Red Roses In American Beauty

The red roses throughout American Beauty represents the desire for love and freedom. Even though red roses are a symbol of love and passion; in American Beauty we get to see that there is a lack of love and compassion for another. The burn ham family has forgotten what love feels like, all the family members are estranged from each other. But throughout American Beauty, we see red roses or the color red, and in those moments its when the character needs love the most. For example, the front yard is decorated with red roses, and in a sense those red roses are a cage created by Carolyn Burnham, and as the movie progresses we get to see how Lester tries to break free from carolyns control. Another thing we see is that is he buys a red 1970 Pontiac Firebird, which represents his long term desire for the car, and also it was a way to make a statement about his individuality to Carolyn. We also see that whenever Lester thinks of Angela, he thinks of her in a bed of rose petals, covered with rose petals. There we get to see his desire for Angela, but there's also a hidden need for love, since the women …show more content…
The red roses represents a cage in some aspects and sometimes it represents the need for freedom and we see this with caroline and how the red roses represent her, and her need to control her. After that we see lester need for freedom and chooses to buy a 1970 firebird pontiac to make a statement about his individuality and his freedom, after that we also see lesters need for love and passion in life whenever he thinks of angela. But underneath it is really his need for love, affection ad acceptance from the women in life. He ends up finding that in angela in a sense. Though despite the tragedy of the film, each character grows out of their illusion and realizes the true beauty of life. Which is fighting through the circumstances and moving