Through its use of symbols and the film’s identity, American Beauty makes us look at the characters and their philosophies (American dream, their standards of success, splendor, and many others.), both as they may be and as they may be perceived. No one in the movie is in reality as they seem. In this case, the creepiest (Ricky) is the nicest, the successful spouse is an unstable ruin, and the American beauty is a substitute plain.

The red rose petals appear numerous times throughout American Beauty and symbolize romance, sensuality, and vitality. However, it is essential to note that the pink roses are implicitly an illusion throughout most of the movie. In the context of a ghost, the crimson roses stand for a sugar-covered reality.

By sugar coating, I imply that it covers the natural stimulation (flavor, sight, touch) by “sweetening” it. In all but one of the scenes, the crimson peddles around Angela, protecting her bare body in a way that makes whatever lays below that rather more enticing via the usage of sensual reds and the sexiness of thriller—not to mention the excessive spectacles that regularly accompany Lester’s dream scenes.

However, within the scene where Lester finally receives what he wishes for, Angela has no purple peddles around her. Unlike her breasts in the first scene, which had been blanketed up with vibrant pedals, this scene exposes her frame for what it is, and we love Lester begins to feel like Angela won’t have been all she changed into cracked up to be. It isn’t always that Angela isn’t always stunning; it’s miles that no one could stay up to the god-like expectations that Lester’s wild fantasies created.

After Lester reveals that Angela is a virgin and not at all what the idea she changed into, he goes out to the kitchen and picks up an image of his family. As Lester appears at a picture of his family announcing, “Man oh man…” a buy of purple roses(actual to the ones proven in advance) is proven for approximately 5 seconds. Unlike all shown previously, these roses are not a dream. Also, unlike the roses demonstrated in advance, they’re associated with his own family and not Angela. In this context, the roses are not sugar-coating; they are love, sensuality, and vitality. Seconds later, we see a puddle of crimson blood. Shortly once we experience, using video montage, Lester’s lifestyle flashed before his eyes, the love, sensuality, and power the picture represented.

The subject of factors no longer being what they appear is not isolated to Lester’s view of Angela. In several instances for the duration of the film, Carolyn says, You need to undertake achievement always to, in the end, be successful. Lester also tells Ricky’s Dad that his marriage”…Is just for display”.

Many characters appear to obsess over how human beings understand them but show little care for the truth of factors. Ricky’s Dad hates homosexuality and is known in several instances at some stage in the film; in the end, he turns out to be interested in men sexually. Carolyn and Buddy are obsessed with seeming “successful” and having others think they are part of an “everyday” family; it is the conflict to seem this manner for each of them, which makes them emotionally unstable and tears them apart from their households. Through its comparison of truth and perceived reality, American Beauty makes us look at what American splendor is, the American Dream, and the actual promises those narratives offer.