life, something which Nichols attempted to reflect in his work. The Graduate uses unprecedented camera techniques to establish the protagonist Ben (Dustin Hoffman) as an unknowing narrator of his own story. The camera becomes a dominant feature and the use of uncomfortable shots convey, not what Ben sees, but what he is feeling. On his return home from university, newly graduated Ben contemplates his future, which he wants “to be different”. 279 Ben’s positioning in front of a fish tank is symbolic of his being trapped in the glass tank of suburban life. The camera fails to adjust as his parents enter and leave the shot and their proximity to the screen makes them appear as intrusions into Ben’s thoughts. As Ben is unaware of his narrator role, he possesses an objective and forward-looking perspective, denoting feelings of uncertainty which 1960s youths had about their future, as well as the intrusion they felt from their parents’ generation. Glass and water are the film’s most prominent themes and are used to separate the adult’s world of plastic materialism from the youth culture to which Ben wants to escape. 280 The most striking use of water is when Ben is forced to parade around in his $200 scuba suit. Here he submerges himself into the world of his parents as they look on eagerly. When Ben tries to escape to the surface, the camera shows Ben’s perspective as his parents physically and metaphorically push him back into the tank. The camera plays a hugely important role here, drifting away to show Ben as a cowering figure in the corner of the tank. Eventually he will run out of air and suffocate in the society by which he is confined. Nichols saw Ben as a person “drowning amongst objects and things”, highlighting
279 The Graduate. DVD. Directed by Mike Nichols. Los Angeles: Lawrence Turman Productions, 1967. 280 Cardullo, Film Analysis, 114.
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