American Beauty Essay 29

“There are so many different types of love. There is little kid love, teenage love, friendship love, family love, marriage love and parent to children love. All of these different types of love have similar meanings but have a little something different making them unique.” (Bartinelli). This statement is the perfect way to explain love. Even though “love” is a universal word that millions of people use to describe their strong feelings for another person, the interpretation of the word is unique to each individual. There are no set rules or requirements that dictate to a person how they must feel or act in order to use the word love. No relationship is ever completely the same as another, and every couple is different, yet they all use the same word to describe their feelings: love. A more specific example is the relationship between Lester and Carolyn Burnham in the film American Beauty. Lester and Carolyn possessed negative qualities that led to several conflicts with each other and, eventually, overshadowed the positive aspects that kept their love alive.
A relationship is between two people, each with their own characteristics that can be either loved or loathed by the other person. In the case of Lester and Carolyn’s relationship, each possesses a few negative characteristics that end up being the couple’s downfall in the movie. One trait in specific would be Carolyn’s constant focus on surface appearances. It becomes apparent to the audience that Carolyn tries to hide her imperfect lifestyle by manipulating the appearances around her to look perfect, which ends up affecting her and Lester’s relationship. Carolyn is aware that Lester is truly unhappy with his job, but she couldn’t really care less about Lester’s feelings. The only thing she is concerned with is maintaining her unnatural lifestyle that she considers perfect. Of course, Carolyn’s perception of a perfect lifestyle does not include having a husband that is unemployed, so when Lester quits his