The Graduate

In The Graduate, we follow the complicated life of Ben Braddock as he returns to his home after 4 years in college. However, very early on the viewer will begin to notice that Ben's life is controlled and manipulated by his parents. During the very first scene we can see that Ben is not interested in his graduation party since its really mostly for the parents. None of his own friends are there and Ben is just a mere trophy in his mind for his parents. The way his parents speak to him and how he reacts shows that he is still a child despite being 21. They  order him around telling him to "come down stairs" and to do this and that constantly. Ben doesn't want to live with the fact that he is still a child so he is willing to do everything he can to escape that fate, even if it means having an affair with Mrs. Robinson to prove to himself that he is a man. Throughout the film he begins to develop into the man he had hoped to become through Mrs. Robinson and her experience. Soon he feels completely comfortable with himself as a man and decides to move on. He begins dating her daughter Elaine. In the final moments of the film when Ben and Elaine are on the bus running away with each other you begin to realize that they can never really support each other at all. How are they supposed to pay for anything and where will they live? This huge leap that Ben decides to take is what it really means to be an adult. Since they really can't do that, that basically means he is still a child and maybe on the bus during that awkward moment of silence he begins to realize that.