The Graduate: A Film for the Young

Mike Nichols’ 1968 classic, The Graduate, is a stirring, hilarious, and intimate portrait of American life at the end of the 60’s. The film provides a fascinating examination of the relationships and conflicts that exist between individuals separated by age and class. The main protagonist of the film, Ben Braddock, in a quest to cure his oppressive boredom and disgust with the soulless qualities inherent in his parent’s generation, launches himself into an affair with the wife of his father’s business partner, Mrs. Robinson. This beautiful film is a great example of a media text which is specifically geared towards a specific population, namely the youth population. 

The film, when viewed in its historical context, is symbolic of the dissatisfaction and rebellion which was brewing amongst the youth population in 1968 America and was destined to explode in the early 1970’s. The film remains a perfect statement about each generation of youth and remains relevant today where we find ourselves struggling with disturbingly similar issues. The film explores how each generation strives desperately to not repeat the mistakes of their parents and how each person hopes that they will be able to carve out their own unique place in the world.

The themes and ideas explored by The Graduate and the struggles of the main character, Benjamin, are easily relatable to many college students as they attempt to answer serious questions about their identity, their past experiences, and their future plans. As our world lies in current economic, social, and political ruin my generation can only look upon the horror that our parent’s generation has brought about with genuine shock, disgust, and perhaps if we are lucky, hope. We must hope that we can inherit this awful mess of a planet and work to make the world a better place. On a much smaller scale, Benjamin Braddock sees hope for his own personal future through Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine. After engaging in a torrid, exhausting, stressful, and somewhat depressing affair with the sexy yet pathetic Mrs. Robinson, Benjamin sees Elaine as something untouched, innocent, and full of spirit. This is exactly what he needs to break him out of his daze and set him out on a more direct path to a sense of happiness.

The Graduate does not necessarily provide many answers to the questions it raises, but the general idea of wholeheartedly pursuing your own source of happiness and hope is explored in a terrifically complex manner. The film’s final statement on this idea comes with the final scene, where Benjamin steals Elaine away from her nasty parents and her arranged marriage to the odious Carl Smith. As the two run away from the church they board a strange bus which appears to be traveling to the middle of nowhere. The couple sits and laughs at their good fortune of finally escaping the harmful influences of their parent’s generation but slowly their smiles fade away right before the film ends. I believe that with this final scene the final point of the film comes across. Everyone, including our parent’s generation, and their parent’s generation, and their parents generation is trying to make their own path through life the best they can, and nobody knows where their life choices will take them.

Adam Mohrbacher

02/23/2009

www.rottentomatoes.com/m/graduate/

I-Phone: All That is America

I-Phone: All That is America

We once had records. Large, cumbersome vinyl disks which would provide us with music. These devices were sedentary and required a listener to remain rooted to the spot and engage the music in an entirely different manner than we do now. Since that time as America and the world has changed so has our music listening devices. We incorporate other forms of media and information into one compact device. With our modifications and “improvements” to age-old practices such as listening to music, watching films, keeping up with news, and surfing the internet we have forever changed the meaning of such activities.

The pinnacle of our relentless goal of streamlining, retrofitting, and reducing is Apple’s cherished I-Phone which allows you to perform thousands of different tasks and activities from the palm of your hand. The very design and operation of this device speaks to the core of the human population which has always sought the means to create the most leisure and the least amount of work. The sleek design and touch action feature allows the operator to exert no effort aside from simply moving their finger across the screen. The operator needs not to bother with exerting force to push down a button. It is truly a work of art that our culture was finally able to dream up a media device which would remove the remote control aspect of the process. This is a great leap forward for us as a society that we will not be bothered by such a tiresome, fatigue inducing device.

With nearly all art forms being transferred and compacted into a single solitary device human beings will never again have to be truly present in their own reality. Now on the train, in the bathtub, at the dinner table, and at work people can be lost in their own personal cybernetic worlds of email, John Mayer singles, and Season 3 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. This allows for these previously community based activities to become solitary events, and continues our slow self-imposed process of humanity breaking apart and withdrawing from basic social and emotional relationships.

When we want information, entertainment, or simply a distraction we want it now! Human beings and especially Americans do not feel that waiting for anything is the appropriate course of action. It deflates our ego and makes us feel that we are not the pristine creatures created in God’s image and deserving of instant everything. We must sometimes go without and even have to rely on something that can’t be leafed through and accessed in a delightful pocket-sized device. We must rely on our fellow human beings and even more scary sometimes our own minds and bodies. It is a terrifying thought and one that is becoming more and more unnatural to have as the I-Phone and Blackberry craze consumes us all.

Chicago's Anti-Apartheid Movement 1977-2000

This month visitors to the Columbia College Library in the 624 S. Michigan building will be able to experience and explore something more than a ample selection of wonderful literature. In the first floor of our library there are selected works on electronic display which help to represent the work of local social, religious, and activist groups regarding the fight against apartheid in South Africa. These local organizations were consistently collaborating to work towards ending racism on a global scale, with a special focus on South Africa and Central America. Many of these organizations sponsored events, speakers, committees, and protests and their work and the publicity it generated is presented in a simple and accessible electronic manner. 

It was initially unclear wither or not this exhibit, which is almost entirely contained on a single computer terminal barring a few wall pictures, would contain anything engaging or interesting to the common student. However, the exhibit, although simple, is indeed a thoughtful and beautiful little gem which provided a excellent glimpse into Chicago’s contribution to the global anti-apartheid movement. 

The computer presentation is broken into three distinct smaller presentations and viewers have the option to browse through old issues of the Columbia Chronicle, which detail anti-apartheid activity in and around the Columbia College campus and how Columbia students were able to use their distinct gifts to help spur the movement forward in associations like “Columbia Artists Against Apartheid”. There were also sections which displayed anti-apartheid art, posters, event publicity, and even T-shirts which conveyed anti-apartheid themes. 

These electronic presentations of actual physical art were very simple but beautiful in their own way. The quality of the presentation was very good and the images were shown in a crystal clear manner which will allow viewers to be impressed with the art’s content despite the inherent drawbacks of viewing physical art in electronic format, which usually contributes to an extreme loss of the art’s power and message. Another reason to why the posters, t-shirts, and event publicity were still effective is because the range of artistic expression regarding the public’s outrage over the evil of apartheid was simply impressive and even moving in its own right. These pieces addressed a wide range of topics and issues of the day including Chicago anti-apartheid events, Nelson Mandella for President posters, and even images which took shrewd potshots at political leaders of day, such as a Ronald Reagan WANTED poster.

This exhibit is very modest yet extremely accessible to students and the general public who might visit the Columbia College Library. The exhibit provides a brief yet insightful look into a very disturbing and heartbreaking issue in human history. However, the tone of the exhibit contains a far more inspiring and hopeful message about what human beings are capable of. In chronicling Chicago’s efforts to help the global initiative to end apartheid we can see the good in humanity when we are faced with our worst capabilities. 

Adam Mohrbacher

2/9/2009