Issues In American Beauty And
Family relationships and the flaws of society are two issues explored in After the Ball and American Beauty. In each text there are similarities and contrasts between the two issues though they both project the same meaning. Another audience viewing and reading these two texts will look at and respond to them differently.Family relationships in both texts are seen as dysfunctional. In After the Ball Kate and Ron are in a mis-matched marriage. They are total opposites in their personality, which causes them to argue all the time. They produce two children who are the same. Stephen is the favourite of the family. He has huge ambitions for his life, like Kate, and is disappointed when they don't turn out like he expected. Judy is more like Ron and is happy to plod along in life. They show no affection towards each other. Kate never says to Judy and Stephen I love you even when she is dying.The characters in American Beauty do not show much affection towards each other either. There are the main characters Lester and Carolyn, who don't get on and also colonel Fitts and his wife, who lead a very structured military life. Lester and Carolyn don't hug and when they kiss it is for lust not love. They argue a lot and a
All of these marriages are unhappy and yet they do not get divorced because they don't want to be failures in the eyes of society. Judy married Ray so society would not call her a spinster and Carolyn and Lester married in love at the start. Their daughter Jane is a troubled teenager who does not love either of her parents. Carolyn is striving to become the Real Estate Queen. In After the Ball Kate and Ron might argue a lot, but they still communicate their ides and thoughts to each other and their Children. (Scene 7)American Beauty is set in the late 1990's and the characters live in a modern society. Lester and Carolyn believe in the more possessions you own the higher your social status is. Marriage in the two texts is seen by society as a way of getting a higher social status. Kate and Carolyn are very much the alike. Kate came from a lower class suburb called Brunswick and because of this she is looked down upon by society. It gives the message that same sex couples can be, and are happier than heterosexual couples. We can see in American Beauty that Jane and Ricky would never look after their parents. The only family that seems to have any amount of happiness in the two texts is the homosexual couple Jim and Jim in American Beauty. They could see it differently because their religion might be against same sex couples or sleeping with someone outside their marriage. Both the societies of After the Ball and American Beauty rely heavily on success, money, status and material possessions.
Common topics in this essay:
American Beauty,
Lester Carolyn,
America Australia,
Beauty American,
Kate Ron,
Ball Kate,
Estate Queen,
Carolyn Lester,
Beauty Lester,
Vietnam War,
american beauty,
lester carolyn,
ball kate,
kate ron,
social status,
american beauty lester,
jane ricky,
deep love,
affection towards,
lester dies,
money status,
lester carolyn don't,
ball kate ron,
ball american beauty,
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