Concepts of Identity - American Beauty free essay sample

In the film, American Beauty, Allan Ball (screenwriter) explores a number of themes relating to the concepts of identity. One of these themes is adopting superficial appearances to try and â€Å"fit in† with reality. Appearances can be deceiving, that is why one’s identity can be difficult to comprehend. American Beauty conveys images and ideas of adopting a superficial identity to their perception of reality. Carolyn is a real estate agent who believes that the most important aspect in life is being successful. Carolyn has based her extrinsic identity on what she believes, is the idea of perfection. She is so obsessed with perfection that she can be classified as a little manic; as shown in the scene where she can not sell a house and physical and mentally abuses herself while repeating the imperative, â€Å"I will sell this house today† to herself. Carolyn, intrinsically, is an insecure woman and by that, she hides her insecurities with her perfection; constantly being in control of the family’s life force which was represented in the scene where she cuts the roses stem. We will write a custom essay sample on Concepts of Identity American Beauty or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The way Ball explains it, the color red is the life force, Carolyn cuts the life force. Lester, Carolyn’s husband and the protagonist of the film, works for an advertising agency and has become a prisoner towards his career and his wife. Since Carolyn is the driving life force in the family, Lester has little or no control in his life. At the beginning of the film, he feels deeply and fundamentally unsatisfied with his life though as the movie progresses, he gradually recovers his lost fractured identity and becomes truly happy once again. Carolyn and Lester use a lot of sarcasm in their dialogue in the beginning of the film. Since Carolyn is a very controlling person, she controls her family to live out the â€Å"American Dream. As shown in the scene of the first family dinner, both Carolyn and Lester still uphold the artificial identities to mask their family’s true identity. The design in this scene is perfectly set out with roses on the table and a properly set table, although the lighting is dim with cool blue color of the table cloth to the red colo r of the dining room drapes. These color connotations help support their perfect American family. They also mean the moods of Carolyn and Lester, red being associated to Carolyn as the person who is always in control and overpowering, and blue being associated to Lester as having a sense of hope. Non diegetic sounds of love music playing in the background, creates a sense of irony as the couple swing sarcastic remarks towards each other. Long shots of the dining room displaying the long dining table, showing the distance between all three family members. The sarcasm combined with their exaggerated gestures suggests that the pressure of upholding their artificial identities has become too much for them. Another character that adopts a falsified identity is Angela. She, like Carolyn, puts forward a false identity to confront her own idea of reality. Angela is the perfect teen that other teenagers envy; also acts as a sex symbol towards men. She puts out a confident and popular identity, although, underneath that poised surface, lies a shy, insecure little girl. Angela portrays this cool exterior identity to hide her intense fear of being â€Å"ordinary† because she feels that there is â€Å"nothing worse in life than being ordinary. † This is an example of juxtaposition, Angela’s intrinsic self versus her extrinsic identity. She constantly degrades others for being plain and ordinary when in fact, she too is just an ordinary girl. Angela is portrayed as Lester’s object of childish lust and his sense of freedom. In the scenes where Lester is fantasizing about Angela, she is associated with red rose petals, indicating lust, love and freedom to Lester. Angela is presented floating on a bed of rose petals or in a white bath tub covered by rose petals. Sexual undertones are also evident when Angela speaks to Lester in his fantasies, which juxtaposes to the tone of his wife towards him. In the scene where she and Lester had a near-sexual encounter, Angela reveals her true identity to him saying she is a virgin. The dull lighting and the change of facial expressions on both Lester and Angela’s face from lust to realization suggests that false identities have been dropped and their true selves have emerged. Overall, Allan Ball has portrayed the theme of false identities very well throughout the film. All of the characters were all disturbed and confused in the beginning, they have come to reveal their true identities in the end. By revealing their true identities, it resulted in pure happiness and true acceptance of ones self.