Projected in a black and white 50's sitcom, Pleasantville portrays the parable of a totalitarian society inflicted by racial discrimination. With deliberate echoes of the Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and books such as “1984” and “Brave New World”, Pleasantville makes clear that the rigid controls of both religious and political authority run contrary to human nature. In exploring one society's instinctive response to such authority, the movie specifically addresses the concept of gender roles. It is of noteworthy importance that the director selects women as the primary instruments of change and corruption. Luring man from his flawless and noble behavior, women are presented as the lustful corrupters of 1950 ideals.

This cynical depiction is largely influenced by a historical pattern which has continuously placed women as the root of all evil. Since ancient times women have been linked with the bodily desires and drives of humankind. Moral dilemmas, often represented through the body of a women, are understood to be the punitive outcomes for the consumption of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Presenting numerous biblical references of women's

first corruption, the entire movie is, in fact, loosely structured around the Garden of Eden in Genesis. One scene is even devoted entirely to the “picking of the apple” when Bud and his new girlfriend first drive to Lover's Lane. Representative of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Bud's girlfriend curiously picks a shiny red apple to give to him. Bud, though originally opposed to altering their “pleasant” way-of-life, commits man's first sin when he accepts a bite. In this scene his girlfriend is very literally viewed as a parallel to Eve and an instrument of corruption.

Pleasantville enraptures a similar movement for society as a whole. The key lies in the director's placement of women as the instigators of change. Reflecting a tendency in Hollywood productions and literary fiction to continue to circle the framework of “the Fall,” Pleasantville examines critically our current state of “corruption.” Through observation of humanity's depart from that which is “godly” and group-oriented, we are provoked into questioning our own society. Using women's historical embodiment as the instruments of change and corruption, Pleasantville ultimately praises the self-expression of bodily pleasures and pains.

Just as a young

Some topics in this essay:
Evil Bud's, Lane Despite, World” Pleasantville, Johnson Betty, Beginning Renaissance, Fall” Pleasantville, Humanism Projected, Garden Eden, Eden Genesis, Rights Movement, gender roles, garden eden, instrument corruption, lover's lane, instruments change corruption, change corruption, instruments change,