It is still so difficult to know where to begin exploring this satire on the 'aging' values of a generation that worships the "neon god" of capitalism and materialism in a decade of changing social mores that was to bring about profound changes in the structure of American society. It's no wonder that poor pensive Ben, surrounded by the cocktail-swigging glitterati in their garish tans, their smiles painted on like that creepy puppet from Saw, feels "a little worried" about his future. Although "plastics" may seem to point the way forward to a career, plastic is in fact already the norm: a plastic, inert, phony, meaningless life awaits him. And as Ben figuratively drowns himself at the bottom of the pool, his protest against living in the fishbowl of his upper middle class Los Angeles suburb, he acquiesces to the moral decadence which Mrs. Robinson has so brazenly offered him. His parents have pushed his mask, pushed him under in their overzealous desire to make their lives vicariously meaningful through his achievements, and I really loved my students' interpretations that the four sides of the pool represent the boundaries of his life, and that he phones Mrs. Robinson at this very point because his parents cannot do anything more to him; he has been drowned (in their odious values) to the point of reaching equilibrium.Some critics have found the relationship between Ben and Elaine somewhat unbelievable, and have noted that nothing in Ben's character satisfactorily prepares the audience for his sudden spur to action. I thought about this a lot (as I watched the film five times in one week..). Finally I concluded that it was Elaine's tears in the strip club that awoke Ben from his indifference. It is the first genuine emotion he has observed in months, perhaps years. It makes her a real person, and her humiliation highlights her sexual innocence, which further differentiates her from Mrs. Robinson and her sophisticated sexual prowess (Mrs. Robinson also shows great vulnerability, to the audience - the most interesting scene if you ask me - but she hides it from Ben). This finally snaps Ben back to himself, allows him to feel again. Is it 'love'? Surely not, but at least Ben is talking again, and his aimlessness is replaced with a burning obsession to have Elaine.
Although Elaine may seem more expressive than Ben, she is also drifting: she "might" marry Karl ("That guy from the zoo?"), she "might" marry Ben, and she states this with all the emotion of someone pondering whether to drink a normal or a Diet Coke. Does she 'love' Ben? I very much think not. In a fit of fickleness and impulsiveness, she only decides she wants Ben when he tells her to go. I think she is actually the most problematic character: as one of my students put it, she's just a pretty face, but she's even more aimless than Ben. Are we supposed to sympathise with her just because she's young? To me her personality is entirely insipid.
The church scene is priceless. Ben swings the crucifix at the crowd, throwing their hypocritical moral values back in their faces, and they shrink back, as one of my students put it, as if they were vampires being attacked by a silver cross. They are either frightened by the supposed power of god or simply repelled by good because of their inherent evil. How 'moral' is it to force one's daughter to marry someone she doesn't love, just for the sake of revenge and respectability? It may seem as if it's Ben who's making a mockery of the house of god by blasphemously waving the cross, but in fact I think it's the guests themselves - and they are locked into the house that hypocrisy built.
But ultimately, it is a pointless rebellion: Ben and Elaine have fallen back on their parents' values, and they have scored a hollow victory. They start to realise this even as the bus barrels down the road; their smiles of triumph quickly fade away, replaced by uncertainty and anxiety. What now? Where do we go from here? Where are we going, where have we been?
'Woman legs' by Nick-K., licenced under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 2.0 Generic.
