Journey In Pleasantville

Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven

‘Pleasantville’ is a satirical movie about two siblings who are high school seniors. They get transported into the 1950’s black and white television show ‘Pleasantville’. In the show, the sister, Jennifer, starts to become bored with how life was back then. She decides to take action. Introducing all her newly made friends to some of the pleasures of the 90’s may have been fun, but it came with a cost. Many people of the town started to become coloured instead of black and white. While Jennifer is enjoying her new and exciting life, her brother Daniel is worrying about how they are going to get home. What he doesn’t realize is that the changes to the townsfolk aren’t all Jennifer’s fault. He has also influenced Bill, the soda shop owner, by encouraging him to start work by himself, and stop relying on other people. These changes to the script caused many citizens to change colour, but those who remained colourless went on a rampage. In the scene I have chosen, the colourless have started a gargantuan bonfire of all the books. Hoping that if they

“Analyse, evaluate and compare the techniques used to dim the horror of the real life events discussed in the novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and the film Life is Beautiful.”

The 1998 film, Pleasantville, written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross is a “swell” example of the three perspectives of sociology. Two 1990 teenagers get trapped in the blue-sky world of a 1950’s sitcom. While spending time with the people in the small town of Pleasantville, the teens begin to drastically change the the bland ways of the townspeople and alter their world completely. Throughout these events, viewers can find examples of the functionalist perspective, interactionist perspective, and conflict perspective.

In the Novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury, the characters support the Universal Theme of “Good Vs Evil”. The characters are divided into two groups; those who act morally right and are good-hearted, and those who just do not seem to have any sense of empathy and are blinded by selfishness and greed and choose to do harm for no other reason than the thrill of it. The protagonists face a series of battles with themselves and their sense of who they are, as well as against the evil forces. This evilness is reflected on the carnival freaks who constantly use fear and manipulation as a weapon to make all people egotistical and greedy, whereas our good characters utilize laughter, love and friendship to defeat the evil that is acting upon them.

When evil stalks it's prey, the unwitting young person, then it becomes unfathomable and treacherous consequences can occur. For instance, one example of a Greek tale that embodies this notion of evil is The Myth of Hades and Persephone. In this Greek mythical tale Hades and his brother Zeus planned with trickery and violently abducted Persephone to go with Hades and be his wife in the underworld. We can see by the quote how the treachery of evil endures in the tale and how the young Persephone felt.

What struck me most was the common theme between all three of these works. Throughout these works, a common theme I saw was women finding their true selves. Even if they fail at first, they get right back up and try again. In Pleasantville, the two characters I saw make drastic changes within themselves are Mary Sue and the Mother, Betty.

Danielle Paige’s fantasy story, “Dorothy Must Die,” takes place in the land called Oz, which is known for people that have a good or a wicked side. When facing someone of which is wicked but is doing a good deed, most people do not realize that in this world there is no difference in the two. During the journey of a girl from Kansas, she discovers along the way that someone of which used to be good, is now filling the land with her wickedness. One theme that this story proposes is whether it’s wicked but good, or good but wicked. One another can change into the other because they’re no fine lines between the two.

In the world of film and literature, villains have been used to show the opposite of the hero. Where the hero is strong and makes honorable decisions, the villain is usually self-centered and uses evil to damage the lives of others for his or her own purposes. Villains sometimes fill us with fear, anger and occasionally sadness. In general, every great tale involving a hero also has a villain that we love to hate. In the novel, The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, by C. S Lewis, a character is displayed that is considered evil, making her a villain.

A lot can happen in sixty years, and America is no exception to that statement. It is arguable that one of the biggest differences regarding America in the 1950s to modern America is culture. The movie “Pleasantville” reflects much of these cultural differences from 1950s to today in a creative and thoughtful way. It also provides much useful insight into the cultural conflicts America faced throughout the 1950s. The many differences between 1950s culture and modern day culture, my own opinion which time period I would personally choose to live in and cultural conflicts of the 1950s will be discussed throughout this essay.

The movie ‘‘Pleasantville’’, written, produced and directed by Gary Ross, approaches a period in America’s history which subsequent generations idealise as a better and more stable society. He portrays this time period of the 1950s as a time when people and life were less complicated; a time when everyone knew their place in society. 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 shows that ‘change is inevitable’ once a catalyst for change is added to the ordered life of “Pleasantville”. Once David and Mary-Sue begin

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, good vs. evil is the biggest theme. This story is seen as a metaphor about the good and evil in everyone, and the struggle of the two sides in everyone’s personality. Since Hyde starts to take over, I could argue that evil is stronger than good. But, Mr. Hyde ends up dying in the end of the story, so I could claim that the good of someone can overcome the evil in you. Overall, Stevenson is trying to communicate with the reader about the balance of good and evil in humans, also that your balance of good and evil has different results/effects in your life.

There is a constant war waging between good and evil in everyday life. It may be a war between two fractions that feel they are both in the right or an internal battle of good and evil. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth the titular character and his wife are battling against the true nature of themselves and in each other. Although they are known and seen by others as virtuous, their unsatisfactory greed and ambition lead both characters to become immoral.

"Since good and evil seem to be inextricably bound, it is not surprising that many of the characters in Such a Long Journey end up doing evil in trying to do good, or conversely, that some of the good deeds have their origins in evil

Boyne also undergoes an imaginative journey in this book as his past childhood imagination inspired him to create a novel that explores the necessity of imaginative journeys. It is interesting to note that this story is totally remote from Boyne?s own experience. Research on Boyne indicates that he was brought up in a stable family where his father worked in the insurance industry and his mother was a home-maker. There is nothing to indicate that any part of his personal background could have contributed to the terrible realism portrayed in this work. One clue as to the source of his imaginative journey may be found in the fact that, as a child, he was an avid reader who loved fiction such as Enid Blyton and the Narnia series.