clomax,
My comment above from last summer was about the structure of the film's narrative. You have raised the subject of the basis of the Elaine Benjamin relationship, and while your own story is a great one, I think the relationship is somewhat more complicated than you suggest, as I believe is alluded to in the famous final scene.
I am aware that some perhaps significant group of viewers see the final scene as not only cautionary, but perhaps even an indication that the very sort of life Benjamin feels he has been fighting against having is now more or less what is going to happen to him. to be clear I do not sense that.
But The Graduate on some level has to be understood as on one hand about Benjamin questioning the direction and possible meaning of his life while at the same time, I think, not indicating that he has definitely found an answer.
Of course it is more than merely suggested that Elaine might be "the answer". There is certainly evidence she might be. As you and others have noted here, she not only changes his whole life's course, that first date with her acting as the narrative pivot of the story, she changes the way he looks at life and how to go forward. He moves from someone the story, Mrs. Robinson's use of him shows, as someone who life is happening to, albeit with many questions asked, to someone who begins to take control of his life. So much so that he risks being seen as a stalker of Elaine.
But we can also see why he is so attracted. She is smart, beautiful, self confident, moral in the right way, and even fun. To an almost implausible extent she is very different from both her parents, and therefore in the context of this film different from her parents' whole generation. To him she is new and different and real.
But do those things mean she is going to be his answer?
The film still contains much that makes one wonder however much we understand Benjamin's, and for that matter Elaine's, rebellion against their parents' overbearing control. But is rebellion the answer or merely some sort of however understandable reaction?
I think where one sees The Graduate as coming down on that question also speaks to how the relationship between them, at the core of this film, should be understood.
In that last scene, as their smiles fade, Elaine looking at one point at him and seeing a questioning sense of wonder, I don't see how an unvarnished sense of happiness is possible. At the same time all the ways in which Elaine and Ben are attracted to each other remain, but where do they go now? How do they avoid what we thought Ben was trying to avoid? How will Elaine with Ben be different from the groom she left at the alter?
To some extent The Graduate was very much of its time. No one knew exactly where the counter culture would go, but we can wonder at some possibilities for the two. Will they go on the road? Perhaps to some commune? Some urban bohemian existence? Or will Benjamin go into plastics, with a conventional life?
Or will they not stay together at all?
THis of course is an open ending, not only in terms of what happens next to the characters, but thematically. The theme of rebellion and intergenerational conflict but up against the theme true of all generations that what young adults choose to do with their lives is fraught with uncertainty and potential conflict. With compromises and acceptance as well.
My own view of their future is optimistic enough based on what attracts them to each other being solid enough, that they will stay together. But they will also have to find an answer what to do in the next stage, after rebellion has carried you away from your parents, but to what? It won't be easy to find that answer.
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