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Utopia And Pleasantville

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A utopian can be seen as an idealistic vision in society that possesses highly desirable social, political and moral aspects Utopian literature portrays a setting, which agrees with the author’s beliefs, often acting as a counterpoint to contrast Utopic values with their own world. The concept of utopia is employed in both Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) and Gary’s Ross’s Pleasantville (1988) to respectively explore humanist values prevalent in their contextual societies. Through the content of Utopia and Pleasantville, issues regarding egalitarianism and individuality essentially provide fresh perspectives that mirror on the author’s respective societies. By constructing an Utopian society, both More and Ross challenge our pre-existing views and …show more content…

Ross creates an apparent Utopic world in order to impose that a perfect world is non-existent and to advocate individualism by reflecting non-conformist values of the 1990s. At the onset of the film, Pleasantville presented with only colours of black and white to depict uniformity and non-existence of the society. Through the use of juxtaposition of the classrooms, Ross is able to compare the two worlds and ultimately contrast between 1950’s conformity and 1990’s individualism. The application of high angle shot in the first classroom scene captures the compliant attitude by the students with their consistent sitting postures. The symmetry of the schools point out continuity in the absence in knowledge and that ignorance thinking is prohibited in the Pleasantville world. By exhibiting Mary Sue’s questioning of what is beyond Elm Street, we are exposed to the curiosity that exists within the Pleasantville students which inevitably brings out characteristics of individualism. Ross deconstructs Pleasantville by slowly stripping away values present in Utopia to reveal the real values of the 1950s. Ross constructed Pleasantville as a satirical representation of human perfection to which he ridicules by showing its dysfunction in reality. This is evident through the usage of biblical reference of Lover’s Lane to the Garden of Eve. By taking the apple from the Lover’s Lane rules of patriarchy in particular complete innocence and safety are broken. With references to the Bible, following this scene, rain and thunder fill their world for the first time. Pathetic fallacy is applied to represent God’s angry judgment for their sin and his satisfaction towards their behavior. However in Pleasantville, rain and thunder bring great exhilaration to Pleasantville and by presenting this idea, Ross is highlighting that humans beings need to make

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