The Graduate works within the archetypal tradition, as can be understood through Benjamin’s pursuit of women. Mrs. Robinson represents lust, risk, and everything associated with the sort of fleeting lifestyle Benjamin desires to follow after graduating. Benjamin is not emotionally invested in Mrs. Robinson as a partner, but rather pursues her as a sexual outlet during the night. During the day, he lounges around aimlessly with no plans for his future. On the other hand, Elaine represents love, safety, structure, and everything that Benjamin needs. When he finally decides to give Elaine a chance, he falls in love with her for who she is, so much so that he decides to marry her; up to this point in the movie, that is one of the only concrete decisions Benjamin makes about his future. In this way, Benjamin’s experimentation with each woman and his choosing between the two is universal in the sense that he chooses between chaos and order: this wild, aimless lifestyle that his younger, immature self desires, and the structured, logical pathway that his adult self needs to adopt.

The movie also works simultaneously within the national archetype. Benjamin’s sense of aimlessness and despair after graduating from college is representative of the disillusionment many Americans faced after the end of WWI. Benjamin is at a loss for what he wants to do post-graduation; he no longer feels the drive to push him to higher education, thus he never applies to graduate school. In a similar way, following WWI, many Americans no longer felt the same patriotism they had experienced prior to the war. Instead, most of them lost faith in the nation. This sort of disillusionment is the other side of the coin of the patriotism that is so essential to the American identity, and thus, in itself, is a part of the American identity. Thus, through Ben’s faltering belief in the traditional graduate school path, we see the ourselves as a country.

The Graduate (1967) is a prime example of a story that highlights the universal archetype of a protagonist who is characterized by doubt, aimlessness and a refusal to come to terms with their future. The closing scene of The Graduate encapsulates this theme as, at first, the absence of music in the beginning focuses on the couple joyfully entering the bus and the ominous “The Sound of Silence” begins. As the gleeful smiles of Ben and Elaine dissipate and the couple sits without speaking to each other, the lines “and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains within the sound of silence”. The return of Simon and Garfunkel’s song signifies a full circle in Ben’s life. The indecision and doubt that originally paralyzed Ben in the scene where he leaves the airport is the same doubt that Ben faces in the last moments of the movie, where he must come to terms with his future with Elaine. Similarly, the closing image of the bus, shot from behind as it disappears into the distance, captures the idea of the unknown and the couple’s hanging future, as Elaine and Ben ride to a destination unbeknownst to neither them nor the audience.

The Graduate also represents the superficiality of the American Dream, which is hinted at by the clever line at Benjamin’s welcome home party, made by a potential business associate: “Just one word… plastics”. The idea of plasticity is not only present in the artificial interactions between Benjamin and his guests at the party, but also in the contrived nature of his relationship with Mrs. Robinson. His decision to sleep with her stems out of a desperate need to make a decision and act on anything. This despondence and desperation on Benjamin’s part represents a common attitude among people that finds it roots in the American Dream: a desire and yearning to grasp onto purpose and success without true understanding of the things they truly seek.

The symbolic usage of weather in The Graduate supports the contextualization of the movie within the archetypal tradition. According to Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, rain invokes the Biblical story of Noah and with it the fear of drowning and the promise of beginning anew. The Graduate features rain in the scene where Mrs. Robinson’s threatens to reveal her relationship with Benjamin to Elaine. The narrative context of the scene captures both aspects of rain. On one hand, Benjamin fears facing the consequences of his affair but also hopes that telling the truth will be the best option.

Additionally, Mike Nichols uses the rain to intensify the scene by changing the physical appearance of Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson and establishing a contrast between these characters and Elaine. Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson appear drenched and physically exhausted representing the toll the affair has had on these characters.

The culturally specific usage of automobiles in The Graduate places the movie in the nationalist tradition. Automobiles in American culture are symbols of freedom and signifiers of wealth. The car gifted to Benjamin plays a substantial role in advancing the plot. For example, it facilitates the affair, and it allows Benjamin to follow Elaine to Berkeley. In a thematic sense, the car symbolizes the freedom Benjamin now has but also serves as a reminder that he cannot escape the materialism that paid for it.  

Benjamin’s car appears in many scenes where he is free to make decisions for himself. Thus, it is interesting to note that in the wedding scene, Benjamin’s car is absent because it ran out of gas earlier. In this scene, Benjamin continues to exercise his freedom to decide, so perhaps, the abandonment of his car represents Benjamin’s separation from materialism, which he accomplishes alongside his love, Elaine.

The Graduate (1967) strongly represents social changes that took place during the 60s in the United States. Soon after the Cold War and World War II had ended, many Americans searched for peace and freedom, which led to civil rights movements for African Americans and the blossoming of hippie communities. Ben represents this movement because he feels so out of place among his parents and their socialite friends. The only adult Ben really bonds with in any way is Mrs. Robinson, an older woman who is also searching for a drastic change in her life. In this movie, the director uses water to indicate Ben’s desires to be free of the life his parents want for him and the pressures that come with it. For instance, during the first party scene, Ben escapes the guests’ questions to stare at the fish tank in his room. Additionally, Ben is often seen lying in the pool relaxing before his parents start to nag him about taking control of his future.

On a more universal level, The Graduate represents the archetypal combat between love and desire. One on hand, Ben sees Mrs. Robinson as an experienced woman, beautiful even in her older age. The relationship he develops with her is simply sexual; this is made clear when, late in the film, Ben asks Mrs. Robinson if they “could say a few words to each other first this time”. Furthermore, the director makes it clear that Ben is unhappy with this because all of their sexual encounters take place in relative silence and in the dark. In the scene where Ben makes the previous remark, he turns on the light to have a conversation and Mrs. Robinson repeatedly turns it off as she tries to avoid it. Contrarily, Ben’s relationship with Elaine is solely based on love. Throughout the movie, Ben claims multiple times that he loves Elaine and that he plans to marry her, despite Mrs. Robinson being completely opposed. His relationship with Elaine is highlighted by loud noises on their first date and their meetings take place in the daytime; the sole exception to this is the moment shared by the pair in Ben’s bedroom in Berkeley where he asks Elaine to marry him. The contrast here marks the intimacy of that moment, but it is different from the times Ben was with Mrs. Robinson because he and Elaine manage to have a conversation in the dark. At the end of the film, love beats lust when Ben steals Elaine away from her family and, particularly, her mother.

 

As the plot of The Graduate progresses, Benjamin Braddock slowly starts to rebel against the status quo which he has known for his entire life, leading some to characterize this movie within the hippy movement. One scene that encapsulates the nationalist imagery occurs at Elaine’s wedding to Carl. In the dramatic climax to the entire film, Benjamin takes a cross from the church and starts beating back wedding attendees with this sacred object. The “status-quo” that the nationalist themes of this movie oppose is the white, upper-middle class life. Religion, specifically Christianity was very important to this identity. By taking the most recognizable symbol of the religion that is central to this lifestyle and physically beating members of this class with such an object demonstrates Benjamin’s rejection of his upbringing. Throughout the entire film, he expresses discomfort with his life status and positions, as demonstrated by his refusal to attend graduate school and his general discontentment in life. This culminating scene reflects how his emotions have finally boiled over, causing him to physically attack the status quo which he has been trying to reject for the entire movie.

While The Graduate contains significant nationalist overtones, it still retains a standard coming-of-age character arc. One moment that reveals this archetype occurs when Benjamin first admits to Elaine having an affair with a married woman. For so much of the first act of the movie, Benjamin is portrayed as a confused kid who enters a taboo relationship because of his lack of experience and emotional maturity. The scene where the hotel workers comedically refer to him by his fake name used for the affair reaffirms this portrayal. Although using a fake name for an affair is nowhere near uncommon, the manner in which he reacts to this name with embarrassment and attempted humor reveals that, at that moment, he still just a kid. However, when Elaine later asks him if he was having an affair, his response reveals significant growth as he calmly tells her the truth, or at least a partial truth, about his relationship. For the first time in the movie, the audience views Benjamin as an adult who has come to his own terms with the affair that, for better or worse, has been the driving force behind his emotional maturation. Even though this movie ends with intense nationalist themes, there is no denying that an archetypal character arc for Benjamin still exists within this narrative.

 

For the archetypal tradition, two very important symbols come into play, namely the clown portrait and the water imagery. While only appearing once in the film, the portrait of the clown as Benjamin descends into the party suggests that he is about to put on an act, degrading himself for the amusement of the audience while simultaneously transforming into someone other than himself. The reason this can be called a universal is that the story in this case is not simply conveying how he felt in the moment but rather attempts to break through to the deeper notions of how people must hide their true selves within social interactions. This in turn is further compounded using the fish tank and water imagery. Repeatedly throughout the film, water is used in either the form of a fish tank next to his bed or the pool outside his house. In both cases, a diver is present; in the fish tank, it is a toy, while in the pool, it is Benjamin. Such an image evokes within the viewer metaphorical elements so often associated with water in mythology, such as being submerged and struggling to stay afloat as well as drifting in an ocean like a lost survivor of a shipwreck. When Mrs. Robinson throws the keys in the water, for example, the connection can be made that this is the first of many steps submerging his whole life in the affair that will follow.  In this way, the imagery of the water can be understood as speaking to a universal human experience for trying to stay afloat in both a literal and metaphorical sense, as water is everywhere and as such the concept of drowning is something every human being more or less is familiar with, but also every person relates to the struggle of trying to escape metaphorical drowning.

In terms of following the national archetype there is much more concrete evidence. The setting of LA (while not uncommon due to budget constraints) elicits an iconic distinctly American environment. Moreover, the presentation of Benjamin as having just graduated college and his nature of being from an affluent family put him directly into parlance with conceptions of the American dream. He is pressured by his parents to pursue success and build the lifestyle they have given him for himself. He is also encouraged by Mr. Robinson to have a few summer flings, a distinctly American concept. More generally, the way the movie treats sexuality itself can be regarded as distinctly American; one could not imagine the affair happening in this way in any other country besides America and perhaps Britain. The fact that the parents are shown to understand he is having an affair and not being upset about it lends to this understanding, as in conservative countries this could not only lead to being excommunicated from society but death.

The Graduate (1967) follows the common archetypal pattern known as the hero’s journey. The plot depicts a coming of age story for the main character Benjamin Braddock following his return to Southern California after graduating college. In his return to this ordinary world, Ben has no path for his life. Family and friends swarm him at his party congratulating him and asking him about his future, but he seems disinterested in these events and even a little frustrated. When Mrs. Robinson tries to seduce him later that night, he at first has zero interest whatsoever. But Benjamin cannot resist this new source of excitement as he is bored of his life, and takes a leap of faith and has an affair with Mrs. Robinson. This leap of faith to hook up with her at the hotel represents a crossing of the threshold into an unknown world- albeit a morally unsound one. In this case Ben’s hero’s journey seems to value morally unjust actions. Having the affair with Mrs. Robinson triggers his escape from his boring, ordinary world; stalking Elaine and following her to Berkeley is his escape from the cave; and crashing the wedding, fighting the Robinson’s and Carl, and running off with Elaine is his way of seizing the sword. However as they escape together on the bus and the thrill of running away starts to die down, the smiles on his and Elaine’s faces disappear. In the return to the ordinary world, does this mean Ben must continue to act immorally in order to be happy? Because it seems to me that a normal married life will bring him right back to the start of his hero’s journey.

This is because there is another journey in this movie intertwined with the hero’s journey. Ben seems to be going through an existential crisis throughout the course of the movie, a very common thing for college graduates to go through. Returning to the suburban lifestyle is a nightmare for Ben. The welcome home party represents everything Ben despises.The fancy friends, small talk conversations, and specifically the mention of getting into the plastic business reflect the materialistic Los Angeles society that he has come home to. He wants nothing part of it, and questions his purpose of life. No scene better reflects this then when he is submerged in the pool in the scuba suit. Ben is literally trapped in a cage and surrounded by nothingness, a reflection of how he feels about his life. The affair with Mrs. Robinson is his escape from this hell hole, but it is is infatuation with Elaine that offers his life a purpose. This is why he goes crazy for her, and obsesses over the idea of marrying her. But once they escape together on the bus, Ben is forced to ask himself the question: “Now what?” He needs to find a new purpose in life, or he will find himself back where he started, at the start of the hero’s journey accompanied with a new existential crisis.  

The Graduate (1967) is a film central to social themes on gender and marriage roles in suburban America while depicting a story on the 60’s generation gap. Earlier films in the 50’s depicted the stereotypical submissive housewife, but the 60’s became a time of a new archetype that was stripping away from a wife who manages the household, does her husband’s biddings, and isn’t preoccupied with her own problems or leisure. This is represented by Mrs. Robinson who is empowered with her own independence as she goes outside of social norms and pairs herself with a younger man out of wedlock: an act that seems quite taboo. Through this, the film isn’t necessarily fitting itself into social customs, but rather being part of the 60’s movement away from the standard archetype of the “Stepford wife” and a new one that revolutionizes women.

Another archetype which this film represents is the situation in life many face in early adulthood. Benjamin Braddock is faced with the ongoing pressure and expectations of him graduating out of college and is confused on what he should do next, like most youth. Viewers often find him in his pool between scenes idling or staring into an aquarium identifying himself with a fish. The older and younger generation face this barrier of misunderstanding as Ben is constantly smothered with what is expected of him as he goes through initiation as an adult. He finds himself lost and unmotivated to go about the next stages in his career and would rather pause and soak in freedom.

The film even incorporates an essence of Americanism through Ben as well. Ben’s graduation from college can represent the termination of events such as the Civil War or (more recently) the Great Depression. Ben is a sensitive individual struggling to adapt and rebalance himself which is reflective of America’s readjustment after these events. When he goes about his own path, he seeks individual liberation outside of social customs. This freedom which he seeks by doing what he wants is characteristic of the American youth.

‘The Graduate’ works within the archetypal tradition because it is essentially a coming of age story. Coming of age is a universal idea, well-represented across cultures, of a young person making the momentous transition into adulthood. In this movie, Ben starts as an uncertain, naive college graduate, clumsily entering into an affair with the shrewd Mrs. Robinson. He spends the duration of the movie trying to figure out who he is and what he wants, eventually deciding that Elaine is who he’s meant to be with. Ben’s pursuit of Elaine represents his crossing the threshold from childhood to adulthood, because it gives him confidence and conviction about his future.

This film exhibits the nationalist tradition because it highlights the sentiment of American youth in the 1960s – a feeling of aimlessness coupled with a growing generational gap. Unlike their parents, the youth were guaranteed financial stability and a good education. Yet there was a sense of dissatisfaction as they looked towards the future, a disillusionment with their parents’ notion of the ‘American dream’. This is best exemplified by the montage of Ben’s summer as the scene cuts from Ben floating in his pool, to him in bed with Mrs. Robinson, to him shutting the door on his parents. His blank expression throughout the montage set to the melancholy Sound of Silence (“hello darkness my old friend”) captures his generation’s attitude at the time.

The Graduate falls within the archetypal tradition of movies as shown by its heavy reliance on a dichotomy between the two women in Benjamin’s life. He has a relationship with both Mrs. Robinson and her daughter Elaine, each of them representing things that at one point or another are desirable for him. Mrs. Robinson is Benjamin’s guilty pleasure, bringing smoking and sex into his life which leads to him laying around all day until he can be back in bed with her at night. Elaine represents a bright future as she is in school and prods Ben in the right direction, asking him what he wants to do or asking him to have a plan before he makes another decision. Sunrise is another movie with these two types of women as the wife and city women are portrayed as opposites, one being good and the other evil in her attempts to have the wife killed. These two types of women can be generalized to the point where one could argue many stories are about a man choosing between two women who are polar opposites and represent different parts of one’s desires.

    The Graduate may fall within the nationalist category of movies due to affluence present throughout the movie. Each of the main characters come from a wealthy family that made their way in business and are now sending their children off to esteemed colleges. They drive nice cars, have no issue paying for numerous hotel rooms, and can spend days out on the road chasing love interests. The presence of generational wealth showcases the American dream as many parents attempt to build financial stability so that the next generation has the opportunity to do better than they did. This is a movie about an American family whose son worries about his future not because he will have too little opportunity, but because he has had the chance to do everything and does not know what he will do yet.