Analytical Essay On American Beauty

Sam Mendes’ film, American Beauty, is considered a master piece of the late 1990’s; it won several awards including Oscar’s for best picture, actor, director, original screenplay, and cinematography. The film starts by introducing the audience to the characters, and as the story continues the audience gets to witness each of the characters in the search of the American dream, whether it was Lester’s search for happiness or Carolyn’s search for wealth and success. Although the film is about people searching for the American dream, the film also challenges the idea of the American dream by suggesting that the American dream is extremely different then what we are raised to believe, instead the American dream is completely subjective and is

The film challenges the notion that there is no such thing as one version of the American dream. In the film every character desired something different than the other character, for Lester it was to be happy, for Jamie it was to have a loving family. In the beginning of the movie Lester is fed up life because he’s been following the dream that someone told him to follow; around the middle of the film is when Lester figures out that he should follow his dream of being happy so he quits his job, buys a muscle car, and gets a job at a burger shop. The reason that this made him happy is because it reminded him of the happiest time of his life; his teen age years. It makes sense because we are always happier when we are younger because we have very little responsibilities. And as Lester relives his teenage years he forgets about all his responsibilities such supporting a family, and he doesn’t have regrets about it until the argument they get into at the dinner table. While Lester is working on achieving his dream of being happy Jaime is trying to reach her dream of having a loving and caring family. From what we get to see of Jamie in the movie it appears that she is the