Lisa Tran

AP United States History

Mr, Anderson, Period 2

30 May 2016

Voices Against Conformity

The shift towards conservative views in the 1950s is considered the Age of

Conformity. After World War II, many Americans longed for a harmonious and comfortable

life, which they found by migrating away from the chaotic cities to the safe suburbs. The suburbs

offers a chance for people to have the ideal family where everyone had their place. The idea of

this is that the father is the breadwinner, the mother is the homemaker, and the children went to

school and obeyed their parents wishes. Thus, societal norms were broadcast widely and had an

immense influence on many Americans, because of the rise in television. The films, Edward

Scissorhands and Pleasantville, exemplifies the conformity period during the 1950s by attacking

traditional values and fear of change.

The setting of the films Edward Scissorhands and Pleasantville takes place in a peaceful

suburban community where everyone had the same, perfect home and family. The films depicts

utopian and homogeneous societies where people followed the traditional values and morals. In

Pleasantville, husbands and wives slept in separate beds. The men went to work and the women

stayed at home, cooked, and cleaned. The husband would come home from work and dinner

would always be prepared. Moreover, everyone in Pleasantville dressed professional for work or

conservatively. For example, men wore suits and women for long dresses and covered up. This

shows how people in Pleasantville are in a way innocent and pure. Lastly, people practiced safe
sex and could not express their feelings and had to keep everything bottled up. When Buds mom

told Mr. Johnson that the girl in the painting was crying, he said it was beautiful because the

woman in the painting has feelings and emotions.

Edward Scissorhands and Pleasantville satirizes the idea of utopian societies by attacking

traditional values. For example, in the scene where Edward was setup to take the downfall for

stealing, Kim asked him why he helped her. Even though, Edward knew that it was Jims house,

he express that he helped her because she asked him to. This shows that he would do anything

for Kim and the shift in moral values. In the olden days, stealing is considered wrong, end of

story. However, Edwards action allows the viewers to see that there is a grey area. The idea of

doing anything for your loved ones is manifested in the film. In Pleasantville, Mary Sue went

against the idea of staying abstinence when she made love to Skip. She strayed away from

traditional values, which made things black and white turn technicolor. The purpose of staying

abstinent is so that men could choose the right women to marry and start an ideal family. The

film mocks the idea of staying abstinent to reveal that there is no such thing as perfect or a

perfect family. Moreover, people fear change because they are uncertain and unfamiliar of what

would happen next. When Skip Martin told Bud he is planning on asking Mary out, Bud told him

now is not a good time. Skip misunderstood Bud and though Mary did not want to go out with

him, thus changing the storyline. As a result, for the first time when Skip threw the basketball in

the basket, the ball did not go in. The coach tells everyone to back away from the ball and says,

Dont touch it boys! which represents people do not know how to react to changes. The ball is

harmless yet people feared it because the Skip always made the basket. People feared change or
being different because they are so use to a homogeneous society. Also, unfamiliar things was

threatening to people because they are not use to sudden change.

Pleasantville is effective in critiquing the 1950s time period because in the end the film

portrays that change and being different is acceptable. In the beginning, people were afraid and

appalled by change, but towards the end people began to open their minds to new ideas and

beliefs. When Mr. Johnson painted Buds mom on the window of his shop, many people were

outraged because it went against the cultural norm of conventional conservative values. People

wanted life to be pleasant and unfamiliar things is a threat to their comfortable lifestyle.

Furthermore, personal repression is apparent in the film. Mr. Johnson loves to paint but he

cannot freely express himself through his paintings or purse a career in art because his role is to

make cheeseburgers. He must only paint as a hobby. This reveals people in Pleasantville are like

robots and cannot express how they feel.

Edward Scissorhands and Pleasantville effectively depicts the conformity period by

attacking traditional values and fear of change. The viewers can see the accurate portrayal of life

in 1950 through how men went to work, women stayed at home, people practiced safe sex,

people did not express how they felt, and so on. The American culture of a perfect family and

friendly neighbors greatly contributed to conformity depicted in the films. People are

intransigent against change, thus rises the voices against conformity. People who stray away

from cultural norms are not unique. Those like Bud Parker is the change in the world that society

desperately needs.