Pleasantville And Edward Scissorhands Analysis

After the end of World War II, American life in the 1950s was supposedly calm and harmonious. Americans moved out of the cities and into the suburbs along the “smiling sunbelt.” Many people became homeowners, the birth rate drastically increased, and most women became stay-at-home moms. However, not all aspects of American life conformed to such ideals. The films Pleasantville and Edward Scissorhands critique the 1950s and depict how the era was actually not an age of conformity. The films are similar in that they display the consistent lives of Americans by addressing their fear of the uncertain and the gender stereotypes during this era. The films differ in that Pleasantville mainly focuses on self-discovery, while Edward Scissorhands mainly focuses on prejudice and discrimination. The two films similarly critique the 1950s by demonstrating the Americans’ fear of the uncertain and the stereotypical roles of men and women. In Pleasantville, the townspeople were shocked and frightened when people started becoming colored and rain started falling from the sky. They were afraid because these events were so unusual and different from what everyone was used to. Life in Pleasantville was …show more content…
The films intentionally critique the age of conformity by showing disruptions in the dreary representations of the 1950s. Both Pleasantville and Edward Scissorhands convey the exaggeration of the era as a peaceful and perfect time. The similarities between the two films include the criticism of gender stereotypes and Americans’ fear of the uncertain. The differences included how the films demonstrated different themes through their criticism of the era. The films also showed how American culture evolved and the impact of the changes on the people. Despite the differences, both films successfully portrayed the falsehood of the claims that the 1950s was an era of