Culture In Pleasantville

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The culture object I chose was the film “Pleasantville”. The movie is about two high schoolers, David and Jennifer, in the 90’s who are transformed into the television show “Pleasantville”. As alluded in the title, the show they mysteriously appear in is perfect; nothing ever goes wrong. David’s first instinct is to follow the plotline of the show, he doesn’t think they should disrupt the citizen’s lives. Jennifer has different plans, and has sex with one of the boys at the high school. This concept is completely unknown to the people of Pleasantville, and stirs the town into turmoil. Everyone then starts acting out line; they have feelings and emotions that control their actions. They no longer all have the same mindset. I thought this movie was a good example of a community going from mechanical to organic solidarity. In the beginning, the people in the community were mirror images …show more content…

As society modernizes, and the division of labor increases, individuals have a weakened sense of community and therefor a weakened restriction of behavior. In the movie, Jennifer started to express her own views and beliefs. She sought to satisfy her own wants. People in the community started to follow her footsteps. They felt a lack of restraint to satisfy their own wants. As more and more people decided to stray away from the norm, eventually everyone did because there was no longer a sense of community holding together the normal belief system. Durkheim also talks about the forced division of labor. This is where a division of labor is not allowed to just happen naturally in society. Examples of this are things such as slavery or a dictatorship. The mayor in the movie “Pleasantville” tries to force the individuals into solidarity after the citizens of the town become colorful. He puts a ban on color people at public venues. He tries to force the town back to the way it was, but he does not

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