Materialism In American Beauty

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Carolyn in American Beauty The movie American Beauty directed by Sam Mendez, is a movie about a family called the Burnham’s. The Burnham’s on the surface appears to have everything that they need, but deep down they are all struggling and they all have issues. They all aspire to achieve the American dream. The American Dream for many is the pursuit of material prosperity, where people strive to get big cars, and fancy homes. Caroline’s Dream is to become a successful real estate agent and to have possessions. The movie depicts how in the American Dream, many people are unable to measure the difference between expectations and reality considering that the American dream has become the mass production of unrealistic expectations. Therefore, in Caroline’s case, in order to achieve this dream, it will be at the cost of losing her family and her sanity. In addition, there is a deeper side to Carolyn. In other words, she uses real estate as an escape because in …show more content…

The unhappier Carolyn becomes, the more we see how she covers reality with illusion. At the end of the movie when she sees that Lester is dead, she realizes that she has lost everything. Therefore, the main theme of the movie symbolizes the unrealistic expectations of those who strive for the American Dream. The American Dream is about lavish aspirations, and what people should really focus on are the modest dreams such as in the case of Carolyn, appreciating family life, giving and receiving love and aspire to be spiritually fulfilled. People should have small concrete dreams since it is those dreams that ultimately make us happy, and the false impression that the American Dream makes people believe that they can be anything that they want to be has generated lack and anxiety in many people considering if people do not achieve greatness, they feel as if they have

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