The Graduate (novel)

Part 1

Benjamin Braddock has recently graduated from a small Eastern college and has returned home to a suburb of Los Angeles. Suffering a small identity crisis, Benjamin, visibly uncomfortable as his parents deliver accolades and neighborhood friends ask him about his future plans, evades those who try to congratulate him. At the insistence of the neglected wife of his father’s law partner, he drives Mrs. Robinson home. Once at the house, Mrs. Robinson attempts to seduce him. Benjamin rebuffs her and quickly goes downstairs as he hears Mr. Robinson arriving home. During the next week, a day after his 21st birthday, Benjamin announces his intention to go on a road trip in order to cast off the societal expectations to spend his life “amongst the common people.”

Part 2

After the trip he decides to begin his affair with Mrs. Robinson and meets her in a hotel. In mid-September, Benjamin spends the time drifting around in the pool by day, purposefully neglecting to select a graduate school, and seeing Mrs. Robinson at the hotel by night. One evening, Mrs. Robinson reveals that she is in a loveless marriage, because in the 1940s, she became pregnant with her daughter, Elaine, and married to avoid scandal.

Elaine Robinson visits from Berkeley. One night Benjamin picks her up and they visit the hotel where everyone recognizes Benjamin. He lies to Elaine that he had an affair with an older married woman with a husband and a son. He also takes her to two clubs where they dance, and then to a strip show. After Elaine runs out of the strip club in tears, Benjamin discovers that Elaine is someone he is comfortable with. Benjamin agrees to ask Elaine out again the next day. The next morning, Mrs. Robinson threatens to expose their relationship to Elaine if Benjamin ever sees her again. Benjamin decides to tell Elaine everything. Elaine is furious and wants nothing to do with him and returns to Berkeley. After many months pass Benjamin decides to marry Elaine.

Part 3

Benjamin goes to Berkeley and moves into a rooming house near Elaine’s dormitory. Elaine is uneasy in his presence and tells him that she has started dating Carl Smith, a medical student. Elaine accuses him of taking advantage of her mother’s drunken state and raping her, refusing to believe that it was her mother who initiated the affair. Elaine eventually realizes her mother was lying and makes him promise that he won’t leave Berkeley until he has any definite plans.

When Benjamin proposes marriage, Elaine says she is concerned about graduating from college and her relationship with her parents if she continues to see him. Benjamin receives a telegram from Mrs. Robinson, telling him to get out of town immediately. Mr. Robinson arrives at the college and tells Benjamin that he is divorcing his wife and terminating his partnership with Mr. Braddock. Then he warns him not to get close to Elaine again, otherwise he will prosecute him. He forces his daughter to drop out of school and takes her away. Benjamin's father arrives the following day and wants to take him back home to see a psychiatrist. Benjamin returns to his hometown and sneaks into the Robinsons' home but encounters both Mr. and Mrs. Robinson. She calls the police and claims that a man has broken into their house. He escapes from the house and returns to Berkeley to find Elaine.

Benjamin lands in San Francisco. He finds Carl’s apartment address in the directory and heads over. There he finds a letter and learns that Carl will marry Elaine that very morning. Benjamin takes a plane to Santa Barbara and finds the church, where the ceremony is already taking place. As he sees Elaine walking down the aisle he interrupts the ceremony. He runs downstairs to the sanctuary, grabs Elaine, and they ride off.