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Fitts played by Wes Bentley who unbeknown to her sells weed to her father. Ricky shows her that not everything you think is beautiful is beautiful, and somethings that you may think are not beautiful, really are.

Ricky Fitts is the only static character throughout the movie. He remains true to himself and how he feels throughout the entire movie. His past is never quite explained which adds a nice touch of mystery to his character. His father is an ex marine who's unbearably strict and even physically abusive. His mother very obviously lives in fear and rarely speaks. The one thing he says in the movie that really sticks in my head and sums up his character and life in itself is: "It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in." Ricky Fitts in a way is about as important as Lester Burns is to the movie.

E.e Cummings once said "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." I believe this really sums up what "American Beauty" is about. All the characters except Ricky Fitts search for their purposes in life. They search for who they really are and they all do it in different ways. Some of them fail, some of them succeed. In life however, the only thing that really matters is fighting to be yourself. Maybe you won't make it to the point where you truly feel content with yourself but at least you fought the good fight to do the right thing and stay true to who you are and become the best person you can.

Learn more about this author, Rachel Weaver.
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