American Beauty Construction

American Beauty begins with the obvious constructed shot of a young teenage girl name Jane Burnman , shown through the use of a hand-held camera. The narration reveals that she wants her father dead. The image portrayed about her is constructed as an evil, unaffectionate youth. The next scene is of a high angle shot, with a voice-over narration. The voice-over goes to explain that Lester Burnham is speaking. He is already dead which implies that the following scenes of the movie are a construction of events that already took place. This scene holds relevance for two reasons. First, it constructs an image that the young teenager in the previous scene is the killer. As we will learn by the end of the film, this image is not at all

He had been with them for 14 years when he was asked to defend his job to Brad, the company's recently hired efficiency expert. When he learned of his termination, he blackmailed the company for $60000 in exchange for not exposing the boss' affair and tax fraud, not to mention a bogus sexual harassment lawsuit against Brad. Lester 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. Lester finally realizes that he has found true happiness...and in the most unlikely way. 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. Acts of Deviance are depicted throughout the film. The social motivations behind some of the acts of deviance are more easily understood than others. Fuctional theory provides the best insight into Lester’s obsession with the a