In the movie Pleasantville, the actor and actress Toby Maguire and Reese Witherspoon, portray siblings. The characters get into an argument over a remote and happen to find themselves in a TV show called "Pleasantville” which is set in the town, Pleasantville, in the 1950s. The show is based in black and white but when the twins show up to town, the storyline is changed and cannot go back to the way things used to be from before the original change. These changes can all fall under functionalist, interactionist, and conflict perspectives. The first perspective, functionalism, is defined as the sociological theory that views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability and solidarity. It also emphasizes the different parts and how they contribute to the overall functioning of society, such as …show more content…
It also includes the people of Pleasantville not living up to their expectations. An example of this is when in the town of Pleasantville, the firefighters of the town do not know how to put out a fire whenever one is set, and only know how to rescue cats from trees. This is something that would not happen in real life whatsoever because fires are very prevalent in our society. Another example of a functionalist perspective is when Mary Sue has to explain to her mother what sex is. This is something because children are created from having sex and it's not something that a daughter teaches her mother in our society. The second perspective, interactionism, focuses on how individuals interact with each other in society through symbols and shared meanings. This perspective emphasizes the importance of symbols, language and communication in shaping social interactions and the construction of reality. The first example of this in the movie is foul language being said, such as when Bud says, “what the hell.” Foul language is not acceptable in the time period of