Television according to Pierre Bourdieu “suits everybody because it confirms that they already knew and above all leaves their mental structures intact” (On Television, Durham & Keller, 329). This could perhaps explain David’s attachment to Pleasantville. The film is careful to shown that David and Jennifer live in a ‘broken’ environment compared to the relative safety of Pleasantville. takes comfort from the familiarly of Pleasantville, he does not have to change any notions, it also helps that Pleasantville is on repeats further emphasizing the comforting nature of the format. Pleasantville and by extensions the TV represents comfort. Pleasantville is seen as comforting because it represents the 1950’s an era traditionally seen as innocent. The film makers were careful to paint Pleasantville as the extreme. Much like Main Street USA, as in Disneyland, the television show takes place in a town where only pleasant things happen, “A t.v. sitcom better than reality had been” (Marling 115). The creators are careful to show the dichotomy between 1950’s of Pleasantville and the ‘real’ world. The 50’s are extreme, the most risqué behavior that appears in Lover’s Lane is hand holding, sex is non-existent, and clothing is demure. Everything is perfect and pleasant. The 1950’s that was displayed in the film was a myth which arose attempting to create a falsified version of history. The 1950’s displayed in Pleasantville was a myth that arose to fit the stereotype. According to Barthes, Pleasantville could be seen as a myth because the viewer refuses to dig deeper and uncover the mystery, this could possibly ruin the preconceived innocence of the 1950’s and force society to scrutinize its history. The film forces the viewer to take what they think they know of history and reanalyze and possibly that the 1950s was not as wholesome as previously thought (Durham Keller, 106).
“The medium is the message” (Durham Keller, 107) .In the film, the television is the anchor between the real world and the world of Pleasantville. The TV is the medium in which not only the show is broadcasted and symbolizing the world of the 1950’s, but through David and Jennifer the television also broadcasts the message of the modern world. In Pleasantville the TV does not offer a connection to the outside world, but keeps the town community isolated. The TV is not a tool to access the outside world, but rather reinforce the world of Pleasantville. The symbol of the TV becomes lost in translation. According to McLuhan the message of any medium or technology is change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs (Durham, Keller 108). The TV becomes this message with the introduction of David and Jennifer. The introduction of David and Jennifer cause a spectacle in Pleasantville. Pleasantville takes place in 1958, yet no direct mention is made of the chaos that is surrounding the country at the time. Yet, is obviously seen, McCarthyism is evident with the restriction of actions and speech. One of the first colors to appear in Pleasantville is red, not only associated with passion and desire, but with communism as well. Racism is apparent everywhere, with signs declaring “no colors allowed” as well as the absence of African Americans. According to Debord, a “spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people mediated by images.“ (Durham Keller, 118). Pleasantville is quickly hammered by the chaos of the 1950’s and as a result, their society quickly turned on it’s head trying to rapidly adjust to changing environment.