Prejudice In The Movie Pleasantville

Pleasantville paper In the movie Pleasantville, the people in the town were very much afraid of change. When being in an environment you are used to, change is something you would be prejudice about. Bud went to Pleasantville with the attitude of not wanting to change what they thought on things of life. Mary went to Pleasantville wanting to change the town as fast as she could to the modern life. An example of this is when the town would just go to lover’s lane to hangout and socialize. When Mary came to Pleasantville she went on a date there and introduced him to sex. A form of being prejudice in this movie is when Mary and Buds mom turned “color” she did not want to face her husband. So her son Bud had to put make up on her so she could face her husband. Change may be hard for a lot of people, but it usually turns out for the best or just a new experience of life. When bud and Mary came to Pleasantville, the people in the town did not have much knowledge of the modern life that Mary and Bud lived in. When talking to the towns people all their knowledge was based off what they were taught and what goes on in Pleasantville. Mary and Bud realized that the more modern
material they share with them, they would eventually all turned “colored”. One example of this was in the middle of the movie when Bud was explaining the book Huckleberry Finn to one of the guys that lived in Pleasantville. After being told about the novel, he and the book turned “colored.” In the movie, I really focused on Betty Parker.
Betty was the mom of Mary and Bud’s house hold. Betty was not afraid of change and being modern. The only thing Betty was afraid to face was her husband, being that she now had color. Betty was afraid to face her husband being a totally new person and understanding the modern lifestyle. Every time Mary and Bud would come, she would ask them what they have done. When Betty brought up Lovers’ Lane to the kids, Mary then had to describe what sex was to her mother. After learning about sex, Betty then learned how to masturbate. When she was masturbating in the bath tub, the bird and tree outside turned to color and tree caught on fire. Throughout Betty’s experience in change to the modern world, I think the common theme of change for her was
sexual. At the end of the movie there was a lot of symbolism showed. Betty sat with George at the end of the movie on the bench. She finally came to terms with his changes in life and was ready to move on. When Betty was talking to George, George was replaced with Jeff on the bench. This shows to me that nothing has been decided and there was not a right decision. When you leave the grey world to the “colored” world you get situations where there is no right choice possible. I thought Pleasantville was a great movie. It showed a lot of symbolism and people being prejudice towards new things and ideas. I thought the change was very helpful to the non-colored people. Our world is changing everyday with new things and I feel everybody should be on the same page. It is hard for someone to change to a whole different lifestyle and be comfortable with it. I think the overall message to this movie was not to be afraid to sometimes jump out of your comfort zone and learn new ways of life. If you are stuck in something your whole life and you do not take the time to try new things, you could be missing out on many things.