The Graduate Scene 3 Summary

Scuba Symbolism

  • We cut to Mr. Braddock addressing a bunch of family friends in his backyard. He's going to present some amazing feature attraction to them.
  • After some more rhetorical fanfare, it appears that the feature attraction is Benjamin, dressed in a new scuba-diving suit.
  • Ben reluctantly walks into the backyard, and we see the scene from his perspective, from behind the suit's mask. He dives into the pool, and looks back up. We see his lonely figure standing, apparently pretty far down, on the bottom of the pool.
  • Apparently, this experience was sufficiently mortifying to provoke Ben into calling Mrs. Robinson from a payphone at the Taft Hotel. He's decided to take up her up on her offer since the rest of his life has been turning into a disaster.
  • She says she'll be there in an hour.
  • He ends up holding the door for some older married people before going over to the room clerk, who asks him if he's there for an affair—meaning a party. Ben's terror merges into understanding, and he says he's there for "The Singleman Party."
  • Ben walks into the party, where he has an awkward encounter with an older woman who thinks he's a guest.
  • He bows out and goes to the hotel bar, where Mrs. Robinson comes in and meets with him for a drink. Ben says he'll go get a room, which he hasn't done yet.
  • He arranges a room with the clerk under a fake name, and then calls Mrs. Robinson at the bar from the payphone to tell her where the room is.