The Graduate Essay, Research Paper

Veronica Combs

This paper will be both a critique as well as an analysis of the relationships between both my generation and the time period in which the movie took place. In the critique, I which to look at the movie score and the dependency that I felt Ben and Katherine had for each other. There were several issues that I felt my generation had in common with Ben’s generation. These issues were the need to rebel and the detachment we feel from our parents.

There were several aspects of the movie, which I think should have been removed. The first aspect is the movie score, which was sung by Paul Simon and composed by Simon and Garfunckel. In my opinion, the music was very folksy. Folksy in the way that it should be something that people meditate to not listen to on a movie screen. I also felt the movie score did not fit in with the movie, because the music was too mundane for the fast pace of the movie. The next aspect is the dependency that Ben and Katherine had for the other. I do believe that they really loved each other, but that each person represented something that the other did not see in themselves. I felt that Katherine saw in Ben his rebellious behavior which she wish she had and Ben wished that he had Katherine’s quiet and peaceful spirit.

I really felt this movie related to my generation because it touched on a few important issues that are still common now. These issues are the need to rebel from society, and the detachment from the parents. The first issue was Ben Braddock’s need to rebel. His rebellion was his affair with Ms. Robinson. I think his rebellion stemmed from the fact that he felt he had to conform to what society expected from him after graduation. I feel that when he started his relationship with Ms. Robinson, he was thinking that he had finally done something that wasn’t his parents’ idea and it felt good. We see this attitude now in college students, who feel the need to break away from the expectations, set by our parents. Many times I feel the need to be in a career exactly the opposite from what my mother wants me to do even if that career is the same career I really want to do.

The next issue that I thought was revelant to my generation is detachment from our parents that we create for ourselves. I saw the detachment that Ben created for himself in the first few scenes where he sits in the room and tells his father that he doesn’t want to go to the party right away. I feel that the detachment he created for himself because he felt that his parents really didn’t understand him or what he wanted to do and also that his parents wanted him to grow up yet they wanted to treat him like a child. Ben’s parents wanted him to get a job, but instead they let him spend the entire summer not doing anything but relaxing by the pool. I see this detachment in myself sometimes, because I want to be treated as an adult, yet my mother wants to keep up this image that I am just a kid. I have to admit to myself that I like being babied because it makes me feel protected.