This is the original screenplay for The Graduate, from 1967. The screenplay is useful in reviewing conversations and interactions from the movie that have significant word-choice and word placement.

            An example of an important scene to analyze is the scene where Benjamin Braddock is speaking with the husband of the woman that he has been having an affair with over a drink or two. Being able to read the conversation helps to understand the social significance of the scene; the conversation represents the control that the counterculture generation of the 60s felt suppressed underneath from their elders.  

            There are three important points that Edward Morgan makes in his novel, The 60s Experience, that can be used to analyze the plot and characters of The Graduate during the social revolution of the 1960s. These three points include the new generation’s urge to either join society or change it when they reached adulthood, a challenge of authority that lead to defiant behavior, and the contradicting actions and goals that the new generation of the 60s had.

            Morgan uses university life to explain the attitudes and behaviors of the counterculture of the 1960s. He discusses how there was a “contradiction between the liberating and the constraining impulses of university life…an either-or choice, either to change society or to join it” (Morgan, 91). This is similar to The Graduate, where the entity of the movie is about Dustin Hoffman’s character torn between going along with what is expected of him and breaking free of tradition. The idea of self-indulgence caused by resisting authority is directly related to The Graduate, where Benjamin Braddock has an affair with a married woman to occupy his listless summer. Lastly, Morgan discusses the how the actions of the counterculture in the 60s was actually “antithetical to the way life is to be lived in their view- spontaneously, openly, for the present, for its own sake..” (Morgan, 91). This accurately interprets the end of this movie, because when Benjamin and Elaine finally break free of their elders, they are lost and unsure of what to do (or so it is insinuated). These three points about the counterculture of the 1960s are important in analyzing Mike Nichols’ film.

            Medium Cool is a novel that analyzes the significance of movies in the 1960s. Ethan Mordden takes a large number of the dominating movies from this decade and analyzes them based on their significance in reflecting societal norms, as well as defying the accepted standards, despite criticism.

            Part of this novel is dedicated to studying the techniques and effects of The Graduate, which is said to have been one of the more powerfully expressive films of this time. Three important aspects of the movie are discussed, the first being the artistic, intellectualized concept of films that was taken away from movies such as The Graduate. “You couldn’t just know what you liked anymore; you had to know what was art” (Mordden, 181). Movies were becoming segmented towards audiences that were able to interpret what was being shown and appreciate its meaning. The Graduate was said to be filled with “national puzzles” (Mordden, 180) such as wearing scuba gear in a pool, or using a cross to lock church doors. The second important aspect of this film, Mordden claims, is that it showed how movies no longer needed to necessarily enforce accepted social values, but instead become “defiant of the ruling interests” (Mordden, 241). While this movie received criticism from an older generation, its segmented audience received it very well, which successfully continued to feed into the counterculture revolution.

            One of the most controversial parts of The Graduate takes place when the recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, has an affair with a married friend of the family, Mrs. Robinson. In Summer of Love, Grunnenberg, Cristoph, and Harris discuss avant-garde expression that existed within the leftist counterculture of the 1960s, and how it resulted in the youth exploration of self-hood and its boundaries.

            The counterculture of the 1960s was rebellious in experimentation with drugs, sex, and communal activities that “not only gave subculture members a set of common experiences, but also opened up vast new capacities of self-hood for exploration” (Grunnenberg, 35). The subculture of the 1960s slowly realized that they were able to self-direct their lives, which resulted in protest as well as expression in the media. An example of this would be The Graduate, where traditional values are challenged and overcome in a two hour film.

            Grunnenberg, Cristoph, and Harris also discuss the “sheer power and desire of music within the counterculture” (45) that grew during the 1960s. The Graduate can be used to exemplify this idea with its soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkle music, which had many political innuendos. The combination of social revolution expression in music and film had powerful effects on 1960s culture.

            In Chapter 4 of the novel Social Movements of the 1960s, Stewart Burns discusses the effects of antiwar sentiment towards the end of the 60s decade. While the counterculture sentiments are not directly shown in The Graduate, the results of the antiwar movement can explain the type of sentiment that the main character, Benjamin Braddock, was experiencing in the film.

            Burns spends a great deal of time talking about 1965-1967, which is the time that The Graduate was produced. During these few years, Burns talks about how there were “mass demonstrations, campus protests, and mounting draft resistance” as well as “accelerating opposition to the war by liberal intellectuals, journalists, and politicians, and soon by much of the middle class” (Burns, 163). The Graduate, while not directly targeting the mounting tension over the war, was thought to have been a very liberal, intellectual film that covertly addressed this dissent. Burns discusses how the antiwar movement and the “New Left had a significant effect on enlarging freedom of expression” and how it “made nonconformity, active dissent, and questioning of authority more legitimate than ever before in American life” (Burns, 166). This is important because The Graduate does these exact actions; it questions authority in a respected way that caught a lot of people’s attentions. Reading about the effects that antiwar sentiment had on freedom of expression and challenging of authority is important when trying to understand the reasons behind the actions of the main characters in The Graduate.

            This is a short book written on the career of Dustin Hoffman, the main actor in The Graduate, through 1984, when it was published. In it, Iain Johnstone recounts Hoffman’s earliest movies, including The Graduate, with quotes from Hoffman himself on making the film, as well as his compatibility with Mike Nichols, the film’s director, during movie production.

The section of this book that discusses The Graduate, refers to several important parts of the movie that deal with the social upheaval of the 1960’s, including the Vietnam War, as well as the power of music.

Both the movie and the original novel use the life of Benjamin Braddock to show the social movement of the teenagers of the mid-1960s. Johnstone discusses how the generational gap is clearly shown “when a party guest offers Beddock one word of career advice- ‘plastics’” (Johnstone, 83). Throughout the movie, however, Mike Nicols is able to communicate to his audience that a more “liberated set of values reigns supreme” (Johnstone, 83) for Dustin Hoffman’s generation.

Johnstone also discusses the importance of the musical score used for The Graduate, and the importance of the musical revolution that went hand-in-hand with the social revolution in the 1960s. The music of the 1960s was extremely political, lashing out against social and political issues. The music of Simon and Garfunkle was used frequently in the movie, which had severe political undertones, while maintaining a calm, almost irritatingly smooth feeling to it. “In the event the soft melodies of Simon and Garfunkel- especially Scarborough Fair- gave a dream-like quality to the picture which was brought harshly into reality.” (Johnstone, 22).

Lastly, this novel discusses Mike Nicols’ decision to omit references to the war in Vietnam. This is obvious when the campus of Berkley is shown and there are no protesters (which would have been a common thing to see at this time). Johnstone discusses how there were lines omitted from the movie that would have been controversial. The movie, however, does have subtle undertones that are meant to refer to the war, along with the social turmoil that the 60s generation of America faced.

                In Chapter Six of the novel And the Crooked Places Made Straight, David Chalmers describes the counterculture of the 1960s, including the hippie phase between 1965 and 1967, when The Graduate was released. Although not mentioning the movie, this book is important in learning more about the psychology that went into The Graduate; by understanding the generational conflict of the mid 1960s, audiences can have more of an appreciation for what is trying to be communicated through The Graduate.

               During the late 1960s, Chalmers argues that there was a “generational disaffiliation [that] was being transformed into a major level of radical social change” (Chalmers, 89). Calling it the Hippie Phase, Chalmers discusses how the youth of the 1960s socially began to backlash against the industrial generation above them that was very preoccupied with technology and the Vietnam War. Mobilization of this social revolution, Chalmers noted, was also significantly affected by the power of music during this time.

               This chapter gives a clear insight into the reasons for the social upheaval of the youth generation of the 1960s, which has a great importance in understanding what was being depicted in The Graduate. Mike Nichols used Charles Webb’s story of Benjamin Braddock to show the life of a young man that was graduating college into the beginning of the 1960’s counterculture.

            A large part of The Graduate has to do with the psychoanalysis of the main character, Benjamin Braddock. Mike Nichols uses this film to visually show the audience the inner-workings of the main character. Understanding the basic concepts of psychoanalysis, as explained by Freud, is important because it helps us understand what was happening to the youth generation of the 1960s.

            In chapter three of Psychoanalysis: A Critical Introduction, by Ian Craib, one is introduced to the id, ego, and superego, which are said by Freud to encompass the human’s personality and behavior. What is the most striking of the three is the ego or the “I” which “grows out of the struggle between the demands of the internal drives and the demands of the outside world, in order to mediate between them” (Craib, 35). The Graduate is portrayed as a struggle for Benjamin Braddock, and in essence the entire counterculture of the 60s, with the demands of the older generation and what they believe is right.

            Freud also speaks of how “the existence of the unconscious itself as the constant unwanted guest at the party, and the ways we try to keep out the threatening desires/idea that it pushes forward” (Craib, 46). What is interesting is how Freud believes that the internal conflicts are what need to be mediated, The Graduate obviously endorses the internal conflicts of the rising generation instead. Learning more about psychoanalysis through this novel in combination with novels on the counterculture of the 1960s create a better understanding of the ideas that are trying to be communicated in The Graduate.

The Graduate, written by Charles Webb, is the original novel that Mike Nichols was able to transform into a movie five years after its release. It is important to skim the original novel, not only to recognize that the movie is based on an original story, but also to compare and contrast the character and plot portrayals in each medium. While there do not seem to be many drastic differences in the plots, each medium is forced to portray the characters in its own way. Webb is able to use complex descriptions to show how the character of Benjamin, for example, is feeling, whereas Nichols must rely solely on visuals.

This novel uses the life of college-graduate Benjamin Braddock to symbolically go against the materialistic American culture that had grown from the postwar years. The novel gives a great political and social insight into the counterculture of the late 1960s, which is later visually depicted by Nichols in the released film. Due to the success of the film, Webb’s novel is usually overlooked, however it is important to read this text to get a better understanding of what was originally expressed by Webb, compared to how Mike Nichols chose to express those same ideas in his movie. 

            Crossroads: American Popular Culture and the Vietnam Generation is a novel that not only talks about the change in movies during the 1960s, but also about how The Graduate portrays these changes.

            During the mid to late sixties, there continued to be an increase in leisure time, and a continual shift from city life to suburb life, which resulted in more movie-going. This resulted in movies that were less directed at mass audiences, and more directed at segmented audiences. At this time, teenagers were the most frequent movie-goers, which resulted in the creation of many films that expressed “a sense of social alienation and personal rebellion” (Mitchell, 86).

            When discussing The Graduate in chapter 3, Mitchell speaks of how the characters Elaine and Benjamin both accurately portray this sense of alienation and rebellion. They both have “anxiety and struggle over conforming to social expectations” (Mitchell, 87). This is a good novel to reference when watching The Graduate, because it makes viewers aware of the Attempt that Hollywood made at directing their films during this time towards segmented audiences, specifically the teenager, counterculture generation. This was successful because teenagers were able to empathize with the problems that the main characters in The Graduate were facing.