Absence Of Love In American Beauty

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The film focuses on a family of three: the mom, dad and daughter, the daughter’s best friend and their neighbor’s. Absence of love, happiness and identity are all themes in “American Beauty”. The father, named Lester, is the main protagonist of the film. Lester is a middle aged man who begins to reassess his life. He reevaluates his marriage and his family life. He has come to terms that his marriage is not a happy one anymore. His wife and he don’t have sex anymore, in fact he rather masturbate while lying in bed next to her. His wife and daughter constantly treat him like a punching bag, they nag him a lot, they scream at him, belittle him and flat out don’t respect him as a husband nor father. All of Carolyn and Jane’s frustrations are taken …show more content…
It is so obvious and there’s no way that it can be concealed because the characters don’t know how. Lester and his family often sat at the dining room table and ate dinner, but every time they did it was as if they had to do it, because it was the right thing to do as a family. Although they were sitting together it was as if they were all in their own world and when they would talk to each other it was just bickering and arguing and especially lots of picking on Lester. They have taken each other for granted and can only find the negative side of everything. Between Carolyn and Lester love does not exist anymore. As for Jane’s relationship with her father, it’s not a good one. She hates him and the only reason they even talked was because they lived in the same household. Ricky, is so accustomed to his father beating him and making him do drug tests and he believes that this is all normal for him to do. Ricky justifies his father’s super strict way because he was in the military. Lester, has an awakening. Lester’s life takes a 360 degree turn for the better, according to him. He feels rejuvenated, like nothing can stop him. No one can ruin his happiness, not even his wife who always found a way to bring him down, he is unbothered. In the second half of the movie, Lester’s life takes a turn and suddenly he is not affected or bothered by the horrible things his wife tells him. He has learned to smile at her even when she neglects him or offends him because he can no longer hate her or anyone else because he has found true love and that is the one you can only give to