The Slap In American Beauty

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The Slap and American Beauty are two texts that have utilised theme, dialogue and characterisation to represent the fundamental social construct of the family unit.
American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes in 1999 is a film that explores family, culture and identity into which it illustrates how the social construct of the family unit is being explored through characters and events in the film, to captivate the audience through the mediums that have been used. The family unit is mainly represented through the Burnham family where the family begins to struggle and become disjointed when Lester questions the idea of the family unit. The complications of not wanting to live the everyday ‘American life’ is what causes the conflicts during the film, which leads to the self-decisions of individuals. …show more content…

The Slap explores and presents the development of characters within the novel, where families are broken apart through the character’s problems or conflicts. The characters of the slap contribute to the novels theme of the family unit, where the families have an underlying presence during the many conflicting events that occur within this novel. The Slap in its numerous representations is an example of how themes and characterisation are used to represent the fundamental social construct of the family unit and also be related to the text of American Beauty. Through acts of determination and selfishness of the characters from both American Beauty and The Slap, their influences effect the social construct of the family unit which targets how they are portrayed to the

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