Ben Braddock sits motionless in his bedroom, adrift in thought. He has just graduated college and naturally has begun pondering what is to come. Downstairs, the party thrown by his parents to celebrate the occasion continues. Ben's father enters the room to inquire about his son's absence from the festivities. "What are you worried about," asks the elder Braddock, "your future?"
Ben grasps for the words to articulate the host of emotions swirling inside him. "I want my future to be...," he pauses, then cracks a slight smile. "Different." And so began Ben's search-a search for direction, a search for understanding, a search for himself. The story of his search and where it takes him is the story of "The Graduate." Although more than three decades old, the import of Ben's odyssey in the film still resonates loudly today. That's because in me-as well as in every other senior who is graduating less than two months from now-there is at least a little bit of Ben Braddock.
In the years to come, each one of us will undergo distinct experiences that will, whether we know it or not, guide us in our quests for direction in life. We are fortunate to have friends, family and other influential figures to help us, but part of the challenge and satisfaction is discovering that direction on our own. It will naturally take more time for some to find the right path than others, but no matter. Just ask Ben. In one of the movie's most poignant scenes, Ben is lying contentedly in a pool as his father approaches him. "Ben," his father asks sternly, "what are you doing?"
"Well," Ben answers, "I would say that I'm drifting here in the pool."
Frustrated and at a loss to understand Ben's need to drift, his father grows annoyed: "Would you mind telling me, then, what those four years of college were for-what was the point of all that hard work?"
Ben looks at his father and responds simply, "Ya' got me."
In many respects, those three words are the most honest and meaningful ones Ben had ever uttered in his young life-the courage to admit that he did not have the answer. His father had continually pushed the idea of graduate school upon him and a family friend had told him, in one of the film's memorable lines, that "There's a great future in plastics." But all Ben knew was that he didn't know-and that is all he needed to begin his search.
More than anything, I believe, that is the crucial lesson: to be honest with yourself, to determine your own direction in life and to discover your own voice along the way. Don't simply nod your head in obedient rhythm when you don't agree with something; trust your instincts and weigh in with your opinion.
What the initially timid and deferential Ben learns during the course of his own journey (along with the need to resist the temptation of older married women) is the importance of doing just that. When he decides-impulsively but instinctively-that he wants to marry a certain young woman, namely Mrs. Robinson's daughter, his father tells him: "Ben, this whole idea seems pretty half-baked."
"Oh no, it's not," Ben declares. "It's completely baked-it's a decision I've made."
Indeed, right or wrong, it is a decision that Ben himself made. Whatever you do and wherever life may carry you after the University, don't ever be afraid to make a "completely baked" decision. It will most likely be a difficult decision; the important ones usually are. Although the risk may be great, so too will be the reward. For making such a decision will enable you to enjoy a future that is, to borrow Ben's word, different. A future all your own.
The experiences that await us outside the Gothic Wonderland will reveal what we learned of ourselves here and, more importantly, what we did not. It is, in a sense, life without a safety net-potentially exhilarating on the one hand and downright unnerving on the other. It was the experience of Ben Braddock and it will soon be ours as well. Let the search for self-discovery commence.
Alex Gordon is a Trinity senior and news features editor of The Chronicle.
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