Pleasantville

Essay 2: �The New Nostalgia� and Pleasantville.

Below are the topics for essay 2. Each of the topics is based on a quote from Rosalind C. Barnett�s and Caryl Rivers� essay �The New Nostalgia.� Using that quote as a basis, you should use evidence from the movie Pleasantville to support your point, your thesis. (Hint: for some of these, you can use the actual prompt, or a rewording of it, as your thesis statement.)

Choose one topic to write about for your essay.

Your essay should have an introduction, 3 or 4 body paragraphs, and a conclusion; it should be about 500 words in length. Before you begin your essay, you may find it useful to use one of those prewriting techniques, such as outlining or clustering, that we practiced last week.

1. In �The New Nostalgia,� the authors argue that the critics are wrong when they say family life was better for men, women, and children in the 1950�s.

What do you think? Use the movie to support your point, your thesis statement.

2. �One steady, unblinking beacon of a message has been flashed to men and women over the past few years: Change is dangerous, change is abnormal, change is unhealthy� (Barnett and Rivers 311).

How is this idea presented and supported in Pleasantville?

3. �Today�s couples have a better chance at achieving full, rich lives than did the men and women of the sitcom generation . . . working women are less depressed, less anxious, and more zestful about their lives� and today�s men have more satisfying relationships with their children (Barnett and Rivers 316).

Do you agree or disagree? Use evidence from the movie and from real life to support your point, your thesis.

4. �An unreal past seems so much more soothing than a bumpy present� (Barnett and Rivers 312).

At first, David seems to believe this, but he changes his mind by the end of the film. What makes him change his mind?

5. �Outdated ideas from the behavioral sciences proclaim that a man�s emotional health is primarily based on his life at work, while a woman can only find her identity through being a wife and mother� (Barnett and Rivers 312).

6. The characters in the movie become �colored� when they finally experience real life; it�s like they become �real� at the very moment that they feel alive for the first time. Use any three of the following characters to prove this point: David Wagner/Bud Parker, Jennifer Wagner/Mary Sue Parker, Bill Johnson (owns the malt shop), Betty Parker (the mom), George Parker (the dad)

7. Separatism is the separating out of people who are different or who don�t fit into the �norm.� How does the movie present this? What kind of comparisons can you draw to real life separatism that took place in the �golden age� (ie the 1950�s)?

If you can�t remember the characters� names, you can take a look at the cast list by clicking here.

If you need a littel refresher on the movie, or if you want to be really thorough and actually quote from the movie, you can copy and paste from the script by clicking here.