The Struggle For Identity In Benjamin Braddock's The Graduate

The main theme in The Graduate is Benjamin Braddock, the protagonist, trying to figure out his identity through the people around him, sex and love. After graduating from college, Ben has no idea of what he wants to do or who he is. He tries to find what he wants and who he is by going on a trip and meeting new people. However, when Ben finally set a goal in his life, which is to get someone he wants to be with for the rest of his life, Elaine. There are conflicts stopping Ben to achieve his goal. First, Ben is a very intelligent and talented person, no question. This can be clearly determined because he got in to the very top schools, he is a track star and he also won an award for his teaching skills. Ben’s parents are very proud of him, they love to show him off to those around them. However, the definition of education to Ben is very different from his parents’. Ben doesn’t think the definition of …show more content…
“There were a few whores included in the tour, yes” (60), Ben, instead, meets the people opposite of what he wanted to. Ben decided to have an affair with Mrs. Robinson because he failed to meet the one person he wanted. However, Ben didn’t want to have sexual relationship with Mrs. Robson, he wanted to get to know her, to build a relationship, “I don’t- I mean I could. Or we could just talk.” (71) This show that Ben did not meet up Mrs. Robinson because he wanted to have sex, but he wanted to get to know her. Ben may think that Mrs. Robinson is the one person he was looking for, “Do you- do you think we could just say a few words to each other first this time.” (105) In an attempt to get to know her, he failed to go anyway with it because all Mrs. Robinson wanted to do was have sex, “We might- we might as well have been shaking hands.” (229) Ben sees his affair as almost nothing because there were no connectivity and relationship between him and Mrs.