How_Does_the_Film_Text_Pleasantville_Draw_on_Concepts_Explored_by_Thomas_More_in_Utopia_

How does the film text Pleasantville draw on concepts explored by Thomas More in Utopia' The major concept explored by Thomas More in Utopia is the idea of a certain society that is perfect, in which the people within are of ideal perfection. Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, has drawn on this concept of ideal perfection, by creating a utopian society of Pleasantville, where everyone and everything is ideally pleasant (as the film’s title implies). An important concept explored in Utopia is that there is a certain place that is perfect, but not the entire world. In Pleasantville, this concept is drawn in a similar manner as Pleasantville is an imaginary isolated place, thus too good to be true. Pleasantville’s approach of depicting a utopian society has been moulded to be relevant to a contemporary audience in a popular culture context. This is done by implementing the ‘ideal society’ seen by the audience at the time. In Utopia, More often refers to political concepts as to why Utopia is so perfect in how to society operates. The political concepts are integrated in Pleasantville by outlining the downturns and side effects of a utopian society. Thomas More’s portray of Utopia is a place of perfection, where the behaviour of people are perfect and everyone is happy. This is shown in Raphael’s description of Utopia as a place of uniformity where everyone has the same workload, and receives the same amount of rations. More displays Utopia to be perfect in relation to the society at the time. The factors of an ideal society at the time largely deal with starvation, employment, property ownership and crimes. In the text, these factors are outlined as Utopia is expressed as a place where no one is suffering from starvation because everyone is equally employed, property is common and there is little crime, thus no need for capital punishment. Utopia is compared with the European establishments at the time, therefore is seen as perfect compared to the Europeans which are suffering from those factors. Ross had incorporated his own perception of an ideal society that is relevant to a certain society at the time. Ross’s portrayal of Pleasantville is drawn from this concept and altered so that it is suits the audience which is perceived to be a teenage audience in the pop-culture era. An example of an ideal factor related to a contemporary audience of pop-culture is perfect young love, as seen when Bud and Margaret are dating and she bakes cookies for him. This scene shows that Pleasantville is created to be a place where love has no flaws which relates to the contemporary audience as their beliefs are based on Christianity, and this scene is similar to the love of Adam and Eve when God first created them. In Pleasantville, a utopian society is expressed as a town that is completely pleasant: the looks of people are pleasant, human behaviour is pleasant, the weather is always pleasant, and there are no disasters and so on. This concept is prevalent during the part of the film when the parker family eats breakfast at the dinner table. The scene is framed with a family of four, all appearing to be happy with plenty of ‘ideal’ breakfast food which is apparent in the contemporary western society. This presents a picture perfect family according to contemporary society. It also demonstrates that the people of Pleasantville are all very well off, plenty enough food than required, meaning no starvation. This idea of too much food can be found as satirical as contemporary Western society has too much to eat, thus many becoming overweight. Despite there being so much to eat in Pleasantville, no one appears to be overweight. This shows that there in this portrayal of a utopian society, there seem to be no negative consequences in actions that have bad effects in the real world. In the text Utopia, starvation is a prevalent issue at the time appropriate to the society at the time of the French Revolution. More represents the utopian society to be an isolated place. The idea of isolation is that it is separate from everything; Utopia is described as an island that is geographically isolated. This concept demonstrates that a Utopian society is one separate from the rest if the world. This concept is enforced further on as the description of Utopia shows that Utopia has a physical barrier from, isolating it from outsiders. This is the bay encompassed by the island of utopia which is impeded by submerged rocks to prevent trespassers. The idea of isolation of a utopian society and barriers protecting it from outside is eminent in Pleasantville. The concept of isolation is implicated into Pleasantville in a manner made relevant to a popular culture context. Ross’s adaption of the idea of isolation in a utopian society is done by employing the use of television and applying teenage issues, which is relevant to a contemporary audience. Ross utilizes the fact that Pleasantville is a television show, as it acts as a barrier from the real world. Ross draws on More’s portrayal of Utopia with a physical barrier by creating the town of Pleasantville to have an imaginary barrier that is associated to a contemporary context. Ross depicts Pleasantville as a place isolated from the normal world. The isolation of Pleasantville from the real world is that it is an imaginary place, rather than a geographically isolated place in the real world. However, this idea of geographical isolation is established within Pleasantville in the scene where Jennifer asks the teacher in class, “what is outside of Pleasantville” and the teacher says nothing is outside. The fact that nothing is outside of Pleasantville may imply that nothing outside that is imperfect can be related to the town. Because of the idea of Pleasantville is an imaginary place, it means that there is not a real place that can be perfect, and that perfection is just an imaginary fact, which are dependent on people’s perception of perfection. It brings the idea that a perfect society only exists in fictional stories. The political concepts apparent in Utopia can be described as a perfect way of a society functioning, it is brought about by implementing a mixture of freedom and repression. This is exhibited in the Utopian government as the government allows freedom of the citizens to live happily to a very limited extent as to prevent any rebellion within the society. These political concepts of Mores’ representation of Utopia are made relevant to the European government at the time; contrasting the differences to establish the idea of a perfect society compared to an imperfect one. In contrast, Ross draws on these concepts to associate with a contemporary audience by portraying the Pleasantville government to be in a state of repression and there is dictation to an extent. Ross demonstrates that a utopian society relies on the ignorance of the citizens, done through repression. Dictation is shown in the scene where the president of utopia walks into the Barbara shop and the man already having a haircut gives the seat to him out of respect. This conflicts with the idea of a perfect society that everyone is equal as there is always a hierarchical structure within the citizens and the government. It shows that there are many flaws to a utopian society. The texts Pleasantville and Utopia examine that a utopian society is one that is only perfect in the perception of each individual. The texts outline that a utopian society is not real and only achievable through imagination. This is achieved by using the concept of isolation to separate the utopian society from the rest of the world. Both texts create a utopian society that is based upon the beliefs of a perfect place at the time; Utopia based on the context of the French Revolution era, whereas Pleasantville based on a popular culture context. Political concepts have also been applied in both texts according to the society at the time. Utopia and Pleasantville is demonstrated as a perfect society only achieved by the repression of individual thought the citizens; however Pleasantville outlines that a perfect society cannot actually exist as repression won’t work a lifetime. Nevertheless, the idea of a utopian society and what makes one is displayed in both texts on the basis of the society at the time.