Isaac A.

Newman
Due: 4/23/18
Green Group

Cinematic Analysis: ​The Graduate

A.
The Graduate, ​directed by Mike Nichols, is set in Pasadena and Berkeley, California in

1967. The film follows a bright, yet näive college graduate, Benjamin, in the weeks following his

graduation. He has lost his sense of purpose and struggles to find his way in life after college.

The film is centered around the theme that one must learn to be active rather than passive.

The film begins with Benjamin returning home for a graduation party. The party, which

is attended exclusively by his parents’ friends questioning him about his future, is the first of a

series of things Benjamin submits to against his will. At the party, Benjamin is asked by his

father’s business partner’s wife, Mrs. Robinson, to drive her home from the party, walk her to the

door, stand with her as she turns on the lights, wait with her until her husband returns home, have

a drink with her, see a portrait of her daughter, and help her unzip her dress, all of which are

against his will. In the beginning of the film, Benjamin doesn’t act for himself, but instead

passively submits to the demands of others. At his twenty-first birthday party, Benjamin is

wearing the scuba suit his parents bought for him as his father brags about him to his friends. On

command, Benjamin awkwardly flops to the pool and sinks to the bottom, where he remains for

some time.

In the next scene, Benjamin calls Mrs. Robinson from the Taft hotel, inviting her to have

drinks with him. This is the first moment in the film where Benjamin is seen taking action, yet

his action is only provoked by his lack of a sense of purpose. When Mrs. Robinson arrives, she

pressures him into reserving a room for the night and then coerces him into having sex with her

by suggesting he is a virgin. For the next couple of weeks, Benjamin alternates between the
 Isaac A. Newman
Due: 4/23/18
Green Group

passive behaviors of wordless sexual encounters with Mrs. Robinson at the Taft hotel and

lounging in his parents pool.

The turning point occurs during a date with the Robinsons’ daughter. Torn between his

parents’ and Mr. Robinson’s insistence that he take her out and Mrs. Robinson’s strict

admonition not to, Benjamin brings Elaine to a strip club to ensure that she will never want to

see him again. When Elaine begins to cry, Benjamin realizes he has feelings for her. He kisses

her, and they connect further during dinner at a drive-in. Afterwards, they go for drinks at the

Taft hotel where the entire staff greets Benjamin as Mr. Gladstone, the alias he uses to meet Mrs.

Robinson. Elaine confronts him, so he admits to having an affair without revealing details.

Benjamin shows up at the Robinsons’ house the next day to take Elaine out on a second

date. Mrs. Robinson climbs into the car instead and threatens to reveal the affair if he tries to see

her daughter again. Benjamin races in to tell Elaine himself. Horrified, Elaine screams at him to

leave.

Fed up with his feeling of despair, he decides that the only thing worth living for is his

love for Elaine. He announces to his parents his intention to marry Elaine and sets off to

Berkeley where she has returned to school. He rents a room and awkwardly sets about wooing

her. Eventually she realizes that they do have connection, but it is too late. The Robinsons whisk

her off to an arranged marriage in an undisclosed location, but the newly inspired Benjamin is

not easily deterred. Using his own resources and ingenuity, Benjamin ascertains the location of

the church and races there, entering just as the minister officiates the marriage. Benjamin jumps

over the railing to avoid being caught by her father, elbows him in the ribs, and grabs a wooden

cross and brandishes it as a weapon, fighting his way out of the church with Elaine. At the end of
 Isaac A. Newman
Due: 4/23/18
Green Group

the film, Benjamin behaves actively and finds his sense of purpose with Elaine. He learns that a

passive approach to life will not get him what he wants; he learned to actively decide his future.

B.

The Graduate ​takes place in 1967 and portrays multiple aspects of American society

during that time, the most apparent of which is the generation gap. The film also portrays

specific aspects of American society during the era such as sexual revolution, shotgun weddings,

the hippie movement, and the civil rights movement.

The generation gap refers to the disparity in values or outlook between members of

different generations which tends to cause conflict. College students in the sixties are known for

being deeply involved in the civil right movement and in protesting the Vietnam war. Both of

these moral causes were adopted by the youth but were much less popular among their parents.

In the scene where a Berkeley landlord shows Benjamin a room to rent, he says he hopes

Benjamin is not an “outside agitator.” This is a reference to the civil right activists who

converged on Berkeley to raise their collective voices in protest. At the time of the film, the

Berkeley campus was known for its activism concerning civil rights, free speech, and protesting

the Vietnam war (Rathi).

Elaine’s father tells Benjamin to “have several flings” this summer; presumably because

he regrets marrying during law school when his girlfriend, Mrs. Robinson, became pregnant with

Elaine. This practice, known as a shotgun wedding, often occurred before the advent of the birth

control pill in the early sixties (Nuevo-Chiquero). Later in the film, Benjamin overhears a group

of fraternity brothers referencing Elaine’s presumed shotgun wedding.

 Isaac A. Newman
Due: 4/23/18
Green Group

The Graduate ​was made in the middle of American society’s sexual revolution which

took place in the sixties. The film’s plot centers around a young man and his scandalous love

triangle with a young woman and her married mother. ​The Graduate ​is an iconic example of the

loosening of the traditional and conservative customs regarding intimate relationships.

“In the mid 1960s, a never before seen hippie counter-culture blossomed throughout the

United States” (All That’s Interesting). In the middle of the film, when Benjamin and Elaine eat

at the drive-in, the car next to them is full of hippies playing loud rock music. When Benjamin

asks them to turn down the volume, they turn it up instead. “Their reaction shows the idea of

counterculture and disapproval of the social mainstream” ("The Graduate…”).

The Graduate ​is an iconic film portraying many aspects of American society during the

era it represents.

C.

Analyze the use of metaphor and imagery in the film, citing several examples.

In the beginning of the film, Benjamin stands passively on a conveyor belt at the airport.

While he is slowly moved along on the belt, many people at the airport walk quickly past him.

The director uses imagery in this scene to introduce Benjamin’s passive nature. Throughout the

first half of the movie, Benjamin struggles with a failure to know how to move forward on his

own. He repeatedly expresses “concern about [his] future” and demonstrates an inability to take

steps toward doing or becoming anything after college. The conveyor belt is a brilliant visual

device that shows us the character’s initial inability to take steps forward into his future.

The director uses metaphor in Benjamin's twenty-first birthday scene. Benjamin’s parents

make him wear a scuba suit and jump into their backyard pool. The view from inside the mask
 Isaac A. Newman
Due: 4/23/18
Green Group

and the sound of his breath magnified by the snorkel convey Benjamin’s deep discomfort. The

water pressure his parents put him under, at the bottom of their pool, is a metaphor for the

pressure his parents impose on him to decide what he wants to do after college and whom he

should date. The metaphor becomes more apparent when his parents push him by his mask back

down under the water after he floats up to the surface. The director also uses imagery when

Benjamin is at the bottom of the pool by himself. The camera zooms out until he appears

miniscule in the corner of the pool, showing visually how alone Benjamin feels in this world of

adults.

Another device used by the director of The Graduate is color, especially the combination

of black and white, in both costume and set. The black and white is a metaphor for the binary

morality of the older generation in the film. In the beginning, Benjamin conforms to the views of

older generation by wearing a white shirt under a black suit, but as he begins to make decisions

for himself, he begins to wear neutrals. This change in clothing is also a symbol. His switch to

neutral colors show that his morality is no longer as clear as black and white. Elaine makes a

parallel switch in clothing. In the beginning of the film, Elaine is presented as a child in a pale

pink jacket over a pink dress. Later in the film, Elaine also begins to wear neutral colors. With

this color shift, the director is able to display Elaine’s emerging romantic connection with

Benjamin.
 Isaac A. Newman
Due: 4/23/18
Green Group

Works Cited
All That's Interesting. “A Brief History Of Hippies, The Counter-Culture Movement That

Took Over America.” All That's Interesting, All That's Interesting, 31 Jan. 2018.

Nuevo-Chiquero, Ana. “Trends in Shotgun Marriages: the Pill, the Will or the Cost?” 9

June 2012.

Rathi, Mukund. “Opinion: The Free Speech Movement in Berkeley Was a Defense of

Civil Rights Activism.” Berkeleyside, 13 Mar. 2018.

"The Graduate - Cultural Significance." UKEssays.com. 11 2013. All Answers Ltd. 04

2018