The Effects Of Indecision In The Graduate

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Phuong Do

English 254

Dr Hipsky

The Effects of Indecision in The Graduate

The Graduate is considered a classic Hollywood movie that retains its value today. It is the story about the newly- graduated Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a confused twenty-one year old, who is worried about his future but who does not simply want to comply with the path of his affluent family and their friends. His life changes when he begins an affair with his father’s business partner’s wife, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). It becomes an impasse when he falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). Though the film was highly acclaimed for sexual innovation after the Hayes Code put to an end, The Graduate held more intense impact on youth more than that.  What makes The Graduate is its exploration of effects of indecision of young generation that is still dated by the depiction of Ben and Elaine.

According to Ben’s parents and their peers, Ben is a really prominent student. He is a track star, an editor of school newspaper, captain of the debating team, honors graduate and a recipient of a prestigious scholarship. With a high profile like that his future will be extraordinary. However, throughout the movie, Ben is absolutely different from what his CV reveals him to be. His place as "the captain of the debating team", like Lawrence Turman said, could not help him "articulate any sort of protest" (qtd. in The Graduate Flunks Out 38). Paul Seydor in "The Graduate Flunks Out" points out that Ben is hardly able to speak out much more than "I want to be different", "Denied!", "What?", "Huh", "Eh", etc. (qtd. in The Graduate Flunks Out 39). This is so ironic. When on a debating team, Ben should have been highly skilled individual to counter the opposite ideas and verbal attacks smoothly, especially since he is appointed as the captain. People on the debating team must have had high regards for Ben and acknowledged his ability to choose him as their leader. Seydor tried to reason that "it is easier to drum up sympathy for a bumbling, persecuted clod" (qtd. in The Graduate Flunks Out 39) that drive Ben to be utterly stupid when it comes to his parents and his friend. However, that is not the case. If Ben wants to change his life, he should be involved in the party, countering his father’s friends’ suggestions, asking more information about them. But, instead of trying to seek his parents’ guests for advice, he just wants to be alone. His price for shutting himself off is the cluelessness of his life.

So that leads us to Mrs Robinson - the epitome of lethal temptation. Played by Academy Award winner Anne Bancroft, whose sexual provocativeness is never up for debate, Mrs Robinson is a model of a young man’s thirst for fantasy. However, instead of being a confidante, the tigress only exploits Ben for sexual release, not even caring about Ben’s opinion. Eric Hinrichsen even views Ben as "a humiliating demonstration of emasculation". Indeed, Mrs Robinson only needs to play her cards right, and the boy just rolls dead. She ignores Ben’s requests, changes him into her territory and controls him. Alone with him in her daughter’s room, the tigress only shows off her legs, while the prey is asking whether it is going to be in the meal or not. She is coolly flirty in her assault, comically showing off her whole body as Ben makes an anguished face, leaving him to say, like a helpless kid: "Jesus Christ, Mrs Robinson!".

If Ben is much more decisive, he would not go this far to offer Mrs Robinson a hotel room and make his lifetime mistake. Throughout the encounter with the receptionists and Mrs Robinson, he doesn’t perform his verbal skill that he should have learned on the debating team. He is babbling and stuttering like a scared rabbit. The uncertainty at its best is when Ben and Mrs Robinson go into the hotel. At that moment, he is still debating in a nearly naked with Mrs Robinson state whether to follow his male’s instinct or not. For God’s sake, being in a hotel room with a married woman is already considered scandalous. Moreover, he has already put off her clothes; whether he does or doesn’t do anything, he will still considered taking advantages of other person’s wife. This confusion is manipulated by Mrs Robinson. The word "inadequate" in sexual relationship is always the catalyst of male’s pride, which causes many men unwanted consequences. She knows how men value pride, and pulls the trigger. That’s the end of Ben’s moral struggle.

By having an affair with Mrs Robinson, Ben initially never thinks of his action as something degrading Mr Robinson. (Ben never seems to stop courting Mrs. Robinson). He considers this a relief in his boring life. In the scene after Ben and Mrs Robinson commit adultery, we only see Ben drifting in the pool in the morning, and Ben with Mrs Robinson at night. It happens so many times that Ben is so inactive towards them, still has the haunting blank stare for weeks. This raises Mr Braddock and audience themselves a question: "What is the point of that hard work?" Ben says: "Drifting in the pool is comfortable," because he doesn’t have a clue, and he just wants to stay in comfort zone. As Ben says to Elaine: "My whole life is such a waste", all Ben’s life collapses when irresolution makes him useless.

Being an excellent scholar, Ben has shown nothing but really inconsistent views, especially before and after the meeting of Elaine. Formerly, Mrs Robinson told him not to ask Elaine out and even have a relationship with Elaine. It is a right thing to do, since both Ben and Mrs Robinson want to avoid their shameful arrangement being found. However, when his parents threaten Ben to invite the Robinsons to come to dinner, Ben complies. When Elaine cries because Ben reacts so cruelly, Ben should have left her there, thinking straight that this is the best way to solve his dilemma. However, Ben instead begins to date her and wants to marry her. It happens in just a short time that audiences find it hard to grasp. Why is Ben suddenly decisive? Because he finds another dull self – a Barbie doll for Ken. Elaine is no doubt pretty, judging from her mother’s beauty. However, when asking why she cries outside of the strip club, she just says: "I don’t know". She doesn’t know her own feeling, her own self, even though she enrolls in University of California in Berkeley – one of the most prestigious schools in the United States. She even put her own marriage into her parents’ hand. This indecisiveness matches Ben’s confusion about life so there is no doubt they are made to be for each other.

Why can a brilliant scholar like Benjamin turn into a dull man after so many academic achievements? Blame the materialistic environment Ben lives in. Ben has everything many people are jealous of: a wealthy family and a bright education. However, according to director Nichols in Films and Filming November 1968, Los Angeles - the world Ben lives in is "where things take over a person’s life" (qtd. in Appraising The Graduate: the Mike Nichols classic and its impact in Hollywood 62). His parents only give him a home but don’t give him company and sympathy. When Ben tried to engage with grown-ups in conversation, they don’t listen. They only hit his achievements into his face, which demonstrates that they recognize him for his achievement but not Ben himself. On his 21st birthday, his parents position Ben to wear his childhood diving suit for just one thing: dive into a shallow swimming pool. This looks ridiculous for a 21-year-old, but his parents still force Ben their own way, regardless of Ben’s opinion. His mother also disregards his explanation when she asks him about his activity at night. So, it is easy to see him symbolically drown himself into the pool of his desire to "be different." Therefore, Jacob Brackman’s comment in The New Yorker’s "his adulthood looks bleak largely because his environment offers no decent ideal of adulthood – not even a clue to what this ideal might be" (Onward and Upward with the Arts, "The Graduate") rings the true ideal of why Ben is the way he is.

Eric Hinrichsen blames excessive wealth Ben has also causes him misperception in life. He raises the idea that : "If an exceptionally wealthy individual such as Benjamin is an emasculated figure who cannot find happiness in his material goods, then one must examine whether this lifestyle is worthy of pursuit." (qtd. Emasculating American Bourgeoisie Culture: The Graduate and the Critique of Material Prosperity as Happiness). He emphasizes the veracity that wealth never associates with happiness. Ben’s family is undoubtedly rich. They have backyard, swimming pool, beautiful car and a very luxury house. They hold such a big party just for Ben’s homecoming. But this excessive veneer has shallow interior. Despite being raised in such a family, Ben is still carrying on unhealthy lifestyle. It is true that he cannot find elation in his material goods. However, later on, he utilizes those to achieve his final bliss with Elaine. He has enough money to rent a room in University of California at Berkeley’s dormitory and drives a car just to see Elaine every day. So it is not actually that Ben cannot find contentment in his material goods, but that in a certain moment in his life, he will find his belongings necessary.

Like his materialistic parents and their friends, Mrs Robinson cannot relieve his loneliness. Basically, those two seek each other for different purposes. She wants sex, he wants companionship. No doubt the pleasure is visible, but the depression in Ben’s face remains constant. Even though they are in the same room, they barely see each other eye to eye and never talk to each other. This satisfies Mrs Robinson’s need but doesn’t fulfill Ben’s need. It is an innovative move later on when Ben tries to make Mrs Robinson talk. But, again, they don’t seem to understand each other. Ben doesn’t understand her pain of getting married to someone she doesn’t love so young. Instead, he just callously says: "So old Elaine started in the Ford!" without thinking of her own feeling. What he cares is just the Ford itself, not Mrs Robinson’s real situation. These misunderstanding are also the cause of Ben’s tedious life.

Ben’s tragic character also consists of little experience in college. College life offers good opportunities, but also bad ones. Ben may have been good at capturing good opportunities, but not facing the bad parts. He has never had sex, got drunk or smoked. Without experience the bad temptations, Ben cannot know how to resist the real life temptation. That is why he cannot resist Mrs Robinson’s temptation and lead to his downfall.

After his sexual practice with Mrs. Robinson, Ben should be elated, since he now has the first change in his unexciting life. However, the problem in Ben is not puberty. It is still his mixed-up characteristic that makes his life dull and repetitive. The famous montage scene of the film expresses such perspective. As the screen fades in from black with "The Sound of Silence" reprised, the frame invites us to the static form of Benjamin Braddock. There is a key difference between the images at the opening and in this musical montage roughly one-third of the way through the narrative. While many other graduates at this time are so diligently seek the jobs or graduate school, he just floats on the raft. A motionless Benjamin drifting on the pool without direction illustrates Ben’s state– always floating. It tells us that the life Benjamin continues is no clue. He doesn’t seem to do anything except lie on the inflatable raft. His real interaction with Mrs Robinson should change the grim expression on his face. But it doesn’t.

The soundtrack "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel is the catalyst of Ben’s discontent. Written long before the film was made, Simon and Garfunkel’s album won 3 Grammys that year. Its reputation brought not just attention for their fans, but made the whole soul of the movie. They are so concise, lyrical, and eloquent, that we can really feel Ben’s mood. Ben appears to drift with sunglasses on contrasting with the brightness of the sun and the water. It fits Ben’s perception of "Hello darkness my old friend, I came to talk with you again," because all Ben sees is only the darkness of the sunglasses. His viewpoint of "people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening," in a world "words of the prophet are written on the subway walls" is clearly shown in his view of the adults. Three adults - his parents and Mrs Robinson appear to be the sole population in his life. They do exist, but exchange no words with Ben. His parents are purposely shot on the land, having interaction with each other, when Ben is just alone drifting in the pool. He also never exchanges a word with Mrs Robinson. Mrs Robinson’s putting off his clothes while he continues being laid down resembles a mother changing clothes for her baby. It directs to one thing: Ben is never considered equally adult.

In the next scene, the music has changed. It turns to "April Come She Will" - a faster paced song. The song fits with the cheerful L.A sunlight, but the rhythm is quite repetitive and still monotonous, indicates his life is floating the same way. The lyric is lifeless as Ben’s emotion is. The words "die she must", "fly", "chilly and cold" are all negative. He doesn’t wear his white shirt anymore. The white shirt – the symbolism of his innocence is forever gone. Instead, he only has his bare chest. He is now a man, who has lost his virginity and innocence of a kid. He starts smoking, drinking beer on his raft and watching television at home or in the bed room. They suit with Ben’s corruption.

The montage is so powerful here. When viewers think he is in the hotel in the evening stay awake, then in the montage, he wakes up in his own bed. The sequence between his home and the hotel displays his view, in which to be at home is similar to be in the hotel. The final jump cut takes us similarity between Ben lying on an inflatable raft and lying on a naked Mrs Robinson. He even ponders the lifelessness to the sinful lust he has with a married woman. Like Whitehead says, Ben experiences "emotional suicide". (Appraising The Graduate: the Mike Nichols classic and its impact in Hollywood 116)

If "The Graduate" ended with Ben and Elaine smiling, the movie would be the cliché romantic comedy: the "guys chase girls, troubles between girls’ parents, guys get girls, and they live happily ever after" story that will be easy to forget. What makes the film highly acclaimed is the vague ending. After Ben and Elaine elope from the church to the bus, they laugh so happily. However, their faces become emotionless afterwards. How can they be so sad when they finally can be together? Because they realize the damage they have caused and their own future. When they walk through the church’s door, they have caused the severe scandal that many people observe. Both the Robinsons and the Braddocks’ social status will forever be tainted. This will influence a lot their parents’ business movement in the future. Moreover, when Ben comes to the rescue, Elaine is already married to her classmate. Their elopement will be scandalous since again, Ben is having an affair with a married woman. He will forever be labeled the wicked man who not only destroys the elder Mrs Robinson but also ruins the young Ms Robinson. Furthermore, how can the two indecisive people make a living? Elaine is still in college, which will make it hard for her to get a decent job. Ben, with his infamous status, will be also struggling to find a job. They have to go very far to avoid gossips and rumors. That means they will have no financial support and family support to build up their own happiness. Without them, Ben and Elaine’s irresolute traits will ultimately badly affect their lives. Therefore, although Peter Pan and Jane have gone out of Neverland, the harsh life will wait for them.

The Graduate is highly praised as one of the best films of all time. Although it only receives Oscar for Best Director, the movie is always in top 20 in "AFI’s 100 years… 100 movies" list. This film is so enduring, since to be qualified on this list, the movie has to make a real impact on American society. In fact, it raises a serious inquiry on the value of education in society. There still exist people who study without wondering what they are going to do in the future like Ben and Elaine. It is partly the reason why education is more and more applicable but the unemployment rarely decreases. The problem remains up-to-date also with the movie’s immortality.