Functionalist Perspective In Pleasantville

The 1998 film, Pleasantville, written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross is a “swell” example of the three perspectives of sociology. Two 1990 teenagers get trapped in the blue-sky world of a 1950’s sitcom. While spending time with the people in the small town of Pleasantville, the teens begin to drastically change the the bland ways of the townspeople and alter their world completely. Throughout these events, viewers can find examples of the functionalist perspective, interactionist perspective, and conflict perspective.

In the movie “Pleasantville” two kids named David and Jennifer, living in the 1990’s get sucked into to a tv show called “Pleasantville” which takes place in the 1950’s where everything is “perfect”. Now living in a completely different era and being named Bud and Mary Sue, they must try to adjust to this new culture while attempting to find a way to get back to their present day. Through the whole movie they realize how much that the world has changed in 40 years. The town of Pleasantville is set in black and white, but as people start to change and feel more emotion they turn into color. While watching the movie it was interesting to watch the characters learn more about the past from different perspectives.

Functionalism is a theory of the mind in contemporary philosophy, developed largely as an alternative to both the identity theory of mind and behaviorism. Its main idea is that mental states are constituted solely by their functional role. The conflict perspective views the social world as difficult unfair and unreasonable. This perspective is typically more pessimistic. Symbolic interactionism is a theory that develops from practical considerations and that alludes to people's particular utilization of dialect to make images, normal implications, for deduction and correspondence with others.

Every year the retail stores open up early on Friday after Thanksgiving for amazing Christmas shopping deals. A lot of the merchandise in the participating stores becomes 30%, 40%, or even 50+% discounted. For the consumers that prefer to save money have no problem in participating in what is called “Black Friday.” Last year instead of the sells starting on Friday the participating stores started their sells on Thanksgiving around 6pm. This year the retail stores have decided to start their sells even earlier, as early as 6am on Thanksgiving sale.

Functionalists believe that society is based on a value consensus into which society socialises its members, which enables to cooperate harmoniously and meet society’s needs and goals.

The first perspective which I will be explaining will be Functionalism. Functionalism is the view that our society is based onagreed norms and values. A norm is social rules that define correct behaviour in society. An example of a norm can be an individual attending school until they are the age of 18. Values are what are important to an individual and this differs in class, culture, ethnicity and gender. An example

It is impossible for the individual who values freedom to be exultant in a society that is underpinned by rigid conformity. In the Novel “Nineteen Eighty Four” by George Orwell, a totalitarian future society is portrayed, through a man whose daily work is rewriting history and tries to rebel by falling in love. Whereas The film “Pleasantville” directed by Gary Ross, Two teenagers find themselves in a 1950’s sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change the complacent world the portrayal how a dystopian and a utopian society, contest the value of time. The ironic comparisons are seen through

Furthermore, the movie Pleasantville reflects some of the cultural conflicts of the 1950s. To begin, racial discrimination in the 1950s was extremely prominent in society. Whites discriminated against blacks because they were taught that anyone different than themselves was evil. Pleasantville portrays this when the citizens thereof begin changing color from black and white to color. These people represent an embrace of cultural change which goes against the normal, stable and secure status quo. The people of color are persecuted against by those of black and white color because they feel their existence is threatened by this symbol of change. For example, this persecution is seen in the scene when Betty Parker is persecuted by five black and white people while out in town. The five boys threaten her with verbal and physical attacks, as would blacks or “coloreds” would be by whites in the 1950s. Another cultural conflict exemplified by Pleasantville is changing teenage culture. Two ideas that challenged the cultural status quo in the ’50s were the idea that sex is ok, and Rock n Roll. Teenagers embraced these changes, and these changes are seen in Pleasantville. For example, a location called “lover’s lane” is where teens would go in this movie to participate in taboo, status quo-challenging sexual activity with the opposite sex. The idea of this in the 1950s was not even considered,

In this film, each character is given a name upon how they act and what clique they interact with. A functionalist perceptive might say that each type of character has their own meaning or impact to society and without them society will become dysfunctional. Our first character named Andrew Clark on the wrestling team played the status of the “Athlete”, a person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise. Through a Functionalist perspective they would say that sports help Social systems maintain balance and operate efficiently. They help by providing opportunities for conflict management and release, Socialization, individual of different diversity to interact, and social mobility. Since Clark is participating in wrestling he is contributing to society by playing the sport because without “Athlete’s” there would be no Sports to play. Because it sport contributes to society it makes it a working/functioning part. John Bender played the status of the “Criminal”, a person who has committed a crime. He is deviant, and violates society formal laws. He is seen in the movie, disrespecting the teacher, having marijuana in his locker, and breaking rules. Functionalist Perspectives on crime is that its normal and a necessary part of society. It contributes by creating social unity, society learns not to do this behavior. A functionalist perspective on this type of character would be that he has a function in society.

Functionalism is a theory by Durkheim that conveys that all aspects of a society serve a function and are necessary for the survival of that society. In this way, society is like an organism. If all institutions work properly it contributes to the

In addition too, Symbolic Interactionism perspectives, there is Functionalism Perspective. The idea of the Functionalist perspective leads back to Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist whose writings form the core of the functionalist theory (McClelland, 2000). Functionalism is what happens when social structures have positive effects on the constancy of society. It is the frame work for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote harmony and stability. There are also three assumptions behind functionalism theory, Stability, Harmony, and Evolutions. Those who use social structure theory focus on studying the nature and the consequences of social structures. It also focuses on a relatively state pattern of social behavior. This gives our lives shape in

Functionalism is the belief that a mental state, such as pain, “is to have an internal state which does a certain job” (Ravenscroft, 2005, p. 50). For example, the pain that a human being feels and the pain that an octopus feels may have different physical processes within the brain, but the pain is still being felt; in other words, “to be in (or have) mental state M is to have an internal state which does the ‘M-job’ (Ravenscroft, 2005, p. 51). Any mental state M is defined in terms of inputs, outputs and internal connections, and for example, the pain role’s input may be stepping on a Lego piece, the output may be cursing and finally a possible internal connection, which is the causal link

As an individual goes through their life they will be involved in several situations that have been studied by various sociologists. Some films display these sociological concepts in such a way that they can be easily identified. One film in particular, is titled Pleasantville. This movie was filmed in 1998, and was directed by Gary Ross. Throughout this essay, I will summarize the movie Pleasantville, while at the same time discussing the various sociological concepts presented in the film.

The Interactionist perspective is the quality of relationships between people, how they communicate, their vocabulary, and how they interpret symbols. Examples from the movie include when the people of Pleasantville start to feel emotions, so then they change from black and white to color. Before Bud and Mary Sue came to Pleasantville, the people there did not feel emotions towards themselves or others because they believed it would keep them pleasant. Interactionist perspective relates to the world today because everyday people are interacting with one another, feeling emotions, and living in color. Who one surrounds themself with affects how one feels and how they treat

Functionalism is a theory which allows an individual to understand their place in society, and understands the relationship between physical input and behavioural output. It also believes that society is a system of components that are internally connected and that all the components work together to maintain stability in the society.