If you think about it, today’s world is not such what we call “user-friendly” place. Unemployment, severe diseases, global droughts and other dreadful natural disasters thatare about to happen to our lives. Even better, the more time passes, the more chances youget to face them in the future. But what the heck, everyone will eventually face all of thoseproblems one day.
Danger, devotion, abomination, curiosity, and alterations are alwayspresent in our lives. You might think that Pleasantville is pleasant. Well do I have somenews for you: nope. The name “Pleasantville” is just a simple irony that’s all. In Pleasantville, everyone is so empty in their minds. For instance, every characteralways did the same thing over and over.
It’s like everything falls into the right way that itshould be. The basketball players always score, the wives are always cooking and takinggood care of the husbands and children. Husbands are working, children are little preciousangels who never get in any kind of trouble. No worries, no problems, just plain goodstability. There is no wrong for them because everything was in sync.
It would be really tough to adjust to that kind environment where everythingbecomes dull and unbearable. No color, no fire, nothing exciting except the way Bud madeevery shot to the basket without even trying to. No changes what’s so ever. As soon as the characters saw changes, everything was getting completelydifferent. Not like the Pleasantville that everyone new.
Color, was the maintransformation. All of the sudden things turned colored. Why? Because of the changes thatwere not supposed to happen in that town. Then people turned color. Why? It’s a mysterySome people from the audience say that the characters turned color because theyfelt some extreme feeling towards something, someone, or even themselves.
Like the otherscene where Betty was in the shower. Now that was a real knockout, wasn’t it? All of thesudden she saw many colors, and then another major change happened: fire. No one sawfire before in Pleasantville except David and Jennifer. And all off the sudden it was like achain reaction, change after change after another change.
Other audience say that the reason why people changed color is because of analteration or a small shift in their lives. Again Betty for instance, she fell in love insomeone else. A small change in her life cause a small displacement in Mr. Johnson’s lifeWhen some people became different, in color wise, than other people, prejudiceoriginated in town.
All of the sudden you see discrimination such “No coloreds” sign wereseen at some stores. That cause a major crisis in the city. Violence, fights, jealousy andabhorrence among the people towards each other. That symbolized to show the real life in1950’s unlike the “pleasant” as it seemed on the television.
If you ever saw a movie “Matrix”, “Pleasantville” actually reminds me of itsomehow. Where people take things for granted, where they don’t question their existenceand where they live in a life which is made up especially for them. In that life, some detailsare absent. For instance, since no one went to the bathroom in the show by the script, thetoilet bowls were not there.
Since “safe sex” was suggested in the show, a man and awoman had separate beds. No one had sex before, until Mary Sue came along. Thatharlot. She was actually the main reason why people turned color. While Jen and David’s visit to Pleasantville, the people learned a lot. Experienceddifferent things that they never had been.
The “in sync” system fell apart completely. People started to read books. They never could of because they were blank and all of thesudden they filled up. People started to question a lot: “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”,and “Where am I going?” That has turned them completely independent of and toeverything. They became curious, a lot of questions came up to their mind. And the bestthing about it is that they did it on their own and without a script.
So why did the people turn color? No one actually exactly knows, but they canguess. So how pleasant is Pleasantville? Or should I say WAS. People are subject tochange, they can’t live without it. It becomes boring to them.
No one considers boringpleasant. But being excited to live the next day not knowing what’s going to happen nextto their life is like gamble…pleasant.Bibliography:
