Attention: You should read the instructions for film responses again, very carefully. Focusing on a particular moment in the film (one for each full paragraph) is better than trying to cover many different moments and having less to say about each one. Summarizing the events of the story will not show your progress. Your file name should be LastName.FirstName.FR3.S20 because this is your 3rd required Film Response.
Benjamin is not the prodigal son who finally comes to his senses and returns home to his family; rather, he is the "model" son who has always lived his life according to the rules and plans of his parents and the other “grown-ups” around him. He has lived a life so closely according to expectation that when he finds himself on the brink of independence, he has no clue where to turn next!
By the end of the film, we might say that Benjamin still has no clue where to turn next, but he seems more capable somehow of knowing what he wants and exerting his own power to make it happen. The story told by The Graduate, then, is a way of accounting for this transformation. We are led through a series of events and developments that trace Ben's emergence into a life that belongs only to him.
Of course, whether Benjamin is fully initiated into adulthood by the end of the film is up for debate. After all, "adulthood" is not exactly portrayed in a positive light in the film. The adults seem to have outlived their enthusiasm for life; the Braddocks and the Robinsons seem either oblivious to genuine passion or embittered by the onset of middle age and the loss of youth. Benjamin seems to break free from their grasp by the end, running off with Elaine, but he is only beginning to grow up.
Now here is your prompt: First, how would you account for the change in Ben, and is the change a promising one? Does he go through some rite of passage that prepares him to seek out what he wants rather than what he is expected to do? Second, is the situation at the end of the film a result of foolishness or courage? Is Ben the hero or the fool? Remember, please write two equal-length paragraphs. Each one should be 150-200 words, for a total of at least 300 words.
