Answer:
The Graduate, a 1960s classic, is recognized as a landmark film due to its social themes regarding gender, fidelity and marriage in American suburbia. The “wholesome American” stereotype that was commonplace a decade before was slowly dwindling away once the baby boomer generation became young adults. The turbulent 60s stripped away images of the “Stepford Wife” archetype whose goal was to manage households, raise children and take after her husband’s lead. Women were revolutionized and empowered with ideals of self-worth and independence on a larger scale. The Graduate’s core theme can be broken down to a general societal defiance. “The influential film is a biting satire/comedy about a recent nebbish, East Coast college graduate who finds himself alienated and adrift in the shifting, social and sexual mores of the 1960s” (Dirks, 2013). Benjamin Braddock, starred by Dustin Hoffman, and the infamous Mrs. Robinson, starred by Anne Bancroft, become the man and woman who defy the social customs.