Essay Topics American Beauty Text

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Hidden behind a sheath of movie stars, camera angles, expensive sets and costumes, is a message the viewer can only read if he or she looks closer. By looking closer at the film the viewer can then detect hidden motifs and ideas behind objects, places and people. The film american beauty not only invites the viewer to look closer at its symbolism, but also draws the viewer into is symbolism, wether the viewer chooses to look or not. In the film motifs such as roses discover a new symbolic purpose, lighting opens a new realm of understanding and photographs are no longer snapshots of times once lived, but windows into the inner workings of family dysfunction. American beauty captures its viewer in a world of symbolism and representation, which enhance not only the understanding of the film, but life itself. Roses have been associated with love for centuries, and the film american beauty has maintained this traditional symbolism. American beauty uses roses to symbolise love in scenes where love is present, but in contrast it also uses roses in scenes where love does not exist, and is yearning to.

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To fully understand this concept one must note that the decision of wether love exists in a particular scene is biased by the narration point of lester. To paraphrase lester's view of a situation declares if roses will be there to show love is present or show love is not present. This obvious and intriguing idea helps us understand the love theory, which symbolised by roses, is an integral part of american beauty. These scenes involve the burnham family and more specifically lester and caroline. The perfect example of one of these common scenes is set on the first day of the film, at the dining table.

A vase of red roses лњsteals' the centre limelight, surrounded by the perfect symmetry of the burnham home. Though th happiness exists in american beauty as a myth, as a goal, and as a disguise. All of the characters are engaged in the pursuit of happiness, although they have very different ideas about what happiness is and how to find it.

This is one of the qualities that truly make american beauty a film about the modern american experience: if being american means having the intrinsic right to the pursuit of happiness, why is the typical american so deeply unhappy? at the beginning of the film, lester burnham realizes that despite the dire nature of his current state, it is still possible for him to become happy once again. Slowly and then with growing intensity he begins to pursue happiness by paying close attention to his true desires, and ignoring the screeching dictates of society as embodied by his wife, carolyn. At the close of the film, lester finally realizes that he has found true happiness.

What makes this film so unique is that lester pursues happiness in a manner that runs directly counter to the ideals of respectable society: he does drugs, takes a meaningless job, and pursues a sexual affair with a fifteen year old girl. Lester has become so blinded by his willingness to walk the straight and narrow that he must return to a fundamental and arguably juvenile state in order to recapture the happiness that he once enjoyed. Meanwhile, carolyn burnham represents the commonly held belief that happiness is about perception: she is happy if she seems pulled together, confident, and successful in other words, she is happy if others think that she is happy. She believes that by pursuing success she is pursuing happiness, but in reality she is merely attempting to dampen her own misery over the wreckage of her marriage and the narrowness of her life. She displays it for all to see, from the clothes she wears to the company she keeps.

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Jane is so used to living in a state of perpetual unhappiness that when she meets ricky she continues to obsess about her terrible home life despite the fact that ricky 39 s situation is clearly far worse. Ultimately, american beauty endorses the pursuit of happiness as the only thing worth living for. At the end of the film, lester 39 s murder seems almost inconsequential how can lester 39 s end be viewed as a tragedy when he was lucky enough to know true happiness in the months before he died, and when so many others never know it at all? many of the characters 39 problems stem from their failure to develop or maintain a coherent identity. Lester finds happiness by separating his sense of self worth from his job and his home life. He learns that even though his boss and wife treat him as though he 39 s worthless, that doesn 39 t mean that he is.

She fears being ordinary because she has confused ordinariness with physical plainness, and has confused physical plainness with having no identity. Carolyn burnham is one of the film 39 s most tragic characters because she has literally replaced her identity as a person with a collection of material things. Carolyn burnham has a perfect suit, an expensive couch, and a new car, but she has lost the vivacious personality that lester burnham fell in love with. When he attempts to remind her of how she once was, she viciously defends her current state, thus protecting her belief that her priorities are in order and that she is successful because she possesses the important things in life.

Ricky is the one character who does not fall victim to this problem of identity: his awe inspiring strength comes from his ability to retain a clear sense of self despite constant abuse from his father. Even when he discovers that his father 39 s love is truly conditional, ricky is able to fearlessly pursue jane 39 s love and acceptance. Colonel fitts kills lester because he has revealed his true self to him, and cannot bear the idea that some part of himself a part that he has always tried to keep hidden has been exposed. In killing lester, the colonel preserves an identity that he can live with, albeit a false one. From its title to its allusions to several iconic american texts, american beauty explores different aspects of american culture and american identity. The title refers to three different symbols of american culture: american beauty roses a popular variety , angela as a representative of youthful, innocent, american loveliness, and the american aesthetic of beauty, as represented by ricky 39 s films. Lester burnham has distinct similarities to willy loman, the everyman protagonist of arthur miller 39 s death of a salesman.

Lester, cognizant of his situation, reinvents his life in order to save himself from a similar end. Carolyn burnham represents american consumerism and the unfortunate belief that things can replace relationships. Lester 39 s job at a fast food restaurant and jane 39 s participation on the cheerleading team both typical american roles inject a humorous note into mendes 39 discussion of american culture. All the same, american beauty forces the viewer to consider whether there is anything worth saving at the root of this culture.

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When american beauty was released abroad, many critics were surprised that americans responded so positively to a film that seemed so critical of traditional american values. Americans, it seems, were ready to question these values much as lester does in the film, and move towards a more satisfying, emotionally fulfilling existence. It is the absence rather than the presence of love that is most noticeable in the first half of american beauty. The burnham family dinners simmer with anger and awkwardness: these are people who have fundamentally forgotten how to love each other. One of the saddest moments of the film occurs at the end, when carolyn, faced with her husband 39 s death, realizes that she will never again have the chance to love him. One of ricky 39 s most astounding characteristics is his apparent belief that his father loves him despite how he treats him, and that the beatings and the lack of trust are simply his unique way of showing this love.

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Ricky 39 s ability to love jane stems from this remarkable ability to trust in the inherent goodness of others. Lester finds happiness not only because he learns to love himself, but because in loving himself he falls in love with life all over again. His newfound appreciation for the world around him enables him to look at carolyn 39 s face, lined with years of frustration and bitterness, hear the horrible things she says to him, and still smile at the memory of the happy, funny, lively woman he once knew.

Once he has found all of that love inside him, lester finds it impossible to hate. The theme of freedom is significant precisely because free will is so rare and difficult to locate. One of the unifying characteristics in the film is that so many of the characters seem trapped: trapped by their lives, their jobs, themselves, their parents, and their fears. Colonel fitts and his wife, barbara fitts end the film just as trapped as they were when it began, and some, such as carolyn burnham, only begin to free themselves from the circumstances that bind them in the moments just before the credits roll. A few characters seem to grasp that freedom is literally there for the taking, and that the only thing holding them back is themselves.

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