The last Honors class that I took at UNC Charlotte was a Film course. In that course we watched a wide variety of films, but one of the films that impacted me the most was American Beauty, so I chose my reflection on this film to be my fifth artifact. American Beauty had many different themes and subjects, but in the end the one that ran consistently throughout the film is that we come from a society that values the appearance of perfection even though it is not real, and that true beauty comes from all of our imperfections. The mother in this film, Carolyn Burnham, spent so much time trying to have the appearance of a successful career, a perfect house, and a happy family, and in the end it destroyed her happiness. The father, Lester, realized that he could not be happy until he was true to himself and stopped trying to float through life like a drone. And the daughter Jane went from being unhappy and insecure about how she looked to embracing herself as unique and beautiful, with the help of her friend Ricky Fitts. This film spoke to me on a personal level because I realized how much the struggle of this family was my own struggle. I try so hard to be perfect that it stifles out my happiness. In the end, our beauty comes not from our perfection, but from all of our imperfections and the qualities that make us unique. This is what inspired me to choose a torn flower as the background of my portfolio. The flower is far from perfect, and yet all of the tears and holes in its petals give it strength and serenity. It has weathered the hardships of life, and it has come out with a few scars but it is all the more beautiful. I am the same. Between my natural disposition, my upbringing, and my experiences in life, I have many quirks and imperfections. However, all that they do is bring life and individuality to me.
Excerpts from my reflection on American Beauty:
"American Beauty is a film that follows two American suburban families, the Burnham family and their next-door neighbors, the Fitts family. It does an excellent job of looking into the lives of these families, and it shows that most families that look perfect have a lot more going on behind the walls of their homes. American Beauty is an excellent critique of our culture, and although it was produced in 1999, it is still very relevant today..."
"Another aspect of the film is the idea of beauty. American Beauty makes it clear that the beauty that our culture holds up is not what real beauty is. This is seen primarily through Jane Burnham and Ricky Fitts. Jane Burnham is unhappy with how she looks. She has a beautiful friend, Angela, who gets a lot of attention from men and always talks about sexual experiences. Jane probably weighs herself next to Angela in the same way that most girls weigh themselves next to someone, whether it is a girl they actually know or a celebrity of some sort. Angela serves as the perfect contrast, the girl that almost everyone wants to be like, although it is revealed that Angela is not everything that she seems to be. Jane also is trying to save up money for a breast enhancement, even though she has a full figure already. If beauty was defined by the American media, it would probably be having large breasts, a disproportionately small waist, and long, perfectly styled hair. We have Barbie dolls, anorexic and plastic-surgery enhanced celebrities, and airbrushed photos to thank for think. Jane is no different from the vast majority of young women in her insecurity and wish to change her looks. However, Ricky comes along and shows us that this is not what true beauty is. Ricky finds beauty in even the smallest things, like a paper bag being blown about by the wind, a bird lying dead on the ground, and Jane, a beautiful young lady who is probably seldom seen when her friend Angela is standing next to her..."
"I don’t usually enjoy sexual movies because they are often very demeaning to women by putting us in the role of a sexual object. I feel like they add to the problem that our culture has with forcing sexuality and unrealistic ideas of beauty onto young women. However, this is all why I actually enjoyed American Beauty. This film wasn’t just putting in pretty girls and sexual scenes to add to our cultural problems – it was putting them in to make a point about our cultural problems..."
To read my entire reflection, click on the cover picture of American Beauty.