In this blog post, I’ll examine the beauty of simple life and the harsh reality depicted in ‘American Beauty’ by focusing on its plot and characters, its unique format as a deceased character’s retrospective, the loneliness and family breakdown revealed through the portrayal of an American middle-class family, and the folktale structure and anti-fairy-tale elements in Propp’s theory.

My First Encounter with “American Beauty”

March 17, 2000, 3:40 p.m. I’m on the top floor of a movie theater near my school.
With my bag slung over my shoulder and a drink in my hand, I’m pacing alone in front of a quiet bench, waiting for the theater doors to open. Before I knew it, a little over two weeks of March had passed. Mid-March is always a rather peculiar time of year. It’s the period when, after the long winter break ends and the new semester begins—following a first week so hectic there’s barely a moment to breathe—things finally settle down a bit; it’s also the time when the psychological anticipation that the cold winter has passed and warm spring is on its way slowly begins to swell. That’s why mid-March is a time when leisure, a sense of languor, and anticipation coexist. This atmosphere is a major reason why I find myself heading to the theater around this time. Perhaps that’s why so many of the most memorable movies I’ve ever seen in theaters were ones I watched in March. That was the case with ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ in 2001 and ‘Can Love Be Translated?’ in 2004. In between, I was away serving in the military… And this film, which became the talk of the town at the 72nd Academy Awards in 2000, was also one of them.

They say that when you face death, your entire life flashes before your eyes.
Of course, these aren’t scenes that end in an instant. They linger before your eyes for what feels like an eternity.
These are the things that flashed before my eyes.
The shooting stars I watched while lying on the grass during my Boy Scout days, the yellow maple leaves lining the road in front of my house,
my grandmother’s hands and skin, which felt like parched paper…
……(omitted)……
There are many things in life that make me angry, but I must not give in to that anger. For the world is overflowing with beauty.
In the moment I perceive that beauty, my heart sometimes swells with emotion—like a balloon about to burst.
But when I realize that I must calm my mind and let go of attachment,
a sense of joy flows through me like rainwater, leaving only a heart full of gratitude.
For every moment of my life, lived so simply…….

After the two-hour screening ended, as I walked out of the theater and down the street that was gradually growing darker, the melody of Elliott Smith’s “Because”—which had played during the end credits—continued to linger in my ears. The film’s final scene made me reflect deeply on death once again. Do people really see their entire lives flash before their eyes when faced with death? If so, what will I recall at that moment? The people or things I love? Or major events? What kind of memories will the things I’ve experienced so far—and the things I’m doing right now—leave behind?
As I tried to draw conclusions one by one from this chain of questions, a thought suddenly struck me: no matter what I end up recalling in my final moments, it will surely be something from my simple, everyday life—not something grand or spectacular. Just like the scenes that flashed before Lester Burnham’s eyes in the movie as he delivered his final line.
The simple everyday. It seems there is nothing people overlook or forget more easily than this, and yet, there is also nothing that exerts such a powerful influence on a person or enriches life as much as this. When I was young, both my parents worked, so I attended kindergarten at my maternal grandparents’ house. Back then, I loved folding and flying paper airplanes. So I would tear off sheets from the stack of notepaper in the living room and play by folding them into all sorts of shapes. As time passed, I moved back in with my parents, and sometime during my middle school years, my maternal grandmother passed away. Later, my maternal grandfather showed me a small metal box. When I opened the lid, I found countless paper airplanes I had folded long ago, carefully preserved inside. Even though I had moved back to my parents’ house and there was no one left at my maternal grandparents’ house to play with them, my maternal grandmother had been meticulously collecting and storing the paper airplanes I used to play with all this time. Has there ever been a time when I felt such deep sadness and longing for my maternal grandmother’s absence as I did then? Though both of them are no longer with us, those paper airplanes often come to mind whenever I think of them. To others, those airplanes might be nothing more than a single sheet of paper. Yet the aching longing for those who have left this world—or for the place I once held—begins with the very smallest things, filled with memories of the time we shared. Isn’t living life simply the process of finding meaning in such humble things?
The final scene of the movie ‘American Beauty’ captivated me so powerfully. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on death, which in turn led me to question life itself—and ultimately gifted me with a long-forgotten wisdom: “The most beautiful and precious things lie in a simple life.” A person who can find beauty even in a plastic bag swirling in the wind may have a richer inner world than others. This is because everyone lives in their own world, seen through their own eyes. In that sense, this film—which essentially gave me the ability to see the world through beautiful eyes—still resonates deeply with me to this day.
However, despite this heartwarming emotion, the film’s ending also left me with an indescribable sense of shock and fear. At the time, I thought it was simply because the protagonist had died, but something still didn’t quite sit right with me. Then, while taking this opportunity to take another deep look at the film and analyze it, I came to understand exactly what that feeling was.

What Kind of Movie Is ‘American Beauty’?

First, the title ‘American Beauty’ can be interpreted as “① the name of the most exquisite rose, ② a blonde with blue eyes—the quintessential American beauty, and ③ the simple beauty found in everyday life.” All three of these elements appear in the film. However, Lester meets his end without possessing any of them.
In the early part of the film, the camera moves from the sky, overlooking the town, down to the bed where Lester is lying. This camera perspective—as if a disembodied soul were looking down at itself from above the bed—appears frequently throughout the film.
Then, at the film’s conclusion, when Lester is shot and killed, the camera surveys the reactions of the people inside the house one by one from the ceiling, gradually moves outside, and slowly ascends into the sky to once again take in a panoramic view of the entire village. This sequence, which is the reverse of the opening scene, can be interpreted as a visualization of Lester’s spirit departing. Furthermore, in Lester’s narration early in the film, he states that he will die within a year and that his life is no different from death. In that sense, to borrow the words of Kang Dae-jin, author of ‘Myth and Film’, this film is a “ghost movie”—that is, a retrospective account by the dead.
‘American Beauty’, which brings to light the bitter realities unfolding within an American middle-class family enjoying a level of prosperity unseen in recent times due to the economic effects of Reaganism and Clintonism, does not merely stop at an ironic perspective; it aestheticizes the film with a style that seems to affirm reality while simultaneously transcending it. In other words, it comes across as an intellectual and ethical film that affirms universal American values while maintaining a cool-headed perspective in its observation of reality.
Set against the backdrop of the American middle-class suburbs, this film depicts the collapse of the American family system and, along with “Ice Storm”—which dealt with American families in the 1970s—effectively reflects the reality of the 1990s. The forms of American families depicted in this film center primarily on the nuclear family, with both heterosexual and same-sex families appearing simultaneously.
The heterosexual nuclear family at the heart of the film is that of Lester and Frank; outwardly, they are an extremely ordinary middle-class nuclear family. These families—composed of a husband, wife, and children, and seemingly having it all—are, upon closer inspection, rotten to the core. Looking first at the heads of the households, Lester is portrayed as an incompetent and despicable office worker and a listless husband. The only source of vitality in his life emerges when he begins to lust after his daughter’s friend, Angela. Frank’s situation is no better. As evident from his habit of always referring to himself as a Marine colonel, he thrives on being controlled by strict discipline. To ensure his son grows up in accordance with this discipline, he does not hesitate to resort to violent, military-style methods. Although he detests homosexuals with a passion, it is ultimately revealed that he himself is gay. These two characters epitomize the decline of patriarchal authority and the traditional male ideal.
The women in the film are also both satirical and tragic. The myth of the “successful woman” championed by liberal feminism manifests in Caroline’s obsession with her business and her self-abuse, and is ultimately resolved through her identification with a successful real estate tycoon via a sexual relationship. In contrast, Ricky’s mother loses her soul and her voice under the yoke of her violent, macho husband, degenerating into a passive and desolate being. By subverting the American myths of the successful career woman and the elegant housewife, these women project their current realities—realities in which they can never be happy.

Plot Summary

The film begins with a scene in which Jane, Lester Burnham’s daughter, declares that she wants a respectable father and asks him to get rid of the sleazy fathers who are eyeing her friends. This opening scene not only delivers a slight shock to the audience but also hints at the direction the film will take.
This is followed by a voiceover from Lester (played by Kevin Spacey). The only highlight of his day is masturbating in the morning shower. After that, it’s all downhill—a listless life where something is missing.
Both his wife and his only daughter view him as a pathetic loser, and at work, he’s on the verge of being fired after taking the blame for his boss’s mistakes. Although his marriage to his wife once had its happy moments, it’s now nothing more than a show—like “an advertisement that looks impressive on the outside but is hollow on the inside.” Then one day, while accompanying his wife to watch his daughter’s basketball cheerleading performance, he falls head over heels for his daughter’s blonde friend, Angela (played by Mina Subari). From that moment on, his life takes a 180-degree turn. He boldly quits his job and, by exploiting his boss’s weakness, secures a hefty severance package. Working part-time at a fast-food restaurant, he returns to the person he was in his youth. He smokes marijuana, listens to hard-hitting rock music, and even buys a sports car. Of course, he works out to stay in shape. And he starts yelling back at his wife whenever she nags him.
His wife, Carolyn (played by Annette Bening), is a real estate agent. Her desire for success is so strong that when she fails to sell a house, she slaps herself in the face to pull herself together; she has become so pragmatic that she even rejects her husband’s romantic advances for fear of spilling beer on a $4,000 sofa. While Lester was infatuated with Angela, she had an affair with Buddy, a successful real estate agent. However, by chance, her husband catches her in the act, and to relieve the stress, Carolyn begins taking shooting lessons. Eventually, she resolves to kill her husband with a handgun.
Lester’s daughter Jane (played by Dora Birch) is deeply annoyed by her father’s constant harassment of her friend Angela. She even asks her boyfriend Ricky to kill her father. But she soon clarifies that it was just a joke. In any case, to her, both her currently listless or sleazy father and her materialistic mother are nothing but pathetic figures.
Lester’s neighbors also have their own peculiar quirks. On one side lives a gay couple, and on the other is the Frank family, who harbor a deep hatred for homosexuals. Frank (played by Chris Cooper) introduces himself as a Marine colonel every time he meets someone and enforces strict discipline within his household. He makes his son take urine tests every six months to ensure he isn’t using drugs, and later, mistaking his son for a gay man, he ends up kicking him out of the house. In this household, his wife always appears weak and listless. However, he is a Nazi sympathizer, and it is eventually revealed that he was gay himself.
Ricky (played by Wes Bentley) is Frank’s son. While working under a cover to hide from his father’s scrutiny, he actually makes money by selling drugs. Yet he appreciates the beauty in the little things. That’s precisely why he’s always capturing the world around him on his camcorder. Lester’s daughter, Jane, falls in love with Ricky. And on the night Frank kicks Ricky out, the two decide to leave for New York.
One night when the rain was pouring down in torrents—the very night Frank had kicked Ricky out after mistaking him for gay—Frank goes to see Lester to confess his feelings, but Lester, who isn’t gay, sends Frank away and returns to the living room with a heavy heart. Meanwhile, Angela, who had been visiting Lester’s house, felt left out by Jane and Ricky as they made plans to leave and head to New York. She left Jane’s room, went down to the living room, and sat there feeling dejected. As Angela and Lester’s relationship began to develop in earnest, just as the two were about to become physically intimate, Angela confessed that this would be her first time. Although she had pretended to be glamorous and surrounded by countless men, in reality, it had all been nothing more than bragging to show off. In that moment, Lester comes to his senses and decides against having a relationship with Angela. He then looks at a family photo and, for the first time in a long while, loses himself in happy thoughts. But this lasts only briefly; Lester is shot by Frank and dies. It seems this was an attempt to bury the shame he felt over his earlier actions. The film concludes with Lester’s voiceover as he reflects on his simple life.

“American Beauty” and the Lonely Modern Individual: A Perspective Through Propp’s Folklore Structure

In some respects, the film “American Beauty” can be viewed as a coming-of-age story for an adult named Lester. This is because Lester, who had been living a listless and meaningless life, comes to realize the true meaning of his family and life—and ultimately finds happiness—through the process of meeting Angela and making relentless efforts to win her heart. Through a certain incident involving Angela, he matures significantly in his outlook on life. Therefore, we can apply Propp’s three-act structure—“Separation—Initiation—Return”—to this film as well.
Lester lives his daily life feeling a sense of lack, which leads those around him to label him a loser. His listless life begins to change when his wife takes him to watch their daughter’s cheerleading performance. It is precisely there that he meets Angela. Because of Angela, his once-dull daily routine undergoes a 180-degree transformation. This is the moment of “separation”—the departure from the ordinary world of daily life into a new world. At the same time, his efforts to win Angela’s heart—returning to his younger self and engaging in activities like smoking marijuana, listening to intense rock music, and working out—can be seen as new experiences he undergoes as he “enters” a different world.
At the climactic moment when Lester’s series of efforts finally bear fruit, Angela confesses to him that she has never had sex before. Upon hearing this confession, Lester gives up his desire to have a sexual relationship with her and “returns” to the world of everyday life. However, he holds a treasure in his hands to share with us: the realization of the importance of family and where true beauty lies. Unfortunately, as soon as Lester returns to the everyday world with this treasure, he is shot and killed by Frank. The process by which the spoils he brought are conveyed to this world is conveyed through the narration of Lester’s soul.
Based on this plot, if we analyze the characters, Lester is naturally the protagonist. Furthermore, the messenger—the character who serves as a conduit for important figures—can be identified as his wife, Carolyn, or his daughter, Jane. This is because he was dragged by his wife against his will to see his daughter Jane’s performance, where he met Angela.
The villain—the figure the protagonist must confront—is not revealed as a specific individual. At first glance, one might think of his boss at work or “Buddy,” the man with whom his wife, Caroline, had an affair; however, these figures are far removed from the true object of his struggle. Here, it can be seen that he is simply fighting against his own former self—weak and listless—in order to impress Angela.
In this process, the “false protagonist”—the character who was thought to be a good person but turned out to be the villain—is Frank. While he cannot exactly be singled out as a “good” character, he was initially perceived as someone who emphasized strict discipline; however, it turns out he was a Nazi sympathizer, and in the end, he even goes so far as to murder Lester to erase the shame of his homosexuality being revealed.
Now, of the seven characters Prof mentioned, only two remain: the Provider and the Helper. There is no character in this film who provides the protagonist with information, wisdom, or assistance on his adventure—no one offers such help to Lester. Perhaps this is a tragedy that applies to all modern people living in today’s society. Although countless people live in close proximity to one another, their relationships are merely superficial; each person carries a sense of loneliness, isolation, or solitude in a corner of their heart.
The same is true for Lester. Despite his lethargic daily routine, no one reaches out to him. Nor is there anyone who offers him valuable information or wisdom to help him break free from that lethargic existence. In the end, the only thing that brought any vitality to his listless daily life was making a pass at his daughter’s friend. He must solve everything and overcome every obstacle on his own. While Ricky seems somewhat cooperative, the only “help” he offers Lester is selling drugs that cloud his mind. Could the absence of any allies or helpers in the film be a device designed to illustrate the tragedy of modern people living in the world while burdened by loneliness?
Near the very end of the film, there’s a scene where Lester gives up on having sex with Angela and sits across from her at a table to talk about his daughter Jane, when Angela suddenly asks, “How are you doing?” Lester replies that it’s been a very long time since anyone asked him that. This is a deeply significant moment, because up until that point, not a single person—not even his family—had ever sincerely asked Lester, “How are you?” As Lester sits at the dinner table with his wife and daughter, recounting his day, his words amount to nothing more than a hollow monologue that goes almost entirely unheard. This serves as yet another device illustrating Lester’s isolated position in the world.

Anti-fairy-tale Elements and the Relentless Cruelty of a Reality Where Redemption Is Forbidden

The German word “Märchen” translates to “fairy tale” in Korean.
The German author Franz Kafka’s novella ‘The Metamorphosis’ tells the story of a family patriarch who transforms into a hideous insect overnight and his remaining family members. When Gregor, the breadwinner, turns into an insect and can no longer earn money or be of any use to them, his family begins to mistreat him. The family’s dissatisfaction with the head of the household gradually reaches a fever pitch. Then, when Gregor dies, the family is actually lulled into a sense of peace as they discuss their future.
The narrative structure of the novel ‘The Metamorphosis’ bears a striking resemblance to the film ‘American Beauty’. First, in the opening scene of the novel ‘The Metamorphosis’, the protagonist, Gregor, wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a bug overnight for no apparent reason. This is when his family’s harassment begins. The film ‘American Beauty’ also opens with a scene of the protagonist, Lester, waking up in bed.

He is in a state of profound helplessness, even going so far as to say that he might as well be dead. Although he is alive and appears to be a normal human being, he is, in reality, not much different from the bug in the novel.
The protagonist’s transformation into a bug in the novel follows the “metamorphosis” structure commonly found in fairy tales. In fairy tales, the protagonist’s transformation occurs without any particular reason. For example, in the story of the prince turned into a frog, no specific reason is given as to why the witch turned him into a frog. It just happened suddenly one day. Similarly, the movie offers no explanation as to when or why Lester became such a listless loser.
However, in ‘The Frog Prince’, the frog is rescued by the princess, and they live happily ever after. In fact, almost every fairy tale ends with a “happy ending.” Thus, fairy tales follow the typical structure of “oppression—rescue—happiness.” In traditional fairy tales, the transformed protagonist solves the challenges assigned to them as the story unfolds, returns to human form, and achieves a happy ending.
Is this possible in real life? First, in the novel ‘The Metamorphosis’, Gregor ultimately dies as a bug after enduring all kinds of persecution from his family. This ending is the exact opposite of the protagonist being rescued in a fairy tale. Therefore, ‘The Metamorphosis’ contains anti-fairy-tale elements.
Similarly, these anti-fairy-tale elements appear in the movie ‘American Beauty’. The protagonist, who could not escape a state of being alive yet dead, seemed to realize the value of family and find happiness—and just when it seemed he might be saved from the brink of death—he ultimately meets his end. To borrow Propp’s three-act structure, this is a case where the protagonist, who was returning from a supernatural world or a world distinct from everyday life to the ordinary world, fails to return and instead meets his death.
And this is precisely how reality plays out. A prince transformed into a frog, trapped in a dark, desolate thicket where no one ever comes, is far more likely to live out his entire lifespan as a frog without ever meeting the princess. In the story of Little Red Riding Hood, it is a remarkable coincidence that the hunter happened to pass by the house at the very moment the grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood were being devoured by the wolf. In reality, it’s far more likely that they would simply be devoured and that would be the end of it in a secluded forest where even a wolf might wander.
When I watched the movie back in 2000, even though I took away a heartwarming lesson about the importance of a simple life, I still felt a sense of dread. This stemmed from a subconscious realization that the real world does not so easily grant “salvation” to the oppressed.

In Conclusion

Through the sight of plastic bags fluttering in the wind and Lester’s final monologue, the film beautifully captured the beauty found in simplicity, which served as a heartwarming and moving element. However, if it had stopped there, it would have remained nothing more than a largely unrealistic fairy tale ending with “And they all lived happily ever after.”
So director Sam Mendes delved one step further into reality. By removing the protagonist’s helpers and benefactors from the coming-of-age narrative, and by incorporating anti-fairy-tale elements into the story structure, he sharply depicted the harsh realities of society.
Through this film, the director conveys that modern people are isolated due to superficial relationships with one another, leading them to feel intense loneliness, and that we are living in a tragic era where even family offers little solace for these problems. He also suggests that while true beauty can be found in even the smallest things all around us in this world, society is so harsh that it doesn’t even grant us the time to leisurely savor it.
“American Beauty” captures the coldness of this world and the warmth hidden beneath it, weaving them together with the dreamlike atmosphere of Elliott Smith’s “Because.” I believe this is precisely what makes the film so compelling.