Pleasantville

Pleasantville and As Seen on TV relate to each other in several ways and provide critique on the same decade, the 1950s. However, the technology that Marling focuses on – the TV, the car, kitchen appliances – take a backseat to the greater issue in Pleasantville: change. Although the presence of the TV in the living room, teenagers in cars, and even the stove and refrigerator play importance roles in the film, they are not the catalysts, as they seem to be in Marling’s book. Mary Sue’s unwillingness to conform to the television version of life in the 50s ultimately results in the people of Pleasantville realizing their emotions and exploding into color. Color plays and interesting role in this movie because it symbolizes the change happening in the town, but it also relates to the change happening in the 1950s. Marling discusses color frequently; cars, stoves, and refrigerators came in new, exciting colors, and offered consumers a way of personalizing their suburban homes and commutes to work. However, as noted in the class discussion, the civil rights movement is absent from Marling’s discussion, and the color in Pleasantville applied to more than just cars and appliances and symbolized more than a change in technology. The segregation of black-and-whites and coloreds corresponds to the oppression African Americans experienced, and the scene in the courtroom was very reminiscent of the scene in To Kill a Mockingbird, which addresses racial inequality during the Depression era. The pop culture that Marling discusses takes a supporting role in Pleasantville in order to provide critique on racial issues as well as globalization and change as a result of technology.

In addition to Marling’s book, Pleasantville relates to several other sources on material and media culture. While still in the 90s, David’s life revolves around the TV, and his escape from reality is watching the quaint, perfect lifestyle of a “typical” American family in the 1950s. However, this “real” depiction of life in the 50s is merely a simulation of reality, and as Baudrillard suggests, simulation has no relation to reality. Because a simulation is not pretending, David’s original plan to pretend to fit in goes awry as Jennifer decides to make her life in this simulation her reality. She embraces her power as an outsider in this virtual world, and by deciding to stay in Pleasantville, she makes her virtual identity her real identity (Poster). Her acting out against the pure and perfect lifestyles of Pleasantville residents starts a subculture of residents who rebel against conformity and seek to feel their emotions. This color subculture becomes embraced by the dominant black-and-white culture in the courtroom when Bud/David reveals his father’s love for his mother and Big Bob’s anger and rage towards Bud (Hebdige). David and Jennifer bring their experience from the 90s to their simulated life in the 50s, bridging the cultures of these two decades and their real selves with their simulated selves, creating a hybrid culture. Globalization is evident in their lives in the 90s in the scene from classrooms in which topics such as HIV and global warming are the objects of discussion. Pleasantville, while benefiting from technologies that imply globalization (the TV and radio), has yet to experience the social effects of globalization because the presence of technology is merely a simulation of it – the books have no words, the radio only plays certain music, and no one seems to ever actually watch the television in the living room. It is Jennifer’s actions that start the process of globalization and a hybridization of Pleasantville in which the culture of Pleasantville is not turned upside down but, rather, influenced by outside sources – David, Jennifer, music, art, books, and even emotions (Naderveen Piterse). Although Pleasantville focuses on the influence of media – TV, books, music – those technologies would not exist without their material selves, and similarly, Pleasantville provides a critique on technology’s influence on both the 90s and the 50s that comes to us through the technology of film – the medium is the message (McLuhan).