American Beauty

American Beauty is a unique film that demonsrates many sociological themes throughout the development of the plot. The characters strive to portray themselves as the All American Family. They own a nice house, drive nice cars and seem perfectly normal to the general public. However the audience is allowed to view the deep set issues that plague the main characters. As the plot moves a long there are many apparent parallels relating the lives of the characters to Merton’s Strain theory. We begin to understand the characters values and emotions and how they can each be categorized into one of the five modes of adaptation discussed in Merton’s Strain theory.

The film looks to unravel society’s simplistic notions of beauty. It accomplishes this by depicting one-dimensional stereotypes and their immediate worlds, then progressively revealing each characters confining reality. The initial portrayal of the characters lends the idea that something in their lives is incomplete leaving them feeling lethargic and empty. It is in these archetypes that that the filmmakers begin to embody the subjective nature of experiences but, paradoxically the resultant feeling when beauty is embraced is universal. What each of us find beautiful differs, but the feeling that results from perceived beauty is constant and almost innate. Therefore beauty is not what appears as aesthetically pleasing but rather it is a deeper understanding of ones surroundings and oneself. The film attempts to awaken the senses to such beauty by projecting society’s sense of hopelessness and then falsifying these myths by giving the film’s characters strong conviction to challenge their mettle states. The film’s meaning is a conglomeration of ideas that depict today’s worldly beliefs to be superficial and ultimately inadequate as a means of acquiring a meaningful and purposeful existence. American Beauty (1999) presents a fresh perspective of what it means to be fulfilled in life, by attempting