Pleasantville

The decade following the Second World War brought about a new sensation of the ‘perfect housewife' and her duties at home. Men being drafted and shipped oversees during World War II had taken a lot of women out of the kitchen and put them into the workplace. This was the biggest movement thus yet of women changing roles in society and moving away from domestication. This movement was thwarted by returning soldiers, their moving back to the workplace, and the repositioning of women in the home. The baby boom followed the Second World War, furthering the encouragement of women to stay home and be the ideal mother and wife. Television greatly reflected this attitude. Sitcoms about the ideal family emerged left and right. Shows like ‘Leave it to Beaver', ‘Ozzie and Harriet', and ‘Father Knows Best' portrayed the happy and satisfying life a woman could lead by fulfilling her duties. Gary Ross's 1998 feature film Pleasantville examined the differences between the 90s and the 50s image of family by transporting 90s characters into the ideal black and white image of the ideal 1950s family of a mother, father, son and daughter. Not only did this movie explore ideas in feminism, but racism as well. When a character of the original Pleasantville was exposed to something new, they turned from black and white to an image of color. This separation between those in color and those not, there began a racism much like the segregation there used to be between African Americans and white Americans. The concept of the ‘perfect family' emerged largely after the baby boom when women were forced back into their old ways of domestication and the birth of suburbia. Pleasantville is the perfect title for the suburb portrayed in the movie. This is a community with no problems. The women keep the house neat and have dinner on the table every night for when their husbands come home from work and chant the infamous ‘Honey, I'm home!' The children, which every family has, do