American Beauty Centers Around The Stereotypical Suburban Family Essay

American Beauty, a film that was written by Allan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in 1999 is a unique piece that demonstrates many sociological themes throughout the development of the plot. The characters strive to portray themselves as the All American Family. They live in a nice house, drive nice cars and seem perfectly normal to the general public, but the audience is allowed to view the deep set issues that plague the main characters; Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening), Jane Burnham (Thora Birch), and Jane's best friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari). As the plot develops there are many obvious parallels relating the lives of the characters to Merton's Strain

When I was told to choose a movie to perform a psychoanalysis on a character. I did not know what movie to choose. After watching the two hour long film on the multiple characters that seemed to be struggling to find their inner happiness: American Beauty. I knew that I should not look any further. One character that especially stood out was, Lester Burnham. A forty-two year old father with a mid-life crisis. In the film, American Beauty Lester Burnham is portrayed as an ordinary man, with a perfect life, but of course that is far from the truth. From the outside, Lester seems to have a perfect salary, and a perfect family who lives in a perfect neighborhood. In reality, things are not

American Beauty at first glance may seem to be a snuff film or even a movie that simply dwells on sexual desire but, it is actually a commentary on the monotony of life and the will and means to break out of said monotony. It can also be a tale of the dangers of desires and the downfall that obsessive natures can lead to. This is true for the main character’s wife, Carolyn Burnham, who appears to have both Borderline Personality Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. While the movie is mainly focused on Lester Burnham and his eventual desire to break free from his conformities, there is a focus on how Carolyn focuses mainly on her work, conformity, and order to the point where she puts her family life on the back burner. These

“Hey Brianna, meet me at 12:00 a.m. in the cafeteria so we can discuss what happened in class today.

The children are leaving for school just as father grabs his briefcase and is off to

What insights into the American Dream are offered through the novella Of Mice and Men and the film American Beauty? In your essay you must consider the influences of context and the importance of techniques in shaping meaning.

American Beauty is a movie that sets in suburban America. The story is about Lester, whom is a middle-aged writer working in a magazine company. He was having a midlife crisis where he felt lonely and numbed by continuous unchanging routine of his everyday life. In the movie, his wife portrayed as a successful real estate agent, but she was also going through her own midlife crisis in both her career and personal life. Lester’s daughter, Jane Bumham had alienated her parents and was going through puberty. They have a new neighbor who is a U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts, and he has a son, Ricky Fitts, who is a drug dealer. Lester was going to get fired from his company that he had worked for fourteen

However following the basic american dream idea in the film American beauty and chasing money lead to a dystopian end and family destruction, which is a cautionary tale that money is not the most important thing in life, but family ties and connections. All the families in American beauty were psychotic, unstable and terrifying, which shows the effect of the American myth on people that it destroys relationships as I mentioned by the family being torn apart and just faking that it’s a happy family, everything went downhill. To explain the idea that the american dream is just a false myth, In American dream at the end of the movie nothing came back to equilibrium after the chaos so the end was dystopian, this is because the family ties were not strong and money and fortune were the main goals. In contrast in It’s a wonderful life, the equilibrium of the narrative was resorted and the end was utopian by the happy family gathering. The idea of the male gaze was presented in both movies to show male sexuality and urge and portray women as a subject of joy. Few examples were Riky looking at Jane from the window, Lester looking at Angela and fantasizing about

A mother drives her three kids to soccer practice in a Ford minivan while her husband stays at the office, rushing to finish a report. Meanwhile, a young woman prays her son makes his way home from the local grocery without getting held up at knife point by the local gang. Nearby, an immigrant finishes another 14-hour shift at the auto parts factory, trying to provide for his wife and child, struggling to make way in a new land. Later, a city girl hails a cab to meet her girlfriends at their favorite club to celebrate her new promotion over cosmopolitans. These people – the suburban soccer mom, the tired immigrant, the worried mother from the hood, and the successful city girl – each represent the

There are many characters that exhibit existentialist behaviors in Mendes' American Beauty. Some characters that show these behaviors are Lester Burnham and Ricky Fitts. Lester Burnham becomes existentialist over the course of the movie. It begins with his unhappiness with his job, a position as an advertising executive. When he's told he'll be laid off, his journey on the path of existentialism begins. He begins pursuing experiences that will cause him happiness, rather than what society expects out of him. He begins to have inappropriate feelings for his daughter Jane's best friend, Angela. He also begins to work out so he can pursue a relationship with her. He continues to follow ventures that will bring him pleasure rather than completing societal expectations, such as spending money on vintage cars. This activity continues throughout the movie. When he finds out his wife is cheating on him, he only wishes for her happiness, rather than spite her. This wish for happiness in his family continues until he's shot in the head by his daughter's boyfriend's father and neighbor, Frank Fitts. His son, Ricky, has a transformation into an existentialist. This transformation can be seen as we learn more about his backstory. His father is a homophobic, gay, retired Marine colonel and his mother is a terrified victim of abuse. Ricky's father sent him to a military school and a psychiatric hospital prior to the events of this movie. It's easy to see why Ricky Fitts would be an existentialist—his father is a cruel man, his mother is little more than a shell of herself, and he's considered an outsider by his peers. The way he can experience happiness in life is through recording videos, as seen in the dancing bag scene of the movie. Ricky's interpretation of the dancing bag, his dangerous profession as a marijuana dealer, and his impulsiveness also point towards his existentialism. By the end of the movie, Ricky is disowned and kicked out by his father, who believes Ricky is a gay prostitute rather than a straight drug dealer.

“American Beauty”, the 1999 film, is a motion picture that more or less shows a different side of the average suburban family. Although all of the characters have significant issues, I have chosen to take a closer look at Lester Burnham. Lester Burnham is a 42-year-old businessman who is married to the career-obsessed Carolyn and they have one daughter, a teenager named Jane. One of the first scenes of the movie explains how the family works: Carolyn is driving, just like she “drives” the family, Jane is sitting right next to her in the front seat, and Lester is slouched in the backseat, visually becoming more miserable by the second.

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“I have lost something...It’s never too late to get it back,” stated Lester Burnham, the main character of American Beauty. American Beauty is a 1999 film that provides a look into the lives of a modern married couple that is dealing with issues within their relationship. As the story progresses, it is easily identifiable that the roles of the husband and wife are not what the viewers would expect. On the other hand, the homosexual couple presented throughout the movie seems to be the normal pair. Furthermore, society’s definition of beauty and contentment is questioned. Throughout American Beauty, the homosexual couple has a healthier relationship than the heterosexual couple and beauty is falsely represented.

THe film AMerican Beauty was reviewed to help explain Erik Erikson's theory on psychosocial development. The psychosocial developmental theory consists of eight stages that humans go through from infancy up unto a mature adult over 60. While watching American Beauty several stages of psychosocial development were portrayed. The biggest takeaway from this movie showed that one may fail in order to overcome Erikson's psychosocial development. The stage that was most observed was the identity vs role confusion, during this stage according to our textbook “Adolescents ask themselves “Who am I?” They establish sexual, political, religious, and vocational identities or are confused about their roles.” (Berger, 2017 Table 2.1) Upon reviewing American Beauty I will include examples of the different types of behaviors demonstrated that reflect a particular stage of development or crisis in their life.

Burnham, “are you trying to look unattractive” or to her husband at a real estate gala “there’s a