Many people in daily life are usually not satisfied with what they have. Instead, they possess an impulse that makes them want what they cannot have, also known as envy. Furthermore, our culture is consumed by the vacant promises of materialism, such as having a well-paying job, a perfect family, and/or a luxurious home. Having the image of being happy but in reality happiness is what they lack. American Beauty is a film that premiered in 1999. The film centers on a suburban family; Lester, the main protagonist, Carolyn, his wife and Jane, his daughter. American Beauty demonstrates what would appear to be a stereotypical modern suburban family in America, darkly and cynically representing the culture that society has in this era; revealing struggles with the negative side of appearance versus reality and discovering happiness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A facade is an external appearance that is maintained to obscure a less pleasant or praiseworthy reality. Usually delineated by someone who is unhappy but is unwilling to reveal their melancholy, so they wear a mask not only to delude others but also themselves. This seems to be one of the main themes of the film, which is addressed by most of the characters presented. Carolyn Burnham, who is clearly in denial about her lifestyle, is obsessed with her work. He believes that the path to happiness is to be successful. Ironically, even though she has a successful life, it is blatantly obvious that she is not satisfied with her success and the assets she has. He tries to celebrate during his career as a real estate agent, but manages to fail at selling houses. In a scene early in the film, Carolyn is cleaning the house and constantly says to herself "I'm going to sell this house today." She then bursts into tears when she is alone, with a close-up to make the scene more emotional, as she failed to sell a house. The story progresses, he clearly tells Lester during a party they went to "Act happy tonight" so that he can allude people to believe that they are in a happy relationship since that implies being successful. Furthermore, Jane's friend Angela Hayes also projects an image of herself as a beautiful, popular, confident girl who everyone desires and finds very attractive and interesting. She's actually quite an insecure girl, which is why she constantly criticizes other people by saying that they are plain, boring, ugly and so on because she really feels deep down that she has all those flaws. In one scene, which seems to be very tongue-in-cheek, she gets into a fight with these girls and eventually says, "I'm so tired of people bringing their insecurities on me," which seems to be exactly what she's doing. Also towards the end of the film, Ricky barges in and asks Jane to go with him to New York and Jane agrees. Upon hearing this, Angela lashes out at them, causing Ricky to react by stating his flaws, then leaves. The scene right after we see her sitting on the stairs, sobbing, in the darkness of the night with the camera behind the bars on the stairs if we were watching her, and a bluish tint added to add more effect to the sadness and hurt her must be emotional. Additionally, another character who struggles with appearance versus reality would be Ricky's father, Colonel Fitts. From the beginning we get the feeling that he hates homosexuals and does not support them in any way. He seems very belligerent towards them and it is made clear how he feels towards them. Personally it gives the impression that he has all this hostility towards homosexuals as he actually might himselfbe sexually confused but wants to give an image of power and virility. At one point he suspects that his son and Lester are having a sexual relationship with each other and confirms this when Ricky goes to give Lester more marijuana and from the colonel's point of view, it seems the opposite. This leads him to confront his son and you can see how upset the Colonel is when his son, who lies about what he really did and confirms that he is gay. Definitely causing the Colonel to burst into tears after Ricky decides to leave. Which eventually led to the confrontation between Lester and Colonel Fitts, who at that point seemed enraged, due to the tone of the scene with rain and thunder, the dark tone and the Colonel trembling with anger, it would seem so but instead after being comforted, he realizes I realize he's really sexually confused, which leads him to kiss Lester. Lester rejects him due to the obvious misunderstanding. Unfortunately the situation worsens considerably, leading the Colonel to completely deny the reality of his "complication" and, unwilling to face the truth of it, kills Lester. This film clearly demonstrates through the entire film that sometimes things are not always what they seem. Most of the time, due to denial, fear of change and complications, people pretend that everything is fine. As shown, not being true to yourself leads to horrible results. Happiness is an important factor in people's lives and it is definitely lacking in this film. At first you may notice that there are more unhappy people than happy people. In the film's introduction, when Lester narrates, he immediately says "in a way, I'm already dead." So we already have the revelation that the main character of this story is not at all satisfied with his life. Since he and his wife are not on good terms, his daughter wants nothing to do with either parent and a job he doesn't even like. This is clearly seen in the scene where they eat together at the table. Later, his wife tells him to act happy at the party they attend, to which he sarcastically replies that he is happy. In the act his wife desires, he kisses his wife out of the blue and claims that they have a really healthy relationship, which is actually not the case. Ultimately, after realizing that he wants Jane's friend, she becomes the spark of his initiation into happiness. He realizes that he is tired of his life and wishes to change so that he can be joyful and surprises himself at the beginning of his change, where he states "It's a great thing when you realize that you still have the ability to surprise yourself. It comes to you to ask you what else you can do that you forgot about.” Finally, near his death, Lecter is asked by Angela how he is, and he replies that he is fine. At this point he finally realized that he had finally kept his happiness. Even after his death, he tells the end, he realizes the beauty of life and becomes grateful for his "stupid little life". Jane achieves her happiness through Ricky, as letting him into her life has made her happy. Ricky from the beginning was always happy, he considered the world beautiful, which is why he filmed every little thing Carolyn found her happiness thanks to a friend, but let her go because of her ideals of success Everyone needs happiness, without happiness, life is just boring and uninteresting. Each character has their own type of joy, some already have it, others are in the process of developing it, still others get it but then let it go. However, no matter your age, it is never too late to get what you want and be happy. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now..