American Beauty Theme

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AMERICAN BEAUTY
American beauty is one such movie that will leave a long-lasting impression on the viewer, irrespective of your reason for watching, because of the roles each character plays and the surprise conclusion presented at the end juxtaposed to what anyone would have perceived. The movie starts with a shot of Jane lying down on her bed and ranting about her father. The shot changes to Lester, who is narrating to the viewer how he will be dead in a year or less. The movie is centered on the Burnham family. The main character of the movie is Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey. Lester lives with his wife who is a realtor and their 16 year old daughter. Lester feels that the two important women in his life think he is a loser. The …show more content…

Through plot and characterization, the themes are very well conveyed to the audience, once the viewer connects with the movie. The interesting part is that, each of the characters was an agent of one or more of the themes. Some of the themes that are obvious in the movie are; materialism, Carolyn is so materialistic. All she cares about is the material possessions in her life. She believes that success and appearance are the only most important things in life. Another theme is denial, there are three characters in the movie who are in denial of themselves, Col Fitts, Carolyn and Angela .Col Fitts was in denial of his sexuality, Carolyn was in denial of her life and Angela was also in denial of self, she felt so insecure. Control, these same characters always had the desire to control people. Col Fitts controls his son, Carolyn wants to control the music at dinner all the time, Lester somehow also tried to control his family when he stared working out and smoking marijuana. Jane, unfortunately could not control anything. Ricky has his destiny in his hands and is in control of himself. And lastly loneliness and the sense of feeling never crossed paths in the movie. Many of the scenes had one character all alone in a frame, Angela and Jane were in a mirror, Lester was alone in his car, and Carolyn was lonely in her job. Almost all the characters had emotional problems. Jane only changed emotionally when she met Ricky, this was because she felt a connection with him. Carolyn in an attempt to make an emotional connection with Buddy through infidelity failed because she had no connection with him. Col Fitts also never had a connection, he attempts to kiss Lester but he was met with a bad

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