The portrayal of Stereotyping and Prejudice in Pleasantville

Pleasantville was directed by Gary Ross in 1998 as a social satire. There are two teenagers, Jennifer

and David, who are brought from the 1990s to a black and white sitcom in the “Pleasantville”, a land of

Utopian world. They were incorporated into the sitcom in Pleasantville which introduced their new way

of thought. It spreads shift in the form of color through their culture. Throughout this film, the concept

of utopia and civilization are mocked, as racial injustice, prejudice, and racism are exposed throughout

this film. Satire is described as an artistic genre in which fools, vices, and shortcomings are mocked with

the intention of shame the subject, and indeed the object of improvements. Various ways of looking at

social issues and philosophies are used, including exaggeration, incongruity, a reversal of roles, and

irony.

The portrayal of images of stereotyping in Pleasantville 's aims is to raise awareness of the past

social fears of racial integration in the United States and how colored people were treated. Before

Jennifer and David arrive, Pleasantville is a very routine place. Routine is equal to perfection and order.

Change, caused by Jennifer's and David's literal inconsistency in the fifties, causes change and chaos. As

Pleasantville residents begin to find where their passion lies, they get colored. True citizens consider the

“colored”, because they differ from the standard, to be corrupt. “True Pleasantville Citizens” have a

town meeting to discuss changes where all the colored people that want to participate are segregated and

placed in their section. At the conference, they discuss how to avoid additional “color” in the

community. The idea that the white people were the true Americans, not the colored people, is parallel

to History. Ross explored that black people experienced segregation in the 1950s and lots of things, like

bus seats, hospitals, and schools were excluded from them. He ridicules the white Americans in the 50s

and how ridiculous it was to hate someone with a different color of the skin because it is racism: to

repress others whom we are “fearing” for being different; and to impose our own prejudices upon
another. Briefly, in the 1950s, Pleasantville uses irony to portray “colored” people (Fisle & Taylor,

2008).

Often in different mediums, the 1950s are perfectly depicted. In its perfect company, Pleasantville is

filled with only black and white people. The film draws similarities among people living in Utopia in the

'50s, where they have no concepts of knowledge, sex, or the lower race of 'colored people' that are

largely ignorant of social vices. Originally, everything, everyone in white and black, is locked, has

simple rules and rituals in society, rarely gets out of control to prevent social turmoil and to maintain

order. The fifties were perfect because life was simple:

“There was no strife; it was a kinder, gentler time. And all these bromides always evoked how

America used to be so happy and well-adjusted and mighty and potent, and all those things”

(Ross 1998)

Pleasantville uses comparisons and analogies to ridicule the false innocence and values depicted by

so many in the 1950s, the way nostalgia provides a never-existing world, and how looking back on the

so-called simplicity of that era is not a solution to the problems of today. Ross says that no right family

or way of living exists and that it is a waste of time trying to comply with an ideal or a stereotype.

Pleasantville threatens the idealistic world. There can and will not exist in the perfect world. This

ideology is ludicrous by showing its reality and imaginary dysfunction.

Therefore, throughout the film, Pleasantville, social satire, and its devices, many social challenges

are being explored. Racism and the treatment of people with color, by incongruity and analogy, were

integral problems examined in Pleasantville in the 1950s. By comparison, it mocked our ideas for

perfection. The stereotypical mentality of the 1950s towards the role of women was often ridiculed with

the use of hyperbole, satire, and irony. Pleasantville uses satire to comment upon numerous still
important social issues today by drawing comparisons between the problems in Pleasantville and the

problems of our society using different satirical instruments and techniques.

Works Cited

Gary Ross. (1998). The A.V. Club. https://www.avclub.com/gary-ross-1798207950.

Fiske, S. T, & Taylor, S. E. (2008). Social cognition (2nd ed). New York: McGraw Hill.