Symbolism In The Story Of Benjamin Braddock's 'The Graduate'

The Graduate tells the story of Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate. Ben is confused about his future, he doesn’t know what he wants to do. The character is a boy surrounded by the environment of his parents, remaining inactive in a world filled with the gender generation. Ben is someone who finds himself alienated and adrift in the shifting, social and sexual mores of the 1960s, and questioning the values of society (with its keyword "plastics")
Mrs. Robinson, a neighbour’s wife and friend of Ben’s parents, seduces him, starting from that point a relationship based only on sex. Through his affair with Mrs Robinson, Ben attempts to find an answer to his future, but he realises that he doesn’t really fit into his parent’s environment

In this moment, Ben forgets about what people expects from him and starts deciding about his future in his own.

The rain in the scene has lot of symbolism, represents metaphorically the resolution that is about to happen next. This film does not follow completely the dramatic structure of rising action, climax, falling action, denouement and resolution; the whole film maintains itself really calm, action passes slowly until the last half hour, where the plot turns into a storm creating in the last moment a sudden resolution. Ben’s life is no more like the time he spent in the pool, the rain defines the moment when Ben begins to

After this, we observe a medium close up of Ben looking seriously straight to her, he now doesn’t think about Elaine but in the life he destroyed.

The best way the director makes us emphasise with the character, is with the music, the lyrics of Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel match perfectly with Ben’s situation, when he can’t stop thinking about Elaine. The lyrics include a very powerful sentence, “She once was a true love of mine”, that makes us feel sorry for Ben, who wishes Elaine didn’t forget who he is.

The scene shows perfectly the suburbia of that time, where people lived in impeccable houses along very symmetric streets, all full of beautiful colourful lawns and glimmering swimming pools.

The theme of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, seduced and betrayed by a corrupt and decadent older generation was well understood by film audiences and captured the spirit of the times. One of the reasons why people still admires this picture, is because what happened at that time can be also applied