it a bad thing by avoiding it. The older members of Pleasantville have lived by their old customs for so long they are worried about what could come of the change, yet most of the younger teens and the exception of a few adults, are all open to the changes. Bill says “you weren’t around so I did the whole thing by myself” also when David and Bill are in court David says to the mayor “you can’t stop something that is inside of you” these two quotes display how Bill was open to change and
“The characters in Pleasantville were happy enough. Jennifer and David ruined everything. Discuss.”
Pleasantville, a movie filmed in 1998, is based around two siblings who are transported into a 1950’s sitcom, the morals of the story strongly focuses on change. The director, Gary Ross, expresses things like following beliefs, showing how different characters grow to have no hesitation in doing what they feel is right. The film has emphasis on family, the film shows how David and Jennifer grow a stronger bond between themselves and their family members. Tradition is upheld greatly by the senior members in the society of Pleasantville, and is probably the biggest thing that David and Jennifer change during their time at Pleasantville. When Jennifer and David are first sent into Pleasantville, they seemingly destroy what the community had, but in the end we can see that, Jennifer and Davids actions caused it all to end up superior to its original state.
The films emphasis on tradition and customs is made clear to the audience, through the characters’ reluctance to change. Bob says to George “we can’t just sit back and watch this kind of thing happen, can you?” this symbolises how Bob is trying to prevent the changes in tradition from happening. The people of Pleasantville’s efforts to avoid change turn against them when David uses reason and logic to convey that what’s happening to them is inevitable and not a bad thing. He shows that they are only making it a bad thing by avoiding it. The older members of Pleasantville have lived by their old customs for so long they are worried about what could come of the change, yet most of the younger teens and the exception of a few adults, are all open to the changes. Bill says “you weren’t around so I did the whole thing by myself” also when David and Bill are in court David says to the mayor “you can’t stop something that is inside of you” these two quotes display how Bill was open to change and