There are so many connections in this play to discuss: Lester and Carolyn, Lester and the Colonel, Lester and Angela; between Angela and Jane, Ricky and Jane, Ricky and the Colonel.
or you can look at a theme that emerged in the second half of the play:
isolation, longing, realization, freedom, appearance vs substance...
Write a full paragraph responding to one of the above. Remember to write your name at the top, and check for mistakes before you submit.
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Max Kornstein
ReplyDeleteThe scene that I was waiting for was between Lester and Angela. All of Lester's daydreams and fantasies built up a lot, almost for nothing. I thought it was very ironic that after all he imagined about Angela, when he finally had the chance to have sex with her he passed it up. Although it was a good decision because having sex with a 16 year old girl when your 42 years old isn't the best idea, I was very surprised with his response. I also found it funny how Angela was a virgin. Throughout the whole screenplay she made herself out to be much more than she was when talking to Jane.
Tovah Goldfarb
ReplyDeleteIn the second half of American Beauty, the theme of appearance versus substance is developed more extensively as proven by several instances. The screenplay explores the idea that life isn't always what one makes it out to be and people aren't always who they seem. Although it is less so in the second half, Lester and Carolyn still hold the air of a solid marriage although their life together is crumbling at the seams. Angela is a prime example of this theme. She portrays the image of sexually experience and confidence when she is truly a virgin. Her confidence melts away when Lester makes a sexual advance on her. The reader can see the innocence and fear on her face as Lester prepares to have sex with her. Most comically and perhaps most saddening, the Colonel spies on Rickey and believes he is performing gay sexual acts for money. When he makes a sexual move on Lester and is rejected on false ideas, he ends up ending Lester's life. Although the realization that what characters are led to believe proved to be devastating, it teachers the reader a valuable lesson to not always take things at surface value.
Casey Sullivan
ReplyDeleteOne of the main conflicts was between Ricky and his dad, the Colonel. The Colonel was very strict and preached discipline. He beat Ricky and forced him into things like having a job and drug tests. Ricky kept trying to find ways to get away from his parents, and eventually finds one when he gets into an argument with the Colonel at the end. The Colonel suspected that Ricky was doing things with Lester, so Ricky used the Colonel's homophobic fears to break away from him. Ironically though, it turns out that the Colonel could have been this way because he was suppressing homosexual feelings himself. When he tried to make a move on Lester and didn't get the results he expected, he ended up killing Lester.
Michael Ambrosino
ReplyDeleteIn American Beauty we find a striking connection between Carolyn and Lester. We can see that both of them contribute to an unhealthy family situation. In the beginning of the screenplay Carolyn seems to be disrespectful to Jane. Being disrespectful to your daughter is an immature way to act as a parent. She says " Are you trying to look unattractive.", this is an outrageous comment to make to another person, especially your own daughter. Lester also contributes to the terrible family situation by hitting on Jane's friend, Angela. He acts overly friendly to Angela; like a teenage boy seeing someone that he has a crush on. It truly embarrasses Jane thus creating a larger gap between Lester and Jane. Lester and Carolyn's living situation is made even more unhealthy by the sexuality of their marriage. When Lester meets Angela he starts to fantasize about her and eventually masturbating to her. Carolyn catches Lester in mid-masturbation. It spurs an argument between them, thus making them both realize that their sex life has gone down the drain. Then Carolyn starts to have an affair with Buddy Kane her rival in the real estate business . So we can see that they both do not contribute to a healthy living situation.
Andrei Dobrescu
ReplyDeleteIt seems that as soon as Jane and Ricky met they instantly made a connection. Ricky was the new kid who didn't fit in and Jane felt like she didn't fit in well either. Jane always felt like she wasn't good enough because of Angela. She felt like no one could see her because Angela was always there and she was beautiful. She immediately fell for Ricky when he called her beautiful. And after Ricky called Angela boring and ordinary and Jane unique and serene, its no wonder Jane agreed to go with him to New York to live there.
Jason Bang
ReplyDeleteI suppose the most beautiful thing Ricky has ever filmed can be compared directly to Lester’s life during the course of the play. As described in the screen play, there is an empty parking lot on a cold and gray day while a white plastic bag floats in the air, carried by the wind, circling around the camera’s point of view. The bag will sometimes then fly around violently without any warning and send itself soaring upwards where it then gracefully floats back down to the ground, all in a matter of seconds, just like how Lester states that “your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die.
The weather and the environment the white plastic bag is in can be looked at as the same type of atmosphere Lester was living in, whether that would be the uninteresting and unattractive house Carolyn was trying to sell or the work environment which he despised because of his co worker. Lester’s life during the first half of the play was depressing, isolated, and powerless. The wind that blows around the parking lot can be a similar metaphor to things that influence Lester as time passes by.
When the plastic bag circles around the camera’s point of view, it can also be looked as how Lester walked his life around in a circle. He had the same routine every day, there was nothing new in his life that broke out of the circle, there wasn’t variety and he didn’t try new things. When the bag flies violently in the air suddenly without warning, it translates to Lester suddenly snapping. On page sixty two, Lester is excited to tell Jane what happened today at work while Carolyn angrily complains and assumes that she is the sole bread winner of the family now. Jane disliking that she has to be part of another pointless argument her parents have, she wants to leave when Lester, unexpectedly tells her to sit down. And Jane does so surprised and intimidated by the power in his voice. Lester then states how he’s sick of being treated like he doesn’t exist and how he would like the same courtesy. When Carolyn counter reacts to what Lester complained about, Lester snaps and throws the plate of asparagus onto the wall and indicates in a sharp tone and says “Don’t interrupt me, honey.”
While the bag soars swiftly in the sky, this is when Lester is beginning to make changes in his life and feel confident about them. He likes making others feel vulnerable as well as the feeling of being correct and acknowledging it. When he told Carolyn that he has done nothing wrong on his part of the marriage to make him divorce worthy while he smiles in bed about how he has just made Carolyn feel vulnerable. Anything positive that Lester feels that is happening to him can be applicable here. His physical activity results, his nostalgic but current charismatic and romantic character, a job he feels comfortable and free in, etc. Of course there is the climax where the one thing he longed for (Angela) finally came into his reality but then that disappoints him. And then it goes down from there. However, it goes down gently. He is still content with his life; he does not get angry at Angela or himself for working hard so that Angela would be impressed. When he finds out how Carolyn was cheating on him with Buddy while he worked at Mr. Smiley’s, he genuinely wanted Carolyn to be happy rather than always miserable and stressed out and it shows that he was moving onto better things that made him happy (part of the soaring metaphor of the white plastic bag). And before Carolyn eliminates Lester, Lester tells himself that he’s great and picks up a photograph of his family where he suddenly feels more mature and older. He smiles in deep satisfaction like finally understanding a joke he never understood awhile ago. He finally realizes the things he did several years ago that made his family happy and now understands why he was so miserable for those three or so years and finally accepts and acknowledges the facts. Therefore the bag floats down to the ground in amiable fashion.
James Pastoressa
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the novel it is portrayed that Angela and Jane are best friends, and Angela is this promiscuous girl who sleeps with a lot of guys. In the end of the book we find out, although Jane doesn’t, that Angela is actually a virgin and not that person we all think she is. She acts that way because she insecure about herself and likes when people think that she is a beautiful girl, almost as if she strives off it. Her and Jane aren’t as close as they appear to be. Angela seems like she just uses Jane to feel better about herself, and in the end Jane says how she really felt, with Ricky helping her. It surprised me how there friendship turned out, I personally thought they would become friends and overcome their differences instead of losing each other.
Joseph Caruana
ReplyDeleteThe connection that I am going to focus on is between Carolyn and Lester. Although they have been married for a while and they have a child together (Jane), their marriage is obviously in shambles. Carolyn is cheating on Lester with the “Real-estate King”, Buddy Kane. While Lester is working in a fast food restaurant, he catches Carolyn and Buddy in the car together and obviously flirting. Carolyn is shocked and Lester tells her “you don’t tell me what to do anymore”. But it’s a two way street and Lester also fantasizes of cheating on Carolyn with his daughters friend Angela. Angela is the “Barbie-like”, perfect looking teenager that has captured Lester’s eye. He makes it extremely obvious that he has taken a liking to Angela and she realizes this and takes advantage of him. They flirt and Lester is mesmerized by her rather than his wife because they do not have sex. Ultimately, Lester’s new found confidence and attitude towards life has shocked Carolyn and has put her in her place. They fight and yell constantly and when it almost seems that they will make up and have sex for the first time in a long time, Carolyn puts and end to everything but interrupting Lester and putting a hold on their flirting by telling Lester not to spill his beer on their Italian leather couch. This is the last straw that eventually leads to Carolyn getting a gun and seriously considering killing Lester; but she is too late because the Colonel beat her to it.
Megan Gray
ReplyDeleteThe connection between Angela and Jane is an interesting one. It develops throughout the story once Jane starts to realize more about herself and about Angela and also about their relationship. Jane seems to look up to Angela and her popularity at the beginning, but by the end doesn't look up to her, or even really like her at all. Jane starts to see how fake and self absorbed Angela is and strays away from their friendship. Ricky helps Jane learn more about herself and through that she realizes that her relationship with Angela wasn't much of a friendship at all.
A major theme in American Beauty was the pursuit of happiness. In American Beauty, happiness is something that all the characters long for and strive to be, but is rarely achieved by them because of their unrealistic goals of distorted view of what true happiness is. At the beginning of the screenplay, Lester realizes how desperately unhappy he is, and that it is still possible for him to change his life and become happy again. Going against society's views of what is right and what is wrong, such as drug use, sexual relations with a minor, and quitting his job, Lester begins to pursue whatever he wants in order to make himself happy like he used to bed. By the end of the screenplay when Lester gets killed, he has achieved happiness like he truly strived for
ReplyDeleteJessika Pisano
ReplyDeleteThe ending of American Beauty was certainly filled with a lot of irony and complied a large element of surprise. Both Angela and Lester have masking identities. Throughout the play we are left under the impression that Angela is a promiscuous teenager as she is constantly talking about sex but we then find out shockingly that she is a virgin. I think this was unexpected for the audience. Also, Lester the man who desperately urged for female affection and continuously had fantasies about Angela turned out being gay. This was surprising.
Ian Hazelton
ReplyDeleteThe most important theme that emerged from the ending of American Beauty was the idea of freedom. Freedom for Lester was his ability to finally do whatever he pleased, which included quitting his job, smoking marijuana, buying his dream car,converting the garage into a gym and working out in it, and more importantly his disregard towards what people thought about him. For Carolyn it was her having an affair, also buying a gun. It gave her a sense of power, in which she intended to use it on Lester, but was too late. For Ricky and Jane freedom was the actual freedom from their parents, and their plans to move to New York City. Ricky was free from his strict and ruthless father, while Jane's freedom was just to get away from the failing family. Angela's freedom was telling the truth to Lester that she actually was a virgin, and that her appearance was all false. The Colonel's freedom was his admittance that he was gay, but I do not think he keeps this freedom because he ends up killing Lester, the only person who new of his sexuality. In the end every character achieves a sense of freedom, and it is their own choice whether to hold onto the newly found freedom.