Evil In Pleasantville

Regardless of how much we may love our community, there is always something that we would like to see changed. In the film Pleasantville (1998), we are taught that evil is something that we will all have to encounter in our lives. (See trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSDm62Hmbf4.) When teenage twins David and Jennifer become trapped in a 1950’s black-and-white television show called “Pleasantville,” the town begins to progressively change given their 1990’s mindset. Buildings, flowers, and even people gradually become “colored” when they were transformed, causing a divide to form in the community. However, once everyone and everything becomes colored, the community begins to realize that their old way of life may have not been what was best for them. The sweeping changes that Pleasantville endured exemplify how the residents were given …show more content…
Although the town council believed that the changes in the community were sources of evil, they were the true evildoers because they refused to recognize individuality, which goes against the Hebrew Scriptures (Vardy & Arliss 182). Moreover, the tension that arose in the community between the “coloreds” and those who were black-and-white opposed the Christian Scriptures that teach us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Vardy & Arliss 183). Pleasantville is a meaningful work of art that explains the problem of evil because it shows how evil subsists even in the most perfect of worlds. The changes in Pleasantville taught people to embrace the uncertainties that life might throw at them. While nobody is immune to suffering, having support from friends and family allows us to better deal with suffering (Kelly 75). With the power of free will now in Pleasantville, not only are people able to choose between good or evil, but they also have the ability to fully embrace God’s