The State of Despair in American Beauty Essay -- American Beauty Films

The State of Despair in American Beauty In action, every unity essential make choices. Choices give an individual the freedom to decide upon the mode to which they will follow. Since its beginnings, the film making industry has focused on showing the direct relationship between the choices that people make and the resulting consequences they must face. In the motion-picture show American Beauty, the character of Lester Burnham must make humankindy another(prenominal) important choices that could either lead to his ultimate happiness, or draw him get ahead into his despair.In the movie American Beauty, it is evident that Lester Burnham is in a asseverate of despair. Lesters dull and monotonous voice introduces the audience to his daily ordinary of heart. When Lester declares plain and simply, This is my neighborhood, this is my street, this is my life, he exposes the lifelessness and unhappiness to which he has become accustomed. The dim tone that Lester has set continues wh en he cynically comments, jerking off in the shower will be the high point of my day. He realizes his family life is no better when he becomes aware that both his disdainful wife and his troubled daughter consider him a gigantic loser. It is easy to see and understand Lesters disheartenment through analysis and symbolic motorcar scene. In this scene, Lester sits slouched down in the back seat with a looking for of emptiness while his daughter Jane sits up front, next to his wife Carolean who is driving the car. The symbolism is shown through Carolyn driving the car, as she drives the family (especially Lester). She has evolved into the decision-maker, and leader of the Burnham family. sit in the backseat, Lester avoids further conflict with his wife, leading him to become an even unhappier and much desperate person. It is understandable why Lester feels like a sedated visitor in his own life. It is also easy to empathize with Lester when he states that he feels in many ways a lready dead. For Lester, his life at work is naught better than his life at home. After fourteen years on the job, Lester is asked by an efficiency expert at work to write a memo justifying his position. This requires making the first of several choices, which will ultimately advert his future happiness. Should he justify his job and continue to provide for his family or choose freedom and a new life? To answer this marvel the audience must examine... .... This is the first time in the movie in which it is apparent that he wants to know his own family and is just working fall out how to go about doing it. But it also allows Lester to be happy, happy for Jane to sire the best thing he once had a true benignant relationship with Carolyn. Lester finds himself not sad that he is now missing that love relationship, but happy that he got the chance to experience it at one point. By the end of the movie, Lester actually seems sincerely happy in his thoughts, in his mind and in his life. This is the happiness that he has been searching for all along.The discovery of happiness and the extinction of despair are two of the greatest feats cognise to humans. Everyone chooses which of the two will ultimately rule their life, but sometimes life itself can get in the way. Lester Burnham is a man with limits, a man without the freedom to know himself, but with the ability to overcome these boundaries. Throughout this movie Lester is taken down a path to which hedonism is the roadblock and morality is the recondite passage. For some the choice will never be able to be made, but to Lester, life was much too beautiful to ignore the possibilities.