PEL Presents (sub)Text: Worrying about the Future in Mike Nichols' “The Graduate”

Oct 09, 2020, 06:00 AM

Benjamin Braddock is a little worried about his future. He’s a recent college graduate who moves back in with his upper-middle-class parents and feels smothered by their vapid, materialistic lifestyle. But he begins an affair with a woman from his parents’ circle… And then he falls in love with her daughter. Like Benjamin, we wonder what the future can and should hold for us. Can it be free of the negative trappings of our society and culture, of our parents’ influence, of the past? Wes and Erin discuss Mike Nichols’ 1967 film "The Graduate."

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Thanks to Tyler Hislop for the audio editing on this episode.