Examples Of Materialism In American Beauty

Resemblance between “American Beauty” and Today In all honesty, the film “American Beauty” had my brain twisted in confusion for the first half of it. I felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of symbolism found in the film. However as the movie went on, a lot of it made much more sense and with that, it also felt more relatable. By the end of the film, everything about each character felt so real. “American Beauty” uses these characters to showcase multiple themes that hold strong parallel to how the world is today. Themes such as insecurity and materialism and also shows a heavy opinion on the ideal “american dream” all can be easily be seen by just stepping back and looking at society as a whole. Not only that but the film also give a very …show more content…
However, the idea of the american dream is more or less the same as materialism. Both enforce that having certain things at a certain status will ensure a happy life. The american dream is the idea of having a family, two or more cars, a fairly large house, and a white collar job. However, besides the family, the majority of this dream is materialistic. In essence, the american dream states the same message materialism does; “you need this to be …show more content…
Lester’s death shows that humanity is not as greedy and selfless as it may seem by using the transformation both he and Carolyn made during the occurrence as examples.Through his death, a ripple of events occur. First, Lester himself is able to accept that despite everything negative in his life he “can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life (American Beauty).” Even though there were times he felt empty in his lifetime, he knows that on his journey toward “the american dream” he worked hard and made memories that made his entire life worth it. The second ripple I would like to discuss is the effects Lester’s death had on Carolyn. After discovering the death of her husband, she goes into grief due to her repressed feelings towards her husband being realized now that he is gone which was demonstrated by her hugging Lester’s clothes and crying on them. This event may have even went further as it could have even made her realize that happiness is not as directly linked to wealth and status as she experiences bittersweet love for