Character Identification: The Graduate (1967) \"Plastics.\" Although

Character identification: The Graduate (1967)

"Plastics." Although The Graduate was made in 1967, it is difficult not to identify with the protagonist Benjamin Braddock. Benjamin is a recent college graduate, adrift in the world and uncertain of his life's purpose. Benjamin finds himself constantly pressured by the adults in his life to select a stable career path and to settle down. Benjamin is disturbed by the emptiness and misery of the adults around him, but he is not sure about how to find a new way to live. He wants to please his parents but he does not want to become like his parents.

First and foremost, I identify with Benjamin because we are at similar life stages. We are no longer young adolescents who feel confident that our parents know what to do, yet we are uncertain of our own values. We seek objective, wise counsel from an outside authority, but we also known that there is no one who is not self-interested in the advice he or she gives. Older adults have made a substantial life investment in the traditional, suburban American Dream. Even though we may not feel this is right for us, we will have to forge ahead on a path of financial and personal independence.

Benjamin's choices feel very limited -- does he choose to sublimate his creativity and go into the production of "plastics," as he is urged to do at a party by an older guest? If not, what is the viable alternative? I feel personal and family pressures to get a good job by the time I graduate from college. My dilemma is slightly different than Benjamin in that I am more worried about finding a decent-paying job to pay off my student loans. Spiritual fulfillment as well as financial solvency seems like a far-off dream. But both of us are similarly dissatisfied with the choices before us and wish there was another way to 'grow up.'

Benjamin also finds himself frustrated by the lies of adult society. The mother of the girl he really loves seduces him, and he begins to have an adulterous affair with Mrs. Robinson. Although adult society presents itself as very moral, Benjamin knows all too well from his personal experience that this is a lie. Adultery is common behind closed doors, even though the immorality of the young is condemned. However, so long as people do not transgress in the open, everyone is willing to 'look the other way.'

Fortunately, I have never found myself mired in the type of ethical conflict faced by Benjamin regarding the mother of my girlfriend. But I do feel frustrated when older persons to whom I look up fail to live up to my ideals. I do not feel that the previous generation provides a viable model to relate to the world and to find happiness and wish-fulfillment. Technology and human life has changed too fast. To make new rules can be confusing, as Benjamin discovers. For most of the film, Benjamin acts indecisively. He goes along with having the affair with Mrs. Robinson but he does not seem to really want to do so.