There are many comparisons between the real life of Charles Webb, the author of "The Graduate" and the characters that derived from the movie. However, obviously the movie characters and the Charles Webb's life have significant differences between not only the details of his life but also the people who he surrounds himself with from the parents down to his ex wife. Even the way he ended up marrying his college sweetheart because her parents wanted to send her to California in attempt to break them up is different from the movie. When Webb wrote his book, he wanted to get the approval of his mother and show his parents how they really are, however, being the type of person she is she never really gave him any approval. Also, his book aggravated his father because of how accurate it was to his personality. The family wanted to have nothing to do with the book until it was made into a movie then his both parents praised him and often said "that's my boy!" Charles and Mrs.Robinson were never actually sexually involved in real life, she actually hated him and didn't think that he was right for her daughter, however, according to this article Webb passed her room one day and accidentally caught her naked coming out of the shower which is what inspired her character. http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/2008/04/real-life-parallels-graduate-charles-webb.php Even though this movie was well known won awards and is considered a "classic" I did not find this movie enjoyable. I thought that the main character was so annoying and basically a wimp the way he is always asking questions and is very submissive when other people command him to do something much like when Mrs.Robinson told him to be quite or sit down. Also the story itself I did not find particularly interesting. However, I definitely able to recognize the revolutionary style of directing this movie brought. Such as the way the dialogue starts without any characters being in frame giving a better transition between scenes. Or the way the song "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel became sort of the theme song for this movie and is used constantly throughout the movie which doesn't seem that mind altering however, many movies use these very techniques today and it's always interesting to see where these styles came from. I can appreciate the innovation used in this movie when it came to the directing process, but as for the story itself I did not really enjoy it.