"Plastics" and the Corporate World
The Corporate World and the choice of a career cast a great shadow over Benjamin's sense of self. As the adults in his life urge him to pick a direction and stick with it, Benjamin feels all the more alienated and unable to choose. Benjamin sees the working world as artificial and inauthentic, just like the "plastics" industry that Mr. McGuire advises him, with unintentional comedy, to enter.
Female Sexuality
Female sexuality and desire is a central theme of the movie, as it is Mrs. Robinson's sexual desire that motivates the inciting action of the film. Mrs. Robinson is the living embodiment of the frustrated and under-stimulated housewife, and her primary mode of rebellion is her sexuality. She fights back against the misogynistic expectations of domesticity by seducing a younger man. In contrast to Benjamin's domestic and compliant mother, Mrs. Robinson is sexual, aggressive, and utterly at ease with rejecting the image of blissful suburban contentment that is expected of women in her situation. Sexuality is Mrs. Robinson's strongest weapon, and she uses it to get what she wants, even if it hurts others.
The Sound of Silence
We first meet the young graduate to the strains of the Simon and Garfunkel song, "The Sounds of Silence," and then throughout much of the film Benjamin remains inarticulate and isolated from the world. Many scenes in the movie—especially in the first half hour or so—visually punctuate Benjamin's feelings of withdrawal and solitude. Benjamin feels cut off from the world, unable to communicate or talk about what is wrong. Instead he lounges around the house and in his family pool. The only person who can break his silence is Elaine, with whom he speaks honestly and fluidly about his feelings of frustration and alienation.
Counterculture
Benjamin is not a hippie; he’s not a campus protestor or a political agitator, as Mr. McCleery first suspects. Nevertheless, he is an important figure of the 1960s countercultural revolution, representing the alienated and disaffected youth. The Graduate does not explicitly depict the counterculture, but its effects can be felt throughout. Indeed, in 1967, no home was safe from the effects of the hippies, draft dodgers, Black Panthers, and various other groups representative of the growing leftism of youth politics.
While Benjamin's rebellion is vaguely defined, his story highlights the theme of rebellion and breaking from tradition. In the 1960s, the effects of the counterculture loomed large: even a nice young man from a good family like Benjamin Braddock could feasibly rebel against his family.
Age
As the title suggests, the film is about a boy who has recently graduated from college and is about to embark on his life as an adult. He is in a transitional moment, neither a student nor a professional, and his liminal age position makes him feel adrift and unsure. Benjamin neither fits in with his parents' friends, nor does he have any peers around with whom to commiserate. When Mr. Robinson returns home to find Benjamin there, he insists that "You're only young once," and that Benjamin ought to make the most of it while he can. Youth is something enviable to the adults of the film, but it appears confining and confusing to the young people.
Clearly, age is also an important theme insofar as the age difference between Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin is one of the primary transgressions driving forward the plot. When Benjamin suspects that Mrs. Robinson is trying to seduce him, she insists that she couldn't possibly be seducing him, because she is twice his age. Nevertheless, she admits to wanting to sleep with him, and propositions him to make advances whenever he wants. Despite having known him since he was little, and despite the taboos around such an erotic relationship, Mrs. Robinson does not see age difference as a barrier to sex.
Freedom
Benjamin feels confined throughout the movie, but is liberated from his feelings of confinement by the love of Elaine. She motivates him to change his life and take to the open road. Romance is a liberating contrast to Benjamin's stagnant and stuck state in his parent's home. Benjamin longs for freedom: from expectation, from society, from institutions, from professionalism, and from the messy aftermath of his affair with Mrs. Robinson. The final image of the film shows Benjamin finally achieving the freedom he has worked so hard to find, as he rides the bus into an open future with the woman he loves.
Drifting
When Mr. Braddock confronts Benjamin about his laziness as he lies on a pool flotation device, Benjamin posits that he is drifting. In the absence of a strong sense of direction or self, Benjamin is content to tread water, in spite of his parents' urging him to pick a direction. It is not until he meets Elaine that Benjamin stops drifting and starts feeling a sense of purpose.
