Sometimes a word needs to be re-defined in order to properly assimilate the constructs built around it. Webster’s dictionary defines ‘pleasant as agreeable’ and mythology as the study of legends and stories. A writer, Keith VonderOhe, describes how living in the heart of your heritage (or inside oneself) compares to that of the fish living in water. The fish never concerns itself with its watery environment in which it lives all of its life. A human can talk about where it lives and generally is concerned about the environment. A human can also change conditions of the environment and move from one location to the next and through adaptability and acclamation, can survive.
The movie “Pleasantville” is a story about living life in and outside of your own box. It is a place created in the imagination of an individual that stands the test to repressed emotions and passions of soul’s closed in. The movie places emphasis on pure family values, some of which reflect the hierarchy of needs by Maslow. It suggests proper nutrition, safe sex (the separate beds measuring no more than 36 inches across), income, and shelter.
The under-lying theme of a near-Nirvana becomes grossly overrated with the connotation of ‘pleasant’. It starts with the town parameters studied in school; the beginning of Main Street is also the end. One circle constantly going around and around. The ‘pleasant theme’ continues with the basketball games when in practice on every throw, the ball goes in. Everyone smiles, talks to you, there are no car accidents nor a need for a fire department because nothing burns. There is no police force because there is no injustice being done to anyone, it is always ‘pleasant.’
Then came the colors. These are a reaction to the emotions stifled indoors; while, outdoors chaos broke out in the streets. Flowers, cars and brown grocery bags replaced the white, black, and some grays indicating life was at best, continuing without meaning.
There is little joy and excitement for a place so pleasant where nirvana-conditions are defined under a dictatorship script and changes are strictly forbidden.
Yet it was paradise for these people living in the 1990’s who looked to the 1950’s for stronger values, attitudes, and behaviors to shape their belief systems. The brother and sister in 1990 especially desired a close-knit family. Instead they deal with the reality of a split-household and loose reputation. Becoming fascinated by a sitcom, where there dreams can come true.
They are visited by a television repairman who has a remote control used only for entering the sitcom. Some examples of the paradisiacal theme throughout the movie are emulated in sports, business, role of the housewife in a nuclear family, the high school required curriculum, and how siblings and peers interact with one another.
At the high school gym, during basketball practice, the basketball goes in to the hoop every single time UNTIL an unexpected visitor changes the script for the show of the day. The new course of events by disclosure of new information about Skip and his affections for Mary Sue. Bud questions the authenticity of Skips decision to make Mary Sue his girl. The traditional ‘pinning’ a 1950’s practice shared between sweethearts who had been courting for some time, has been thrown a curve and questions about timing arise. The basketball that misses the hoop symbolizes change and a silencing of the team represents, fear.
When something is altered or taken out of its required sequence, chaos in awakening can occur. Mr. Johnson, the local diner owner, is brought personal chaos when closing the diner. Bud fails to arrive for his evening shift therefore leaving the job completely up to Mr. Johnson. This is so out of the ordinary, of a consistent tradition, Mr. Johnson cannot acclimate. The counter already took a beating, a grinding of its surface for nearly two hours because that is all Mr. Johnson did, while Bud did everything else. At first his reaction was inadequacy, can I do this? As a result of fear. Probably at the moment of thinking and asking, “can I do this?’ an enlightenment that he could, evolved cognitively.
The dilemma is an inspiration. Mr. Johnson, who once reacted aimlessly without passion in just wiping the counters, realized how much enjoyment he could derive by doing things his way, instead of the way it was done in so many previous episodes. He found that changing the order of closing protocol, the diner would be closed and ready for business the following day, despite not having Buds assistance. He could this my himself. That certain nudging from the internal self was a mystical experience, that it opened his eyes now sparkling with confidence.
It is a great example for the characters seeking perfection without measuring or utilizing the potential they just did not know existed within them. ‘Pleasant’ was now reacting to the emotional connotations of the word and really making it pleasant rather than stifled by strict order and daily regimen, void of emotional response.
sharing the light,