Color In Pleasantville

The appearance of color in Pleasantville showed that the town and citizens were undergoing change, and that this change was making the inhabitants feel free and similar to people from the ‘90s. When objects and people around town quickly turned from black-and-white to color, many of the older, more traditional citizens of the town resisted the change. Pleasantville mayor Big Bob speaks of the changes, “up until now, everything around here has been, well, pleasant. Recently certain things have become unpleasant. Now, it seems to me that the first thing we have to do is to separate out the things that are pleasant from the things that are unpleasant” (Pleasantville). Big Bob and a large group of citizens, mostly consisting of the older men of the town, form a group of people trying to keep the town “pleasant,” or not colored. This group begins putting up signs around town banning colored people, similar to situations that African Americans dealt with before the civil rights movement. They also harass all the colored people on the streets, and even vandalize and destroy Bill Johnson’s shop for having colorful art on the windows. Finally, the group has meetings featuring all the influential non-colored people in town, and this new assembly draws similarities to Nazism with their symbols and beliefs.

The small town of Pleasantville portrays a perfect controlled society and time where everything is literally black and/or white. As the movie progresses so does the town. The towns’ people gradually begin to act upon their urge to change and find their true, authentic selves. While they progress and practice their freedom of coming into their own, their true coloring comes

First of all, in Pleasantville, People may think that they have happy lives. They are truly independent. They can do anything that they want. In fact, their life is so conventional. For example, George is a head of a family. He works hard at his job during the working hour. Then he would come home as he always does. He would take off his coat, put down his suitcase and say, “Honey, I’m home”. Betty, his wife, would offer him a warm welcome with all the dinner that is nicely prepared on the table. They basically have

The literary movement of local-color regionalism in American literature is a very distinctive and interesting form of fiction writing that effectively combines regional characteristics, dialect, customs and humor. In Bret Harte’s Tennessee’s Partner, these characteristics helped the story jump off the page, allowing the reader to understand the “times” rather than just the characters. And, for that reason, I feel that this is an outstanding piece of work.

In the world we live in today we understand that experiencing different things is OK. The black and white in the film is represented by a more traditionalist value which is how most of the world was. It was when people’s personalities were kept hidden from the rest of the world and even family members. Later in the Pleasantville show, some characters were starting to change color

Furthermore, the movie Pleasantville reflects some of the cultural conflicts of the 1950s. To begin, racial discrimination in the 1950s was extremely prominent in society. Whites discriminated against blacks because they were taught that anyone different than themselves was evil. Pleasantville portrays this when the citizens thereof begin changing color from black and white to color. These people represent an embrace of cultural change which goes against the normal, stable and secure status quo. The people of color are persecuted against by those of black and white color because they feel their existence is threatened by this symbol of change. For example, this persecution is seen in the scene when Betty Parker is persecuted by five black and white people while out in town. The five boys threaten her with verbal and physical attacks, as would blacks or “coloreds” would be by whites in the 1950s. Another cultural conflict exemplified by Pleasantville is changing teenage culture. Two ideas that challenged the cultural status quo in the ’50s were the idea that sex is ok, and Rock n Roll. Teenagers embraced these changes, and these changes are seen in Pleasantville. For example, a location called “lover’s lane” is where teens would go in this movie to participate in taboo, status quo-challenging sexual activity with the opposite sex. The idea of this in the 1950s was not even considered,

Racism was a big problem in the south in the 1930´s. The Ku Klux Klan did not help with the problem including racism, and they actually made it worse. With the Klan, they were constantly terrorizing people and going on killing sprees, honestly for no other reason than to prove who they thought the superior race was, which were the white men and women. The KKK was so popular during the time period of the book, it was almost impossible to not know who they were and what they did. The feelings the Ku Klux Klan had against blacks was so easily identified, that many events that took place in the story are thought to have been influenced by the Klan

A place where everybody looks the same, act the same, and live the same, is a beautiful thing. Although, many times places that are full of people of the same hue, are there in that place by force. Those who were black and lived on Eighteenth and Vine were there because there was nowhere else in Kansas City that openly welcomed “black people”. As it says in the book, Some of My Best Friends Are Black, Eighteenth and Vine was the “black

The town of Pleasantville is dull and this is reflected by its lack of colour - the town is completely black and white. Black and white life is simple and uncomplicated. However

The film Pleasantville written, directed and produced by Gary Ross shows a time period in American History where life was more comfortable, stable and ‘perfect’ if you would generalise it. However, as the film ironically shows, this was a time when people were more ignorant, racist and most certainly sexist. Ross demolishes this illusion of the great 1950s American society by showing how its defects are gradually changed from black and white to colour. Ross uses various settings to help show the viewer the imperfect aspects of Pleasantville’s

“The Library Card,” by Richard Wright is a strong essay on how books can affect and influence readers. Richard Wright writes that his first experience of the real world is accomplished through novels. He read an article criticizing H.L. Mencken and it tempted him to read some of his books. The article labeled Mencken as “a fool.” Wright wanted to know what this man had done to cause such hatred against him. “I wondered what on earth this Mencken had done to call down upon him the scorn of the South. The only people I had ever heard denounced in the South were Negroes, and this man was not a Negro,” (pg.319) Wright writes that tells us that the South was filled with racism and hatred among the whites and blacks. Mencken must have had ideas

In the movie “Pleasantville” two kids named David and Jennifer, living in the 1990’s get sucked into to a tv show called “Pleasantville” which takes place in the 1950’s where everything is “perfect”. Now living in a completely different era and being named Bud and Mary Sue, they must try to adjust to this new culture while attempting to find a way to get back to their present day. Through the whole movie they realize how much that the world has changed in 40 years. The town of Pleasantville is set in black and white, but as people start to change and feel more emotion they turn into color. While watching the movie it was interesting to watch the characters learn more about the past from different perspectives.

Because of offensive language and ideas that are represented in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, it has been banned in many school libraries and lessons. One of the main reasons that it was banned in school is because of offensive words like the n-word and also because of the fact that the plot is centered around rape. One of the school board members, Kenny Holloway, said, “We can teach the same lessons with other books.” Many people agree with Holloway’s opinion, saying that the same ideas that are represented in To Kill A Mockingbird could be taught with a less controversial book. However, other people say that students are tough enough to handle the story. While many people don’t think that this book is appropriate for school, some people

A TV repairman shows up out of nowhere on their doorstep offering to fix the remote. The repairman quizzes David on Pleasantville trivia and after he answers all of his questions correctly, he gives David a “special remote”. The brother and sister fight over the remote and get zapped into the television show “Pleasantville”. This sets up a majority of the clashes with a 1990’s brother and sister team going back in time to a perfect small town family of 1958. The time period chosen for the television show was intentional. The oldies telev

This creates an imagery that the reader in reality cannot relate to since with modern times, the existence of that library itself is unbelievable but can see and understand why the people reacted that way since a human mind tends to question everything so being able to find the answers to all those questions seems like a fantasy that every person wishes to live.