Home is Where the Heart Is

 

I watched American Beauty this week, which was very insightful in understanding the mask suburbia serves for concealing the parts of ‘everyday life’ people try to hide. Toward the end of the film Lester makes a comment about the falsity of his marriage calling it “a commercial for how normal we are when we’re anything but.” This look into the life of this suburban family reveals how not everything is what it seems. Additionally, throughout the movie, almost every character expresses their fear of being ‘ordinary,’ as if this is the worst possible thing they can be. The disconnect between the characters also parallels the social disconnect that stemmed from the mass urban sprawl in the 1950’s and 60’s. Urban sprawl in many ways arose from the desire for people to have more of their own space and live a unique lifestyle, but the mass urban sprawl for many had the opposite effect, forcing people into the monotony of the ‘ordinary’ life they live. Without revealing the ending, I think Lester’s reflections throughout show a strong example of the spectrum of suburban living and the good and bad that comes with it.