American Allegory
Lester is lying in bed smiling contentedly at the ceiling. “I feel like I’ve been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I’m just now waking up.” (American Beauty). On the ceiling is Angela covered in deep red rose petals. Slowly the petals float down from her to Lester, showering him with lust.Does Lester Burnham’s quote sound like a line from a comedy? Roger Ebert seems to think so. He has said the film is a “comedy because we laugh at the absurdity of the hero's problems, and a tragedy because we can identify with his failure--not the specific details, but the general outline.” Even though Ebert clearly packages American Beauty into the cookie cutter drama/comedy, the allowance he leaves in the last phrase should lead a person to reevaluate the film’s category. Comedy is defined as “inciting within the viewer humor and mirth and ending happily (Konigsberg 59).” Moreover, dark comedy allows laughter to be “somewhat muted by our realization of serious implications and perhaps even by an unhappy ending (Konigsberg 59).” The dark comedy definition fits American Beauty quite beautifully. The average person, however, would not equate muted laughter and an unhappy ending with comedy. We are left . . .
Carolyn, while yelling at Lester to keep the couch clean, points out that the couch is “a four thousand dollar sofa upholstered in Italian silk (American Beauty). But when examined while keeping in mind the metaphoric value of the movie, Angela is the catalyst for Lester’s awakening. The Matrix, for example, can be considered an allegorical film. Carolyn’s idea of happiness is reflected in the roses, again showing a metaphor. Along the same lines, red morphs into different meanings. American Beauty is linked to Mena Suvari’s character Angela, who becomes an item of lust for Lester. When Lester embarrasses her in front of an admirable colleague, Carolyn nervously laughs, trying to make Lester’s behavior seem permissible and funny. Jane seeing Ricky for his own beauty is in its way metaphoric. ” She struggles to maintain a perfect imagine throughout the movie. With parents who openly remark on each other’s weaknesses and a best friend who is obsessed with sex, Jane has her hands full. Another element of American Beauty to consider is the red roses. The movie instead offered an insightful view into the definition of beauty. His silent taping is outwardly grotesque and disturbing to Angela, but Jane’s recognition of a different beauty in the same object fits the definition. While he is talking about her joyless existence, she is meticulously cutting perfect red roses from their stems in the garden.
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Acceptance Essays
