FREE ESSAY ON AMERICAN BEAUTY

AMERICAN BEAUTY

It's Just a Couch!!!!!!
Americans are caught up in the belief that what we are is what we own. There is a
superficial nature to our society. We are nothing more than peacocks walking around
strutting our feathers marked with price tags and brand names. The suburbs are a nesting
ground for all of this fictitiousness. When Lester Byrnham introduces himself to his
audience, he finds himself amidst the cradle of this fakeness. The movie American Beauty
starts by accompanying Lester Byrnham through one day of his boring and mundane life.
Lester is trapped amongst fake and superficial people. He sees the trouble with his
family, and yet he avoids it because he does not believe in disturbing the perfect image
his family represents. The Byrnhams are a living fa?ade. On the outside, the Byrnhams fit
the mold of the typical middle class family: A nice house, with roses in front and a
Mercedes SUV, but on the inside they are far from it. The Byrnhams attempt to portray the
image of the successful family. They want be the Cleavers of the new millennium; however,
they fail miserably. Lester Byrnham is surrounded by artificiality, which ironically
produces the impulse for his breakthrough changes in life. Despite the darkness of the
film, American Beauty's message is ultimately hopeful because Lester Byrnham learns from
his younger counterpart next door that true beauty comes from within.
In the movie, it is the King of real estate who makes the cliched but sadly truthful
statement that "To be successful one must portray an image of success at all times." How
true that statement is. If success is portrayed from the inside out, rather than the
outside in, then the statement holds truth. However, in the case of the neighborhood that
American Beauty takes place in, people wear success like a badge or a medal. Lester is
trapped in a world of people that want to prove to everyone else that they are
successful.
To discover the ideology of the external portrayal of successfulness, one need not look
further than within the walls of the Byrnham household. Carolyn is the best example of
peripheral fakeness; she is the worst offender of this superficial nature. Her real
estate job is more important then her family, her marriage, and even her life, because
her business is her life. She takes on the identity of the houses that she tries to sell.
In the movie, the one house that the audience sees is nice on the outside but very ugly
on the inside. When people come to look at the house, they see the ugliness on the inside
and are turned away from Carolyn and from buying the house. The irony is that the house
needs the most work on the inside much like Carolyn. Perhaps it is the Sam Mendes's (the
director's) way of metaphorically portraying the fact that Carolyn needs to work on her
internal rather than the external. In the advertisement for the house, Carolyn lies about
the pool out back saying it is lagoon- like. She can lie about the external part of the
house, but it is the internal that people truly find ugly about both Carolyn and her real
estate. When people turn down her real estate, she takes it to heart because her job is
who she is. If someone does not like her product, then they do not like Carolyn.
People do not like Carolyn because she is nothing more than a fa?ade. There is nothing
behind a fa?ade. It is something that tricks people into believing that the beauty on the
outside is equal to the beauty on the inside. Ricky Fitts, the Byrnhams' next-door
neighbor, puts it best when he exclaims, " Never underestimate the power of denial." It
is denial that drives the Byrnhams and it is denial that drives Colonel Frank Fitts of
the U.S. Marine Core. Frank Fitts is another character who builds up a fa?ade on the
outside. The Fittses are the exact opposite of the Byrnhams in appearance. They are the
1950's nuclear family, as opposed to the Byrnhams who are the nuclear family of the
millennium. Mrs. Fitts does not work. She cleans the house and tends to the family.
Colonel Frank Fitts is a retired war hero. He dictates his house like a commander runs a
battalion. Mrs. Fitts acts so subordinate towards her husband that she seems almost
autistic. She seems as if she is another world; like she is looking to the past and
living in another time. On the outside, Colonel Fitts acts hardnosed and cold. He puts up
the fa?ade of a man's man. He wants to seem like a Gen. Patton or a Gen. Montgomery. When
in actuality, he truly is a man's man, just not in that hero sort of way. Colonel Frank
Fitts is a homosexual. He hides his sexual preference in what seems like a perfect 1950's
nuclear family. His contempt for homosexuals only makes his denial more pertinent. When
the gay neighbors come to the door, there is something odd about the look on Colonel
Fitts's face. He almost does not believe that the two men standing at his door are
homosexuals. Colonel Fitts cannot understand that Jim and Jim are partners, because he
denies the fact that they are partners. There is one instance when Colonel Fitts is about
to say something to his son, but he cuts himself off. He does not allow himself to finish
his thought. One can only imagine if he is trying to tell his son something, but his
denial of speech does not allow anyone to know what he was going to say. Frank Fitts's
denial is the root of all his deep seeded anger and aggression. 
Ricky Fitts bares the grunt of this aggression. Colonel Fitts will not accept the fact
that his son has a drug problem. Therefore, he sends him to military school, and when
military school fails to discipline his son, Colonel Fitts sends Ricky to a mental
institution. Colonel Fitts uses the power of denial against his own son. He did not want
to accept the fact that his son had problems, so he denied his own son's existence. When
Ricky returns from his hiatus from society, he realizes that to live freely he must
create a fa?ade too and use it against his father. Ricky creates a fake reality for his
father. The jobs that Ricky supposedly holds he uses to pull in front of his father's
eyes. Ricky Fitts uses his father's weakness against his own father. With his father
tricked into believing that he is disciplined and structured, Ricky can do what ever he
wants. Ricky defies the rigid dictating of his father by subversively using an illusion
for his own ends. Ricky uses these "ends" to live his life however he pleases. Ricky
accepts everything for what it is; he does not deny the fact that there is beauty in
almost everything. Ricky's use of his camera to capture beauty is no coincidence. Just as
Ricky captures beauty with his camera, so, too does Sam Mendes in American Beauty.
Ricky's appreciation for beauty and freedom is unique. Not everyone experiences life that
way. Some people are trapped amidst fakeness. Lester Byrnham is one of these people.
However, when he meets Ricky Fitts, Lester Byrnham's view on life begins to change. When
Lester meets Ricky for the first time at the diner party, the two go outside and smoke
up. Ricky leaves his catering job instantly to share a joint with Lester. While the two
are outside sharing a moment, Ricky's boss comes out and Ricky quits right on the spot.
In utter disbelief, Lester claims, "I think you just became my personal hero!" It is an
epic moment in Lester Byrnham's unhappy life. Lester has an epiphany. He understands the
beauty that Ricky sees in life. Lester learns that it is ok to do whatever he wants to do
when he wants to do it. Upon leaving his first euphoric episode with Ricky, Lester
exclaims "I am in so much trouble," and then laughs it off. It is the turning point in
Lester's life. Instead of being submissive towards Carolyn, Lester comes home high and
dreams of a better life that exists. Lester realizes that he no longer needs to be
submissive to make the fa?ade of the Byrnham family look good. Lester starts to act for
himself. In the ensuing days, Lester quits his job, and starts flipping burgers; he
starts working out, and he buys a 1970 red Pontiac Firebird "the car [he] always wanted."
According to Lester Byrnham "[He] rules!!" After making these monumental life changes,
Lester experiences the beauty that Ricky Fitts has known all a long. Ricky knows that the
freedom to live is the true beauty in life. To live for the present moment is the only
way to experience the beauty in life. That is why Ricky videotapes everything; he tries
to capture the present. By watching the present on tape, Ricky can look back on the
beauty that once was. When Lester buys his weed from Ricky, he tells Ricky that when he
was a kid "Life was great all [he] did was flip burgers, party and get laid." Lester had
no worries, no stress, and no superficial fa?ades to subjugate him as a teenager. So,
Lester retreats to that state that once allowed him to see the beauty in life. He gets a
job at Mr. Smilies', he smokes up almost everyday, and he begins to get into shape in
order to return his body to its youthful physically fit state. Ironically, coming from
such a fake and superficial household, Ricky teaches Lester Byrnham how to live.
At a time when everyone around him thinks he is crazy, Lester Byrnham is truly the only
sane person in the Byrnham family. Lester has the car he always wanted, the job that
requires the least amount of responsibility as possible; plus he is working out and
partying everyday. Lester Byrnham enjoys life to its fullest. It seems that this is the
most successful that Lester Byrnham has ever been in his life. Surrounded by people who
judge success by the external, Lester emerges as the one who can truly see beauty and for
that he is successful. Bob Dylan once said "A man is successful if he gets up in the
morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." By that
definition, Lester Byrnham is the most successful man on earth. In between waking up and
going to bed, Lester Byrnham lives each moment to its fullest.
In the beginning of the movie, Lester Byrnham tells his audience that in less than one
year he will be dead. It is not a mistake that he makes this statement. Lester Byrnham
wants the audience to know his fate. He wants people to know what happens at the end of
the movie. Lester Byrnham does not want people to focus on what is ultimately going to
happen to him in the end; he wants people to appreciate what he does in the present. He
wants people to focus on how he lives for the present. Lester Byrnham does not want to be
judged upon what he ultimately becomes or what goals he accomplishes; he wants people to
judge him on how he lives his life. American Beauty is a lot like a performance of Romeo
and Juliet or Hamlet. Most people have seen these productions and know what happens in
the end. Therefore people go to these productions to judge actors and actresses on how
well they embrace the roles that they play. Audiences judge these plays on the sheer
performances of those playing aCapulet or a Montague. In a strange but true way, Lester
Byrnham is no different. Everyone in the audience knows what happens at the end of
American Beauty, just like they know what happens at the end of Romeo and Juliet.
Therefore, the only thing to judge Lester Byrnham on is the way that he lives for the
present. How good Lester Byrnham is at performing the "play of life" is how he wants to
be valued. That is real beauty and true success.
American Beauty. Produced by Allan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes. 1 hr. 58 min.
Universal, 1999. Videocassette.
Bibliography
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