The Graduate (1967)

4.9/5 stars

Important themes in The Graduate (1967) include freedom, the generation gap, isolation, and ambition. All these tie into the two most prevalent meanings in the film: self-knowledge and temptation. Ben is hemmed in by his parents’ and society’s expectations, but has the awareness to realize how unsatisfying the middleclass suburban life would be despite the ease in which he could settle into it.

Society is represented by a fish tank. The viewer continually sees Ben surrounded by or through the fish tank in his room. The symbolism is particularly explicit at his twenty-first birthday when he is wearing scuba diving equipment (provided by his father), and cajoled into the pool, and then pushed under the water by his parents. Ben goes under and stays in the pool because it was expected, just like he tempted to fall into the life laid out by his parents because it is the path of least resistance. It is made obvious though that Ben would ultimately be unhappy in that life. Roger Ebert says that The Graduate “is funny… because it has a point of view…it’s against something.” The film is against being a follower; it is about discovering and being true to one’s self.

Ben says that he wants to do something “different,” and having a secret affair with an older married woman at first seems like rebellion. However, Mrs. Robinson is trapped in the fish tank with no way out. Ben and Elaine can still see the glass walls and the possibilities beyond them, but for Mrs. Robinson it is too late. Mrs. Robinson’s role as antagonist ties in with the 60s and 70s ideology that was heavily influenced by the enormous generation gap between the Baby Boomers and their parents. Rosenbaum points out that “‘don’t trust anyone over 30’ is the only 60s counterculture motto honored in The Graduate, though the picture has only two under-30 characters of any importance, neither of them particularly well defined.” The reason Rosenbaum states that Ben and Elaine are not well defined is because both struggle with words.

The over-30 people around Ben are constantly interrupting him, and outsmarting and manipulating him with words. Mrs. Robinson simply says that she is not trying to seduce Ben and that makes it reality for Ben, even though he knows better and she is asking him to help her undress. Joan Didion said in her essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” that the discomfort with words was typical of Ben’s generation. “They do not believe in words…their only proficient vocabulary is in society’s platitudes…the ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language” (123). Ben is most affected when Elaine cries, and kisses her to show the sincerity of his apology. Elaine accepts and understands Ben, and that is when Ben falls in love with her. Elaine screams to show her frustration and anger rather than talking, and Ben is unable to convince his landlord with arguments that he is trustworthy. Ben is so accustomed to apologizing and taking direction that he has no way to express himself in words, he can only act to show his determination to marry Elaine.