American Beauty

American Beauty centers on the last year of Lester Burnham’s life. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is married to Carolyn Burnham (Annette Betting), and their marriage is picture perfect on the exterior, but the perfection only runs superficially. Their marriage is based on the idea of “projecting an ima

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Lester’s neighbor shot him because of an insane realization that he himself was a gay man, living a lie; afraid of the truth, afraid of people knowing his sexual preference, afraid of losing his family, and afraid of facing himself. “Janey is a pretty typical teenager; angry, insecure… confused,” (Lester, American Beauty). The wavering relationships they carry out are a mask for their desire to be sexually oriented with the same sex. While this upsets him greatly, Frank still runs into the arms of his neighbor. Frank believes he sees his son taking money from Lester for sexual favors. The ex-marine corps father, “Colonel Frank Fitch”, brings a hatred for the homosexual couple that lives in the neighborhood. The demise of Lester Burnham is solely due to the fact that he brought out the homoerotic behaviors in his homophobic neighbor. Lester appears to be sexually available to men when he tells his neighbor: “Our marriage is just for show…a commercial for how normal we are, when we’re anything but,” (American Beauty). He boldly attempts to kiss Lester, proving his masked desire for men. A situation such as men voluntarily locking themselves in a room together suggests a non-heterosexual agenda for the time spent together in that room. Ricky’s relationship with Janey isn’t apparent to Lester or to Ricky’s father. Bringing this conflict into the movie allows the audience to ponder the consequences of such a conflict. Ricky (Scott Bakula), his son, brings to the movie a romantic interest for Lester’s daughter, Janey. The two have a teenage daughter named Janey played by Thora Birtch. They also act as foreshadowing, in that the couple shows the audience the reaction Mr.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1087
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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