On Beauty

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American Beauty and the Modern Man 's Menopause

In Sam Mendes ' film American Beauty (1999 ) the theme of the film is not necessarily elemental but rather a quandary of the modern man thus the movie doesn 't present symbols only but questions , the main one being How doe man transform back into his self ? This is a question that has many different answer albeit the essence of the film presents the fluctuations of job , family and love (love as defined by Lester

's family especially his complex relationship with his daughter Jane ) as the main contributors of this man 's transformation as well as his developing self identity . This will draw upon these different thematic elements in the film (i .e . family , love , self ) as well as explore how they affect and inherently change the main male protagonists own identity , Lester Burnham . The other characters such as his wife Carolyn and their daughter Jane as well as the neighbors , Ricky and Frank will be under examination as well

The idea of beauty is subjective to cultural point of view . Thus while certain forms of self infliction such as foot binding in the Chinese culture may seem sensual to a man or woman who has grown up with this ritualistic custom it 's beauty is wasted on a westernized culture whose belief is held firm that such rituals do not make a woman more attractive . With such subjectivity abounding it is often times difficult to pinpoint a universally beautiful element : However , in Mendes ' film American Beauty the element of youth and love seem to correlate with the main character , Lester 's , sense of beauty . Even in the title of the film the audience is made to recognize how culture that is , America , plays a central theme in the movie (i .e . with the idea of violence , of teenagers being in love and wanting to run away , as well as violence , and thus the audience is prepared to peer into the psychology of the film through a Westernized perspective . However , the film 's title is twofold as it also deals with a rose . Now the idea of beauty being contained in a flower is a metaphor of those two elements mentioned earlier , that of love and youth . A flower symbolizes both of these elements and emotions in the main character as he traipses his way across the screen from emotional breakdown to family crises to finding himself again through the aid of both of these elements . Thus , while Mendes ' makes a striking comparison of culture in relation to his themes , ultimately it is these two elements and their importance to the rose that make the idea of beauty so colossal to Lester 's life . The correlation that beauty has with love and the extension of love with Lester 's family are what truly defines the journey of the film Firstly , Lester is a man who is introduced to the audience as a man...