Illustration by Lindsay Johnson, Art Director

It’s a query most college students face at one time or another, especially at the end of the spring semester when graduation looms on the horizon: What am I going to do with the rest of my life?

In the 1967 movie “The Graduate,” Benjamin Braddock asked himself that same question after completing college with honors and returning home. Long before John Hughes was making angst-ridden teen flicks, this film became the quintessential coming-of-age film.

In his breakout role, Dustin Hoffman plays 21-year-old Benjamin, who’s awkward and unsure of himself. He arrives at his suburban Los Angeles home and is forced to attend his graduation party with all of his parents’ friends. He tries to escape the torture, but before he can, Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft), the wife of his father’s business partner, asks for a ride home. Overly polite and somewhat of a sucker, Benjamin drives her home and is coerced into following her inside and having a drink. When Mrs. Robinson starts disclosing her personal problems and admits her husband will be gone for several hours, Benjamin utters the famous phrase, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me.”

Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson begin an illicit affair and meet in hotel rooms for most of the summer. He puts off deciding on whether to attend graduate school to enjoy lounging at the pool and sleeping with his older lover.

Things get complicated when Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine, comes home from college and Benjamin is pressured by Mr. Robinson and his parents to go out with her. Although Mrs. Robinson forbids him from dating her daughter – and he is resistant at first – Benjamin falls in love with Elaine.

For the rest of the film, he devotes his energy to fighting for Elaine’s love.

Not only is “The Graduate” a great film with a humorous script and creative use of cinematography, it also has an awesome soundtrack. Folk music duo Simon and Garfunkel perform all the songs featured in the film. Their songs, such as “The Sound of Silence” and “Scarborough Fair,” seem to echo Benjamin’s loneliness and confusion.

Of course, they also wrote the catchy “Mrs. Robinson” for the film, which became a smash single, and the film’s soundtrack rose above The Beatles’ “White Album” on the popular music charts in 1968.

The film is so entrenched in popular culture that it has been parodied countless times, most notably in Mike Myers’ classic, “Wayne’s World 2.” Its themes are widely recognizable and used over and over in coming-of-age films, such as in “American Pie” when nerdy Finch “does it” with Stifler’s sexy mom.

Everyone should see “The Graduate” not only because it is regarded as a piece of American pop culture, but also so that they can be in on the joke.