American Beauty

By Brittany Deschler

How are the characters presented to us?

Lester Burnham is a protagonist of the movie American Beauty. Lester is portrayed as an ordinary man, with a perfect life, but of course that is far from the truth. From the outside, Lester seems to have a perfect salary, and a perfect family who lives in a perfect neighbourhood. Except things are not what they seem to be. In fact he has a daughter that is not fond of him, a job that bores him and a wife that is falling out of love with him.

Angela Hayes is a good friend of Lester’s daughter Jane. She is just your average teenage girl that seems as if she has a strong sex drive. All she wants is attention and to be noticed. This is the reason she makes up situations and lies about herself.

In what ways do these characters contrast?

This relationship between Lester and his daughter’s friend Angela is really unique. He is going through a grand climacteric. He is mentally separated from his wife and this

frustrates him more and more.When he saw Angela, he felt a sense of relief.

His life had been so drained from love, sex and passion. So he felt a little hope when he laid his eyes on Angela’s seductive body. In response to this eye opener, Lester starts to work out in anticipation that Angela will take

note of his differences.

Angela is your average teenaged girl. She hides her intense fear of being ordinary, by inventing numerous sexual encounters. She creates these “events” to portray herself to be very interesting. She thinks that people will find her to be exotic as she describes her sex experience with her photographer. When in fact her actions are depicted as prostitution, by using sex to become a model. All Angela really wants is to be noticed.

How does this contrast defines their relationship?

This relationship is defined by their almost puzzle fitted identities. Their relationship is filled with forbidden sexual desires. When Lester first sees Angela, he creates a delusion that she is dancing for him and that she is

touching herself in an erotic manner for him. When he sees her in person later on, his words trip over each other as he mutters weird questions to her.

Their relationship is like a blooming flower.Angela paid attention to Lester’s awkward question, realising that he had

taken notice of her, which is just what she wanted.In return , Angela leaves hints and teases Lester flirtatiously.

Like a blossoming rose, becoming more and more bold and beautiful, is the relationship between Lester and Angela. These acts of flirtatiousness are

composing boldness and beauty.

How their relationship evolves causing action?

How the resolution/development of the action reveals the theme?