It’s often said that American Beauty is a film about identity. Each character seems to go through a very personal identity crisis. But I would argue these crises are not personal at all. They are the products of wider social forces. By focusing on the identities of American Beauty’s characters we can learn a surprising amount about how we may define ourselves based on prevailing attitudes towards sexuality, beauty and material success.
Many sociologists believe that an individual’s sense of self is strongly influenced by the social world. This idea is best illustrated by Charles Cooley’s notion of the “Looking Glass self”. He argues that our sense of self is produced in three distinct stages.
- We imagine how we appear to other people.
- We imagine what others think of our appearance
- We revise our sense of self based on what we believe others think.
So, every social interaction acts as a mirror or looking glass because our sense of self is built from the imagined opinions of others. The key word here is “imagined”, we can never be sure whether what someone else thinks about us is entirely true, and we may get completely the wrong end of the stick.
No one illustrates this idea better than Angela Hayes. Angela’s entire sense of self is built on her assumption that she appears beautiful and extraordinary. She frequently boasts about all the attention that she gets from men and uses it to power a very confident persona. However, we eventually learn that not everyone sees her this way. Towards the end of the film, Ricky and Jane reveal that what they really think of her; that she is ugly and quite frankly ordinary. Unsurprisingly, this causes Angela to break down, her entire sense of self has been shattered and so she desperately seeks validation from Lester. Just as we see many people seek validation on social media today.
In contrast, Jane Burnham’s character seems to go in the complete opposite direction. At the start of the film, we learn that she’s insecure about how her body appears, and that this idea is reinforced by those around her. Through a number of self-derogatory comments, we quickly learn that she doesn’t think too highly of herself. She considers changing her appearance through surgery and is happy to play second fiddle to her friend Angela. That’s until she starts seeing Ricky. Jane naturally assumes that Ricky can’t possibly be attracted to her, yet Ricky shows Jane that he likes her as she is. Eventually, this leads her to abandon the idea of surgery and gain enough confidence and self-esteem to tell Angela what she really thinks of her. Freed from the idea that everyone looks down on her because of her physical appearance, Jane’s sense of self is no longer defined by how she looks, or more accurately, how she thinks she looks to others.
Meanwhile, Ricky’s sense of self remains constant throughout the film. He is supremely confident and already has a good grasp on what others think of him. He knows that filming his neighbour will come off as creepy and weird, but this doesn’t faze him, he’s happy to accept being an outsider. After all, he finds beauty where no one else does, as illustrated by the famous plastic bag scene.
Lester’s character arc also displays a rejection of normal appearances; specifically, the image of the American Dream. He’s very aware that people may perceive his transformation from experienced office worker to fast food cashier as mindless, inconceivable and strange. Equally, he knows that his increasingly frequent disregard for social norms leads others to view him with disgust. His actions show us that he’s deliberately discarding a sense of self that was built to please key figures in his life like his wife and his old boss. He’s now far more interested in what Angela thinks of him. So, he portrays an alternative appearance that harkens back to his days in college, defined by rebellion, physical fitness and sexualisation.
Whilst Lester rejects the commonly understood image of success, Carolyn desperately seeks it. Her sense of self is built on the idea that others think she is successful. Whenever this perception is challenged, like when she’s unable to sell the house, she becomes unstable and filled with self-doubt. Eventually, when she meets the King, who shows an interest in her sales capabilities, her confidence in a success-oriented self is restored and causes inevitable conflict with Lester.
Ultimately, through the Colonel, we learn just how strong imagined perceptions can be. He maintains an incredibly homophobic and masculine appearance, desperately wanting other people to think that he’s not gay. Yet, when he thinks that Lester is also homosexual, he lets his guard down. He’s no longer worried about what Lester might think, since he may be in the same situation. When the colonel realises that he’s mistaken, he is so terrified of what Lester may now think of him that, despite receiving a very understanding response, he kills his neighbour in cold blood.
This shows us how a sense of self can also be heavily influenced by wider, structural forces. It’s unlikely that Lester thinks anything less of the colonel after finding out he’s gay, but the colonel has been conditioned to believe that homosexuality is shameful and should be hidden at all costs. Similarly, Angela and Jane’s obsession with body image alludes to how the western ideal of feminine beauty has become a major factor in determining their self-worth. Finally, Carolyn’s pursuit of material success and Lester’s rejection of it, alludes to how the values of the American Dream may underpin how we perceive others.
A common criticism of theorists like Charles Cooley is that, because they focus on small scale interactions, they can’t explore larger social structures. Yet, as we see in American Beauty, understanding the micro level is just as important as understanding the bigger picture. By understanding these 6 characters and what they think about themselves, we can infer a lot about the society in which they live.
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