Johnson is very afraid to paint, David convinces him staying by his side to paint the wall of the Police Station. Davit’s ability to influence can be observed during the county court trial, where he even manages to change the judge. Jennifer also has high ability to influence, she influences people at Lover’s Lane, first crossing the boundaries in Pleasantries and initiating a sexual contact with Skip, later causing the insecure couples around them to do the same and change the whole Lover’s Lane atmosphere, Jennifer changes the verbal aspect of culture at Pleasantries where the word swell” gets replaced with “cool”.
Jennifer promotes people to take care of their sexual needs (personal freedom from rules such as “safe sex”), which in time change the whole culture in Pleasantries as people who fulfill their needs (which they are unaware of) they start to get colorful, and start to do things that are not a part of their culture. Bob’s ability to influence is demonstrated when he visits George at his house and makes him a member of Pleasantries Chamber of Commerce, asking in return to help him stop this change and “stand up for what’s right” After the changes and nude painting of Betty, residents of
Pleasantries start to revolt against the changes. Immediately after they decide to hold a Town Meeting, where everyone raises their opinions and form out a code of conduct here we can see the ability to influence of Pleasantries residents. Comfort with Ambiguity Throughout the movie the residents of the Pleasantries have very low comfort with Ambiguity.
People being weirder out by the double bed, it’s against their “safe sex” understanding of single bed (Artifact). In real world, however, there is high comfort with Ambiguity, when examples are given such as “Median income for high level jobs will decrease” “HIVE risk is increasing” “By the time you are thirty, there will be floods, famine” and such, We can observe the students are burping making Statements such as “Thrilling” or burping while listening the class.
During the gym scene everyone can easily score without an effort including David this is the norm in Pleasantries, when Skip asks David (Bud) of what would happen if he would ask Mary Sue out, and later since David says it is not the right time to Skip, in anger and frustration Skip hurls the ball randomly and fails to score. When the ball falls back on the ground, people are scared of it; the comfort tit ambiguity is very low (Coach saying “Don ‘t touch it. Stay back. ) When Jennifer and Skip goes out to dinner together, Skip wants to take things slow, is even afraid of holding hands tells Jennifer that there is still plenty of time for those kind of things, and tells her that he could not approach her because she was always around her friends, Skip has very low comfort with ambiguity. After dinner, Jennifer and Skip go to Lovers Lane where Jennifer initiates sexual intercourse with Skip, during this Skip is very afraid of the natural changes happening on his body, this is a new experience for him, asks
Jennifer to stop, again Skip has very low comfort with ambiguity. 2 The elders in Pleasantries has very low ambiguity, comfort they take with their daughters to doctors when they start to get colored. Or they start to question how the team lost the game, when they won all the previous games, or during the woman’s meeting while playing cards, they find it very “strange” (upsetting) that there are colors popping around, specially when they see colored young people walking around they make statements such as “Somebody ought to do something about that, soon”.
Later George is invited to ministers house ND where minister says, “Are you aware of the changes” later continue with “If you love a place you can’t just sit back and watch this kind of thing happen, now, can you? ‘I. Betty has very low comfort with ambiguity, when Bob visits George in his house he asks for food, by then Betty had already got colored, she is very afraid to go out or to her husband, and serve food to the visitor. She fears what would people think or do to her. Eventually David helps her, using her make-up paints her black and white again so she can go out.
The low comfort with ambiguity is also seen when rain starts, people at Lovers Lane are scared of rain they don’t know what it is and they hide under a pagoda, Davit’s ability to influence though makes them more comforTABLE with rain. George has very low comfort with ambiguity as well just like most of the residents of Pleasantries, which can be observed throughout the movie, one of the best parts to observe is when he visits David in the jail he doesn’t acknowledge Betty is not with him anymore, he is afraid that he couldn’t play bridge with the Jenkins.
When David tells him that nothing is wrong its just people change, he asks, “Can they change back? ” later saying “Not fair, you et used to one thing and then… ” 3 At the county court Pleasantness’s comfort with ambiguity is again demonstrated when David asks for a lawyer, and Bob says “I think we want to keep these proceedings as pleasant as possible, I don’t think a lawyer will be necessary”, which follows with a laughter from the crowd.
Although we mostly see low comfort with ambiguity this is not the case when David gets to work one day and the young people of Pleasantries who are being effected by the changes happening themselves, asks David questions about his life, the books, the stories, the world, and at ending scene of the vie we see George, Betty and Mr.. Johnson answering the question “What’s going to happen now? ‘ as “l don’t know” and laughing after, they are very comforTABLE with ambiguity. Achievement Orientation Achievement Orientation is low on Pleasantries until things start to change. Mr..
Johnson has low achievement orientation, he is insecure of accomplishing tasks that David used to accomplish and even asks David what-to-do when he is not around, he has problems opening up Soda Shop in the morning when David gets late to work. Although after the influence of David starts to demonstrate high achievement orientation, he starts to paint, he is very assertive up to a point he draws nude picture of Betty on the Soda Shops window and a colorful art piece on the wall of Police Station until the county court where he takes a step back (due to low comfort with ambiguity) and offers the court to paint something less colorful.
David has high achievement orientation, we can observe this during the county court trial, and he is very assertive even though Judge doesn’t want him to speak and interrupts his speech he keeps on going first he changes his father making him cry, he thrives for change eventually with his ability to influence he changes the judge himself, and he is very assertive.
David rejects to hand the remote back to the TV’ Repairman and telephoto back into reality after he goes out with Margaret to Lovers Lane, he is seen unhappy about his black and white state (watching his reflection on water), he is thriving for change himself too, so he doesn’t hand back the remote and eventually by defending Betty from abuse he changes color too. Here we can see his high achievement orientation. Davit’s achievement orientation is also seen when he takes Mr.. Johnson to paint the wall of Police Station, in the morning even though there are people ridiculing what they did they are proud and assertive.
Jennifer has very high achievement orientation, she eventually takes on the role of Mary Sue and starts to study, even at the end of the movie, Jennifer prefers to stay at Pleasantries since she believes she has a chance to study in Pleasantries, and sacrifices her past life. Betty demonstrates high achievement orientation when George tells her to join the town hall meeting, Betty rejects and tells him she’ll not join and even through George’s persuasion “It’ll go away” (meaning her new colorful state) she is assertive of her new life and she rejects. Individualism / Collectivism In Pleasantries the culture is more collectivist; In the bowling hall scene, collectivism is demonstrated when elder males of Pleasantries gather up and discuss the on-going disturbances, the Bob says “are we in this alone or are we in it together? ” meaning to do something about these events where everyone shouts “together”. During the riots, we can see the residents acting as a collective unit, burning books and destroying the nude painting of Betty. Jennifer is more individual acting’ she does not care about the changes happening in Pleasantries even though she is the one who brought them.
The changes happen as a side effect of her own actions, David warns her to aspect the norms of Pleasantries but she initiates sexual intercourse with Skip for her own individual achievement, later talks about the books making them visible to everyone, and eventually she starts to study and while loads of stuff is happening outside she prefers to stay at home and study, later staying in Pleasantries and attending college, she has no interaction with anyone if her “rewards” are not through their path.
The residents, which got changed, are also collectivists; we can see this when they are all there for Mr.. Johnson in the Soda Shop after the riot, discussing the new implemented ode of conduct and what they can do about it or how they all meet at Lovers Lane to celebrate this new change, and at the county court when they are there to support David through the trial. 6 Time Orientation The residents of Pleasantries are very past oriented, even from the Trailer of Pleasantries its said “Flashback to Kinder, Gentler times”.
The people in Pleasantries have traditional values and way of doing things. This also can be seen in the Town Hall meeting where the code of conduct that is made in the meeting includes past values and everything new is announced illegal. We can observe the shift in Time Orientation when the objects in the movie start to get colored, as artifacts; they are the signs that things are changing throughout Pleasantries. Mr.. Johnson is past oriented even after the changes in Pleasantries; he checks an art book, which David brought to him, and later his paintings reflect the previous artists.
When colors are introduced in Pleasantries some people greet this change with loathing and eventually riot against it, they are very conservative of their values and norms. Bob says; “Everything till now has been pleasant but recently things have become unpleasant” David is present-oriented, with few exceptions such as when e starts to get annoyed that he is still black and white and wants to change himself, showing future orientation or at the end of the movie leaving the Pleasantries 7 and leaving his lover behind.
But mostly he is focused on today, and doesn’t do much about future. Jennifer is future-oriented, this can be easily noticed when she plans to stay in Pleasantries and study for a better future, focusing on education and achievement through education. Space Orientation The residents of the Pleasantries have strict rules and way of doing things, there is minimal to none individual freedom, it’s a closed society.
