This excerpt gives a very detailed and relevant account of the 1960s counterculture. The author discusses this new culture in three major categories: music, sex, and politics. All three of these things can very closely be tied to The Graduate.

Rock and roll culture really took off in the 1960s. The Beatles first came to America in 1964 and generated the passionate young fans that fueled the entire rock and roll industry. Perhaps it was because of the free and individual nature that the bands stood for, but the followings were huge, and were only getting huger. Songs like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" would make children feel rebellious without ever even trying LSD. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle provided the entire soundtrack for The Graduate, which not only made Ben Braddock seem like he was a youngster that fit in with the times, but also drew many young audiences to the film.

The second important facet of the counterculture was the sexual revolution. It started in 1949 with the publication of the Kinsey report by Alfred Kinsey. His studies, although later proven somewhat false, revealed that heterosexual sex among married couples was no longer the only sexual activity people were willing to admit to. Heterosexuality and polygamy were revealed, and were no longer considered outrageous. This more widely accepted sexual culture arrived because of many reasons, one of them medical. In the late 50s and 60s many medical advances were made allowing for the spread of the sexual revolution, including the introduction of antibiotics that might be able to cure sexually transmitted diseases, and the first birth control pill. The average age at which Americans lost their virginity began to decrease while the average number of sexual partners a person had in a lifetime increased. This sexual explicitness, especially with the ideas of adultery and seduction, was clearly exposed in 1967s The Graduate.

The last important thing that is quickly mentioned is the idea that youths were likely to cling to the ideals of democracy. In the 60s, liberalism captured the attention of many youths as their way of rebelling, and this is a third thing that is evident in the film. This short excerpt is a great succinct summary of the ways in which The Graduate was truly a reflection of its time.

From plastic, to suburbia, to masculinity, to entrapment, this article, written by Robert Beuka for the Journal of Popular Film and Television., discusses the essential issues raised by The Graduate. The title of the article comes from an important line in the movie in which a family friend of the Braddock's, Mr. McGuire, has only one suggestion for Ben in terms of his future..."plastics." This idea of plastic is mirrored in the suburban life that Ben returns to after graduating from college. Blocks and blocks of individual houses with small cars and rectangular pools structure the suburbia that seems impossible to escape.  As an insecure and confused 20 year old, he is looking for any excuse to break out of the entrapment. Water is a symbol of escape from the American Dream that will inevitably be pushed on him. He jumps into the pool to drown out the voices of his parents and their friends and stares at them through the cloudy water, blurring their hopes for him.

Mrs. Robinson provided a perfect opportunity to escape from the bland environment of dinner parties and trivial conversations he is forced to engage in. As much as he wants to resist her sexuality, she provides a new and more interesting frontier for him to experiment with. She also represents a reversal of traditional roles. In the suburban culture, the man is supposed to be the master. He is supposed to come home from work and find the meatloaf waiting on the table. However, in Ben's relationship with Mrs. Robinson, he often finds himself being the submissive one. By trying to resist her sexuality, he attempts to prove his masculinity.  

Another important point made in this essay is that Ben Braddock's character bridged the gap between the suburbia culture that ruled much of the 50s and the counterculture that emerged in the late 60s. He tries to rebel against the uniformity and conformity of the past, while he cant quite grasp the liberal and relaxed atmosphere of the near future. He eventually finds himself trapped somewhere between these two, his internal controversy still not resolved.

~ "Americans in that era faced many controversial issues from civil rights, the Vietnam War ,nuclear arms, and the environment to drug use, sexual freedom, and nonconformity" Hoffman once cleverly commented. ~