Mildred Pierce, Pleasantville, and On the Beach

A detailed Summary of Mildred Pierce, Pleasantville, and On the Beach

Women's roles in American society have been changing since America was founded, but some of the most profound changes have taken place between the 1950's and present day. The films Mildred Pierce, Pleasantville, and Breakfast at Tiffany's all deal with these changes that women have made. In the 50's, women were "supposed" to be housewives and weren't expected to work outside of the house. Many women were also thought of as property of men in the 50's and had very little individuality because of this. As the years past, women attempted to break this mold and women have changed countless amounts since the 1950's. The women of today and the women of the 50's have many similarities, but the women of the 50's struggled to define women and built today's women from scratch.

The early 1950's in America had a strange idea for women, the film Mildred Pierce deals with these ideas. Mildred is a housewife, who wants to become independent and make something of her life. She leaves her husband to pursue a career of her own. Mildred finds that Americans in that time don't have much respect for an independent woman. Mildred has a business idea and gets two men to fund her idea. Her business is very successful, but she is fun

lized that individualism was available for both of them and wanted to get everything out of life they were supposed to find.

The film Pleasantville is a present day film that compares and contrasts the 1990's with the 1950's. Characters go to Pleasantville, a place with the American ideals of the 50's and the typical roles for women. Jennifer is a very independent, outgoing, 90's teenager that goes to Pleasantville. Jennifer sees many women like Mildred and Holly and wonders how women could be so suppressed. Jennifer enters Pleasantville as a "90's woman" and tries to show everyone that it is ok to have fun and be an individual. Jennifer begins to change some people, but also changes her self. Jennifer realizes that her life in the 90's isn't the right way to live. She becomes calmer, but remains as an individual, and had many of the same ideas as Holly Golightly. Jennifer's arrival and her influence on the people of Pleasantville are like the forty years that changed women and made them like Jennifer.

ded, Mildred isn't really independent. The film portrays Mildred this way to show the attitude of American's in the 1950's. Mildred's business becomes very wealthy, but her investors, who ar

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Approximate Word count = 816
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies

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