by Jennifer Buckett

Created on: April 13, 2010

The American Dream has long been a core value of American culture, the belief that hard work will lead to success and ultimately happiness. To many, happiness has become defined by having a well paid job, a spouse and child, and a home in the suburbs. In contemporary society, happiness is becoming increasingly linked with beauty, as if to suggest that if one is beautiful, life is just easier and happiness more readily accessible. Writer Alan Ball created the film American Beauty as a social commentary of what modern suburban life has become: a routine, where going through the mechanical motions of the everyday ceases to bring true happiness to its occupants. More and more Americans have become trapped in the rote confines of suburbia and superficiality, sometimes without even realizing it and with no idea of how to escape its prisonlike routine. American Beauty provides an in-depth look at the Burnham family, trapped in suburbia, and how Lester Burnham awakens to his unhappiness in such a life. The ambiguity of the title American Beauty leaves its meaning open to interpretation and there is no single correct answer. Each character in the film has a different idea of what true American beauty is depending upon how their life experiences have shaped their unique definitions. Ultimately, the significance of the title is left for the individual to determine.

The first visual of Carolyn Burnham is that of the perfect suburban wife as she tends her flourishing American Beauty roses while flawlessly dressed and made up. Lester, her husband, points out her calculated perfection, “See the way the handle on those pruning shears matches her gardening clogs? That's not an accident” (Ball). To Carolyn, beauty is found in visual perfection; the aesthetic image, what is visible to others, is where beauty lies. Therefore, to be beautiful, one must have the right clothes, hair, car, house, and demeanor. Carolyn adopts a mantra that “in order to be successful, one must project an image of success, at all times” (Ball). She tries to press her definition of beauty onto her family members, chastising her daughter Jane’s appearance: “Honey. Are you trying to look unattractive?” (Ball). When Carolyn brings Lester to a real estate function, she tells him to act like they have a successful marriage because, she explains, “my business is selling an image. And part of my job is to live that image” (Ball). It is as if she believes

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