Americans are caught up in the belief that what we are is what we own. There is a superficial nature to our society. We are nothing more than peacocks walking around strutting our feathers marked with price tags and brand names. The suburbs are a nesting ground for all of this fictitiousness. When Lester Byrnham introduces himself to his audience, he finds himself amidst the cradle of this fakeness. The movie American Beauty starts by accompanying Lester Byrnham through one day of his boring and mundane life. Lester is trapped amongst fake and superficial people. He sees the trouble with his family, and yet he avoids it because he does not believe in disturbing the perfect image his family represents. The Byrnhams are a living facade. On the outside, the Byrnhams fit the mold of the typical middle class family: A nice house, with roses in front and a Mercedes SUV, but on the inside they are far from it. The Byrnhams attempt to portray the image of the successful family. They want be the Cleavers of the new millennium; however, they fail miserably. Lester Byrnham is surrounded by artificiality, which ironically produces the impulse for his breakthrough changes in life. Despite the darkness of the film, American Beauty's message is ultimately hopeful because Lester Byrnham learns from his younger counterpart next door that true beauty comes from within.
             In the movie, it is the King of real estate who makes the cliched but sadly truthful statement that "To be successful one must portray an image of success at all times." How true that statement is. If success is portrayed from the inside out, rather than the outside in, then the statement holds truth. However, in the case of the neighborhood that American Beauty takes place in, people wear success like a badge or a medal. Lester is trapped in a world of people that want to prove to everyone else that they are successful.
             To discover the ideology of the...