American Beauty Satire

Have you ever wanted to be one hundred percent content with your life and the way you are living? In American Beauty, the 1999 comedic-drama, Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a husband and father who is fed up with his boring, day to day life, and quits his job deciding to recreate himself as a pot-smoking, free-spirited man with no worries or obligations. Through the use of satire of the American middle-class, the movie portrays personal satisfaction; social romance, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption. The main argument presented is that success is found when one secures the things that make them happy whether it be materialistic or idealistic. This movie is a phenomenal example of one persons’ idea of a successful American versus another idea. In American Beauty, Burnham puts forth the argument that if you do not like the path your life is on, change it. At forty-two and an advertisement marketer, Burnham finds himself in a rut and this midlife crisis makes him feel as if he is spiraling downward. It all starts when he starts fantasizing about his daughter’s best friend. He over hears that this friend finds him attractive, if not a little lean, and would be hot if he was a little more muscular and thus, the beginning of a transformation of men and the courting of societies norms. Burnham starts lifting weights and running and this spurs a run in with the

Through the use of societal romance, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption, American Beauty sets a ridiculous set of standards for the average Americans ideals of success and furthermore upholds the standards in society that living a normal, day-to-day life may make one successful but it does not make one content in their