Pleasantville

In the world around us, things are constantly changing, forcing us to make adjustments in our daily lives. We can view and analyze these changes and their impacts through the three main lenses of sociological theory. These three theories are of course Conflict theory, Functional theory, and Symbolic Interactionism. We witness these three main sociological theories on a daily basis whether we acknowledge them or not. This is almost never more true than in the film Pleasantville which is a sociological hotbed for these theories. One theory, we tend to witness in exceeding frequency throughout the film than the other two.

Functional theory is probably the sociological theory we see most frequently throughout Pleasantville. In the city of Pleasantville society is basically a paradise where everyone knows their roles and performs it faultlessly. All the kids go to school and get excellent grades, the husbands of this society work your typical “9-5” shifts, the wives stay home and do chores around the house while preparing meals awaiting their spouse and children’s arrival , and everyone is always smiling. Everything is pleasant. That is of course until the new Bud and Mary Sue arrive who lack the anomie of this particular society causing dysfunction. This is evident in many aspects of their society. Everything the siblings do that don’t follow the “code” of Pleasantville alters the people around them. An example of this is Bill who works at the soda shop. He always comes into work every day performing the same exact tasks in the same exact order with perfection. One day Bud shows up late to work at the soda shop which in turn throws Bills routine into chaos and he doesn’t know what to do, relying on Bud to make the decisions for him. Another example of this could be during basketball practice. Everyone makes every single shot, but when Bud doesn’t follow the script and tells Skip he shouldn’t ask Mary Sue out on a date it subtly alters his feelings at that moment and causes him to miss his shot. These two examples show how small disruptions can cause this society to collapse or even evolve in a way. In Pleasantville, you can see how the five structures of society, according to functional theory, interact with one another. You have Family, Education, Politics, Economics, and Religion. These are all shown to work in cohesion with one another until Mary Sue and Bud arrive. The sexual exploits of Mary Sue causes dysfunction among their family causing Bud to show up late for work