January 31st 2013
Due Date: February 4th 2013
Pleasantville Norms Summary:
Norms are the rules of behavior that are agreed upon and shared within a culture. Pleasantville
has taken for granted norms. Norms can also be broken in this movie. You can have a stable society
that can undergo rapidly. Some view society as a system of highly interrelated structures. The norms of
the town are different from today’s society where nudity, sexual conduct, violence and profanity are just
apart of the everyday life in 2013.
As for example in Pleasantville community members were more conservative but once the two
main characters were pulled through the television show things changed. As the young man understood
the towns need for structure and social order. Reese Witherspoon thought she could challenge their
morals and beliefs by introducing the town to sex out at Lover’s Lane. That being a break from the
norms that the town held so dearly started to break out. Seeing and being seen in color for the very first
time but some were still in black and white. Why? She entered this little town that no one had challenge
the perfect little town’s ideals and norms. That’s why she was sent there. The people in the town were
so obsessed by their norms that they were unable to follow and function without them. So, why not send
someone to challenge the norms of the town. It’s like sociological imagination as in a relationship
between an individual experiences and forces in the larger society that shape our actions. This movie is
an example of the functionalist perspective in action. Some struggled to obtain the maximum benefit.
Which causes society to change constantly in response to social inequality and social conflict.