Chris Costello
Lynn Dornick
English 4101—Critical Writing II
8/16/00

“What Do You Want?”

“American Beauty”, a film directed by Sam Mendes, is a tragic comedy that chronicles the mid-life crisis of 42-year-old Lester Burnham and his dramatic awakening from a 20 year “sleep”. It is a hard-hitting commentary on the dangers in American society of placing too high of a value on financial wealth, status, and possessions while neglecting the values of family responsibilities and personal relationships. Endless pages could be written on the rich symbolism and the many deep, hidden meanings in this film. Because of the complex nature of its characters, I would like to narrow the focus to only two, and contrast the lives of Lester and his wife Carolyn. The key catalyst in both of their lives is personal failure. As they search for fulfillment, they both face their failures to some degree but each character responds to failure differently by displaying varying degrees of pride and humility. Lester acts on the lessons he learns from his failures by embracing a change in his character and becoming a different person. He has a breakthrough as he rejects the “American Dream” and embraces what he believes is truly beautiful in life. Carolyn, however, reacts to similar challenges in her life by refusing to reevaluate her priorities. She stubbornly chooses to be challenged by her own failures and learns nothing. She desperately holds onto her skewed perception of beauty and happiness only to loose it all in the end. By comparing the outcome of their lives, we will see that building a loving family environment with deep personal relationships is much more valuable and beautiful than pursuing the lie that says status and “stuff” are the keys to happiness.

Lester, the main character, is the painfully insipid father whose passion for life is all but gone. He lives a mediocre existence with his wife, Carolyn and his daughter Jane, who both consider him a loser. He, himself, accepts this as fact. The film opens with Lester waking up and masturbating in the shower as he narrates that this will be the highpoint of his day. He looks and dresses like a typical suburban dweller and is very apathetic in his speech and actions...he is in obvious need of a renewal in his life. The opening scenes move on to introduce Lester’s family, a product of his lack of leadership as a husband, a father, and a man. With Carolyn shown several time in the drivers seat of the SUV, it is apparent the she leads the family. Her selfish, overbearing and obsessive personality continues unchecked by Lester and leaves Jane confused and unhappy, as she looks for a hero in her life. The one quality about Lester, however, that will ultimately serve to guide him to enlightenment and positive change, is his humility and desire for change. He is aware of his deficiencies and makes it apparent to everyone... he does not hide the fact that he needs help. During the party scene, where Carolyn introduces Lester to Buddy King, he states, “...I wouldn’t remember me either”. His whole life to this point can be viewed as a failure, but he needs to see and accept exactly who he is as a reference point before he can truly make changes. He knows he is a failure in many areas, but he desires to change. He will face verbal abuse from Carolyn and Jane but will continue to try to win them over.

Change begins when he meets his next door neighbor, Ricky, at the bar. Lester accepts an invitation to “party” with him out in the parking lot. His relationship with Ricky is a testimony to his humility as he seeks help from somebody half his age. He admires Ricky’s care free yet confident attitude toward life. Lester knows that he lacks these qualities but desires to gain them. He begins to accept Ricky as kind of a mentor to help guide him through some critical decisions he will make throughout the film.

He makes his first decision to change at his job. Brad, his new supervisor, communicates to Lester that he is no longer needed at the company. Instead of retreating in defeat, as he might have done in the past, he finally stands up for himself and manipulates the situation to work in his favor. He ends up exiting the scene in triumph after blackmailing his company for $60,000 plus benefits. He begins to feel a new sense of hope that his life will somehow get better.

At the dinner table with his family that night, he shares this news to his unreceptive wife and an argument ensues. This time, he decides to stand up to her as he tries to reassert his authority in the household. It does not go well with Carolyn and Jane, but it is a great start for him as he begins to shun his past failures and take control of his life.

The most profound transformation comes when Lester meets Jane’s friend Angela at a basketball game. This encounter inspires lustful fantasies in Lester’s mind. Instead of shrinking back and remaining a geek, he takes on the challenge to “score” with Angela. As he envisions her being attracted to him he starts to improve his physical appearance and overall appeal by lifting weights. After receiving further affirmation from Angela which reestablishes his credibility as a desirable male, he continues to work out harder and begins to feel better about himself. Having sex with Angela is not the best motivation but, as he looks at his protruding gut in the mirror, he sees where he has failed at keeping fit and decides to turn it around. Even though he is doing a lot of crazy things as he deals with this middle-age identity crisis, it is clear that he still has a responsible adult conscience buried. All along, he becomes increasingly alienated from his wife and daughter but his love and concern for them is evidenced by his attempt to be reconciled to his daughter Jane, and to reclaim the lost passion for his wife, Carolyn.

Lester experiences an epiphany when he encounters Angela in the livingroom. He finally has an opportunity to have sex with her, but to his astonishment, he finds out that she is a virgin. All at once, he comes back to his senses. He realizes that she is only a girl and he is old enough to be her father. He sees innocence and vulnerability in Angela’s eyes, and proceeds to console her and protect her as a good father would. Later, he is found gazing hopefully at the picture of his family that was taken during happier times, with resolve in his eyes to make things better. Through learning from his mistakes and failures, he grew into a happier and more enlightened person.

Carolyn, is Lester’s materialistic, image conscious wife. Nothing, not even her family matters more to her than success in her real estate career. She, like Lester, is searching for fulfillment. However, she believes that happiness is found in status and possessions, rather than in family and friendship.

Her first encounter with failure is portrayed in the scene where she tries to sell a house. At the beginning of the day she convinces herself that she will sell the house, but, as the day progresses, she is rejected by every prospective buyer. This scene brings her credibility as a successful real estate agent into question. At the end of the day she fails to sell the house and begins to cry, but she surprisingly starts slapping herself out of it, as if there is something wrong with showing emotion or weakness. Carolyn’s main character flaw is her stubborn pride which will not allow her to admit her inadequacies, and ultimately, will bring her to her knees.

Carolyn is obviously the head of the household. This is apparent by her higher income, the way she meticulously decorates the house, and even the music that she selfishly plays during dinner. She finds her husband, Lester, to be boring and less of an achiever than herself. It is evident that she does not respect him but rather, resents him by treating him more like a wimpy son than a husband. There is also a distance between herself and her daughter Jane, but she refuses to accept any fault in the situation. In Jane’s bedroom, Carolyn attempts to discuss things out with Jane. She talks about how Jane should be more grateful and says things like “when I was your age we lived in a duplex”, as if that was a bad thing. Carolyn expects Jane to place the same value on things as she does but all that Jane wants is some loving attention. When Carolyn fails to successfully reach her daughter, instead of listening to her, she gives into frustration and strikes her in the face. Carolyn leaves the scene and the conflict unresolved. Her life is a lie. Behind her polished exterior, she hides deep insecurity and pain, but confides in no one.

Unfulfilled as a wife and mother, she looks elsewhere to seek satisfaction and finds Buddy “The Real Estate King” at a party. Buddy is her idol in the business and she regards him as somewhat of a mentor. She is swept away by his warped philosophies about image, power and success and believes along with him that one must always project the image of success in order to be successful. He even introduces her to guns and shooting which appeals to her love of power. She begins an affair with him that provides her with temporary pleasure. However, when Lester discovers them at a drivethrough window, Buddy quickly disappears from her life and she is left once more screaming and crying alone. She fails at another relationship and her reaction is to fight. She physically hits herself again and again to try to stop crying. Refusing to step back and accept some responsibility for her mistakes, she sees herself as a victim. Rather than acknowledging the futility of her lifestyle and admitting to somebody that she needs help, she attempts to gain insight from a motivational tape and resolves not to change, but to repair her original image. She drives home with her gun, seemingly ready to to exact some kind of retribution on her husband. When she arrives, she sees that Lester has already been killed. She appears shocked and confused, but after she hides the gun, she sees Lester’s shirts in the closet and embraces them as she falls to her knees, crying uncontrollably...a ruined woman.

Carolyn had many opportunities to change and get things right with her family but, while pursuing the “American Dream”, she made a series of bad decisions that left her with a destructive family dynamic void of close, loving relationships. She still had her career and possessions—this image which seemed to mean the world to her at the time, but the film ends leaving her a miserable and empty woman who finds out too late what is really important.

In contrast, the final scenes show Lester’s “life passing before his eyes” and a smile on his face, even in death. He recalls images of his childhood and the things that comforted him the most. He sees his wife and daughter when they were happy and finally gives thanks for his life. Carolyn saw mistakes and failure as a threat to her image of a successful American woman. She tried to resist all intrusions into her carefully manicured life, but loses it all in the end. Lester, saw himself as “just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose”. He learned from his mistakes, saw his family as the best thing he ever had, and ultimately gained the real beauty and peace he was looking for.

“… a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”1

1. Jesus Christ, The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1984).

©2007 Chris Costello. All rights reserved.