The Graduate delivers all the rebellion and all the edge that the 60’s have grown to represent. The tragic voice of a misunderstood kid and all the pressures of this much too serious world. All adolescents wish to communicate this message just for the sake of having a message to communicate. This moral is true from a societal or political perspective, as history shows. Of coarse this is an idea of the new age but that does not make it any less legitimate to the people of this generation. Benjamin embodies the entirety of the youth of the time. It is the common tale of a lonely kid against a tough world where no one will listen to what you want and so you simply sit underwater in your scuba gear and drown in your troubles while your parents push you under again and again so that you may impress their friends. He is silenced by the authorities of his world and surrounded by all the expectations he does not want to face, parties he does not want to attend, a future he does not want to claim, and potential he does not want to meet. All his parents friends congratulate the ‘track star’ and ask him about graduate school and offer him a place in “plastics”. He is so bored by this fate and desires a ‘different future.’ Of coarse no one will listen to him for two reasons; first he is only a kid who doesn’t know what he wants in this world because he’s only been alive for two decades-his opinion and his dreams are completely invalid because he is young-obviously. Secondly, this is not what proud parents want to hear, after all that is why people have kids, so that they can relive their failed attempts through them. The perfect example of this is Mrs. Robinson. Mrs. Robinson, in her lace and her stockings, is the prime example of a burnt out life and a false reality. Everyone wishes to live a life of lost afternoons in white sheets behind shut blinds for; this is the only way to hide from reality, this is the only retreat. It is a way to escape from obligations and troubles but it seems that she is the only one doing anything about it while everyone else accept their boredom as inevitable. Benjamin does not have the obligations of a married woman and mother but he is seduced to the bed not only by panty hosed legs but by the urgency to break away and be his own person. She and him were drawn into the hotel room for two different reasons yet they use each other just the same. The disobedience and impulsion of the affair makes him feel like he is in control of his own life. He is not following the path of his fate set out by his parents, he is creating his own path. Mrs. Robinson lost the possibility of setting her own path when she became pregnant. She is paying the price of her poor choices in her youth. So she tries to take it back by rolling under the covers with a boy who is as carefree as she wishes to be. It is too late for her. She can not hide in that room forever and neither can Benjamin, but she will not let him go because she knows that once he is gone he will never come back and she will have to continue to face this world without relief. It is not too late for him, so why should he stay with “a broken down alcoholic.” They both know that she is holding him back by locking him away with a ‘do not disturb’ sign, but she fears the day he realizes this and so she forbids him from seeing her daughter, Elaine. But, again, this film carries the very spirit of rebellion and so he does take her out and he falls in love for reasons unknown. Plans of marriage and happiness are threatened and the pressures of the world surround them, telling them they cant and shouldn’t be together. For one thing he slept with her mother, and for another…he had an affair with her mother! Disapproval is all that can be heard from the voice of the parents (though I don’t see why [ahem..sarcasm]) for they are the enemy of the adolescent. The romantic battle between lovers and an angry mob in the church exaggerates the unfairness and the self pity these two feel. “It’s too late” Mrs. Robinson says. “NOT FOR ME!” Elaine screams. They fight their way through the crowd and take off, train in hand. They conquered the cynics and overcame the grudge holders. For crying out loud they were the youngest people on that bus at the end of the film. Glaring eyes through prescription lenses can not understand the joy of the runaway bride because those old folks can not comprehend such a victory. They are all washed up and tired of their lives just like Mrs. Robinson. It’s too late for them! They missed their great yellow bus of impulsion. They do not know what it means to be against the world because they have always been with the world. They can not empathize in this unfair battle of the lovers and the haters. Their parents never did that sort of thing. Elaine and Benjamin represent the idea that they are different! No one has ever thought what they think because they generations before were dull and quiet and regulated. But the young…they are colorful and individual and changing. They don't want to be “the graduate” or the ‘track star’ or the trophy child. They want to be impulsive rule breakers so that they may find their place in this messed up world of cyclical housewives and prejudiced landlords. They are all misunderstood! They are all poor victims of regulation and and no one will listen to their cries. Their parents should just go to hell because how could they know what it means to be in love? how could they know what it means to have dreams? how could they know what it means to be 21? They’ve been 40 their entire lives and all they want is to rob their kids of happiness because they missed it when it was their turn. But now their time is up and it is Elaine and Benjamin’s turn. This is their turn! This is a new time for the misunderstood and the different and the impulsive. This is a time to bang on church windows and chase after buses. And so they sit in the back seat without shame or explanation and they don’t care who stares. They have won! Though it seems that the next step after the victory was not though of before that moment. These kids had a plan that only went so far. Roger Ebert once thought that Benjamin should have considered “plastics” after all.