Psychological Changes In Pleasantville

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In society, individual’s tend to change their perspective based on others. Having personal desires can influence others but shouldn’t affect their behaviour to change for society’s expectations. In the film, Pleasantville, the director, Gary Ross, develops the idea that having a personal desire can lead to changing one’s perspective. Jennifer was a leader in and outside of Pleasantville, but known for different things.

In the beginning, Jennifer was an extroverted, self-centered, and confident lady. Outside of Pleasantville, Jennifer leads her group of friends, from wearing matching outfits to doing the same actions as her. Jennifer’s two friends always did whatever she did. For example, in the beginning of the movie, it shows Jennifer and
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Outside of Pleasantville, this would be normal for any teenager, to ask someone you like to come over. This scene takes place just outside of their school and Jennifer says “My mom will be out of town” and her friends gasp because they know what’s going to happen next. And Mark replies with “So uh… Maybe we could, uh..” and presumably everyone knows that Mark will be going over to Jennifer's. But when that night comes, the TV remote happens to break right before Jennifer’s date and David’s movie marathon. Right after the remote gets fixed by a TV repairman, David presses the button and a few seconds later him and Jennifer fight over it, they get transported into Pleasantville. It took Jennifer a few episodes to realize that the people of Pleasantville didn’t know anything about sex. In fact, she tries to change Skip by making him take her to Lovers Lane to try new things. This shows how Jennifer would like the citizens of Pleasantville to start conforming like the people outside of Pleasantville. Presumably, Jennifer would be known for that outside of Pleasantville, but since no one in Pleasantville knew anything about sex, Jennifer thought it would be a good idea to educate the people of Pleasantville about sex and be known for

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