American History

Throughout American history, there has been a struggle for equality and power. The film Pleasantville examines and criticizes the changes that have occurred in American society over the past 50 years. The movie reveals individual struggles along with tying these conflicts in with a larger story line. Pleasantville can be seen as a conservative Utopia but in reality it consists of censorship, sexism, segregation, and narrow mindedness. From an outsider, Pleasantville can be viewed as a harmonious community where everything is just "pleasant," but in reality this is only because nothing ever changes and the citizens abide to their daily routines. However, once David and Jennifer arrive this quickly changes as they introduce elements of their lifestyle from the nineties. Boundaries are tested as the citizens of Pleasantville begin to break away from their conformist routines and gain individuality.

These ideas of conformity and restriction can be correlated to the text,

Punishing Schools Fear and Citizenship in American Public Education by William Lyons and Julie Drew. It elaborates on the idea that the educational system mechanisms of punishment causes fear and encourages the development of passive, abiding citizens. It critiques the American public education system and its role in national culture. Punishing Schools brings a light on to public education by comparing Pleasantville to Suburbia High School. Since it is a cultural text, the ideas expressed in Pleasantville are the ideas that the writer wants to portray. Therefore, the writing portrays what the authors wanted to. Punishing Schools compares public school education to Pleasantville to convey that authority is enforced through fear and conformity is present in both.

When Pleasantville is first introduced, the citizens lacked originality and personal freedom. Idealistic characters governed by social norms represented the artificial happiness of the monotonous town. This is portrayed through the use of a grey hue throughout the film. The town lacks color due to the mundane, uneventful lives of Pleasantville. Only once the people of Pleasantville began to turn "colored," did they start to break out of social norms and defy the conventional ways of society. This change can be seen through Betty, a typical housewife, who becomes "colored" once she begins to pursue her feelings and ambitions. The use of grey hues reveals the lack of diversity in Pleasantville. Everyone is viewed as the same and abide by the same rules. Similarly, in the public school education, students are all viewed as the same and forced to follow the same authority figures. The loss of individualism in the 1950's is revealed through the restrictions on expression and behavior.

Once people began rebelling and expressing their personal freedom, racism began to occur throughout Pleasantville me a separation between "colored," and black and whites. The traditional, restrictive values of Pleasantville reflect the nature of all objects having no color. As the citizens become enlightened toward personal freedom, they themselves begin to attain color. The black and whites were considered real citizens of Pleasantville while the "colored" were the ones that had undergone change and experienced emotion and explored their freedom. The remaining black and white people were still willing to maintain the status quo, resorting to violence against the colored. They found the colored people outrageous and a threat to the pleasant state of Pleasantville.