american beauty analysis essay

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American Beauty at 20: is the Oscar-winning hit worth a closer look?

In the years since its release, critics have turned against 1999’s Oscar-winning suburban satire but it remains a telling snapshot of the time

I was 16 when I first saw American Beauty; it was the ideal age for it, though I didn’t know it then. In my last year of high school, with the adult world beckoning but largely unexplored, Sam Mendes and Alan Ball’s tart, neat diorama of suburban discord seemed excitingly grown-up, a lucid, witty articulation of all my most cynical teenage suppositions about my elders: that they were tortured and miserable and a bit pathetic, though with enough money and sex drive to make their ennui soapily intriguing.

I certainly didn’t want to grow up into Lester Burnham, the film’s skeevily loosened white-collar hero: though the film was sympathetic to his midlife crisis, complete with a sports car, an indifferently lost job and an infatuation with his teenage daughter’s schoolmate, it wasn’t so tin-eared as to deem him cool. Nor could I admire any of the variously uptight adults in his orbit, from his prissy, materialistic realtor wife to his tersely closeted nextdoor neighbor.

Still, I suppose I hoped to be a bit like American Beauty itself: quick and quippy and a bit poetic, nasty-smart and slickly good-looking. To that end, I watched the film several times that year, repeatedly read and practically memorised the screenplay that came as a free tie-in to an issue of Sight & Sound, and used it as a primary reference in a precocious English essay about white male irrelevance that, come to think of it, may have been more 2019 than 1999. “Look closer,” the poster instructed. I’m not sure I did, though I certainly thought about a lot. It was, for better or worse, a formative film.

I wasn’t alone, of course. Many people far older than me formed a similar attachment to the film’s glib, elegant, philosophically underscored comedy, not least the collective members of the Academy, who handed it five Oscars, including best picture, director and actor – the second for Kevin Spacey , and the one prize for the film that voters would probably soonest take back, given what we now know of his own lecherous middle-aged proclivities. It was a year, moreover, when the Academy was led by critics to their eventual choice. The film sailed on a current of breathless rave reviews from its debut at the Toronto film festival – a more unusual place to launch a major awards contender, back when major studio productions still dominated the race, though its success there set a new model for prestige autumn films with golden ambitions.

It’s easy to forget that American Beauty was seen as such an unusually fresh, fashionable Oscar victor by the end of the 90s. In a decade dominated by burnished period spectacle, it was the first contemporary-set best picture winner since The Silence of the Lambs eight years before; its win was seen as a triumph for riskier, more sensuous American cinema. A year after Harvey Weinstein famously strategised a seven-Oscar sweep for the dainty comforts of Shakespeare in Love over DreamWorks’ robust frontrunner Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty marked the latter studio’s revenge: its relative edginess handily trounced its main opponent (and Weinstein’s favored contender), Lasse Hallström’s wet, weedy literary adaptation The Cider House Rules. It seemed, for a time, that the Academy had anointed a new American classic.

Yet the pushback against American Beauty in the intervening two decades has been swift and merciless – taking root well before Spacey’s personal and professional downfall, though that certainly hasn’t helped. Ask film critics of various ages about it now and you will tend to meet with a uniform sneer, along with a blanket dismissal of its cheap-shot picket-fence satire, its broad characterisation, its purportedly misogynistic view of career women, or its awestruck command of metaphor as flimsy and floaty as, well, a plastic bag dancing in the breeze.

You might hear grudging acknowledgement of its formal artistry, including the satin tactility of the late Conrad L Hall’s cinematography, or the eerie, echo-y, endlessly imitated percussion of Thomas Newman’s once-ubiquitous score. But that, too, is tempered with dismissiveness toward its makers. Theatre maestro Mendes never had quite the directorial career expected of him after American Beauty, as every one of his subsequent dramatic films (from Road to Perdition to the indie misfire Away We Go) registered as something of a handsome, impersonal disappointment, until he found his groove as part of the James Bond machine in Skyfall. Ball, meanwhile, somewhat undermined his breakout script by returning to its dysfunctional family themes to far richer, more exploratory, more tonally complex effect in Six Feet Under for cable TV – the place, some have argued, where American Beauty’s warped sitcom premise belonged to begin with.

Not helping its case was that 1999 came to be canonised by critics as a modern landmark year in American cinema, yielding a bounty of innovative, influential milestone works both in the multiplex and indie spheres: from The Matrix to Magnolia, The Sixth Sense to Being John Malkovich, Eyes Wide Shut to Election, Fight Club to The Talented Mr Ripley. (The latter, of course, was the jewel in Weinstein’s crown that year; of course he set it aside for The Cider House Rules when it came to awards campaigning.) Critical consensus now has Michael Mann’s controlled, sinewy, morally shaded media study The Insider (seven nominations, zero wins) as the film most wronged by American Beauty’s Oscar haul.

2019 has seen a barrage of cinephile retrospectives of that extraordinary vintage, most them going out of their way to mention Mendes and Ball’s film as cursorily as possible, if at all. The critics of The Ringer listed at number 26 in their 50 Best Films of 1999 countdown, a placement that seems more generous than their sniffy assessment: “Even at the time it felt a subpar representative for such an inventive year … [but it] has made an indelible mark on pop culture.” With praise that faint, you can count on even that supposedly indelible mark washing out at some point.

And yet, with all this revisionist perspective in my head, I popped in American Beauty recently to find it oddly, sinuously bewitching still. Dated, yes, but that’s a double-edged sword: it turns out to be an exquisitely presented time capsule, a snapshot of middle-class, notionally liberal white society entering a spasm of panic at the turn of both the century and the Clinton era. Its satire isn’t sophisticated, but it’s pointed, identifiable, and still often cuttingly funny, emblematic of a tone of withering pre-millennial snark that has since been earnestly outmoded, and not for the wittier.

It was never intended as straightforward drama, but as garish suburban burlesque: a distorted funhouse mirror reflection of America already at its ugliest, with its performances and petal-strewn visuals expertly heightened to match. By that token, it works a charm: view Spacey’s brilliantly icky-droll performance not as an exercise in misplaced heroism, but as a grim, complicit prophet of an even more dishonest, self-serving era of American patriarchy to come. Spacey’s uncovered private life makes the joke a bit sicker, admittedly, but damn if he isn’t pitch perfect in this.

There are, of course, false notes aplenty, ones more critics ought to have spotted even then: Annette Bening’s unhinged virtuosity only goes so far towards concealing what an ungenerous, ill-thought con the character of Carolyn Burnham is, not so much an empty woman as an empty construct. The teenage characters are all emo and no real emotion, vessels for the film’s sweetest but thinnest stabs at profundity. (American Beauty is a film that feels most authentic when it’s least sincere.) And that script I loved so much, for all its smart, savoury dialogue, is built on diagrammatic ironies – the homophobic military man’s a closet case, the self-styled slutty girl’s a virgin – that all ring a bit screenwriting 101, whatever truths are embedded within.

And yet, and yet. I remain deeply, melancholically affected by American Beauty – partly, of course, because it reflects gently back to me the unformed, uncertain child I was when I first saw it. But it also moves me on its own terms and merits, its own sly critique of a fragile milieu, its own pristinely art-directed yin-yang of sadness and sarcasm, its own vulnerable but defensively lacquered performances. Hell, I still think all the rose petal business is woozily beautiful. Twenty years on, American Beauty isn’t as clever as we thought it was, though it’s inadvertently aged into a kind of wounded, embattled wisdom. Perhaps it’s worth looking closer.

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"American Beauty" is a comedy because we laugh at the absurdity of the hero's problems. And a tragedy because we can identify with his failure--not the specific details, but the general outline.

The movie is about a man who fears growing older, losing the hope of true love and not being respected by those who know him best. If you never experience those feelings, take out a classified ad. People want to take lessons from you.

Lester Burnham, the hero of "American Beauty," is played by Kevin Spacey as a man who is unloved by his daughter, ignored by his wife and unnecessary at work. "I'll be dead in a year," he tells us in almost the first words of the movie. "In a way, I'm dead already." The movie is the story of his rebellion.

We meet his wife, Carolyn ( Annette Bening ), so perfect her garden shears are coordinated with her footwear. We meet his daughter Jane ( Thora Birch ), who is saving up for breast implants even though augmentation is clearly unnecessary; perhaps her motivation is not to become more desirable to men, but to make them miserable about what they can't have.

"Both my wife and daughter think I'm this chronic loser," Lester complains. He is right. But they are not without their reasons. At an agonizing family dinner, Carolyn plays Mantovanian music that mocks every mouthful; the music is lush and reassuring, and the family is angry and silent. When Lester criticizes his daughter's attitude, she points out correctly that he has hardly spoken to her in months.

Everything changes for Lester the night he is dragged along by his wife to see their daughter perform as a cheerleader. There on the floor, engrossed in a sub-Fosse pompon routine, he sees his angel: Angela ( Mena Suvari ), his daughter's high-school classmate. Is it wrong for a man in his 40s to lust after a teenage girl? Any honest man understands what a complicated question this is. Wrong morally, certainly, and legally. But as every woman knows, men are born with wiring that goes directly from their eyes to their genitals, bypassing the higher centers of thought. They can disapprove of their thoughts, but they cannot stop themselves from having them.

"American Beauty" is not about a Lolita relationship, anyway. It's about yearning after youth, respect, power and, of course, beauty. The moment a man stops dreaming is the moment he petrifies inside and starts writing snarfy letters disapproving of paragraphs like the one above. Lester's thoughts about Angela are impure, but not perverted; he wants to do what men are programmed to do, with the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.

Angela is not Lester's highway to bliss, but she is at least a catalyst for his freedom. His thoughts, and the discontent they engender, blast him free from years of emotional paralysis, and soon he makes a cheerful announcement at the funereal dinner table: "I quit my job, told my boss to - - - - himself and blackmailed him for $60,000." Has he lost his mind? Not at all. The first thing he spends money on is perfectly reasonable: a bright red 1970 Pontiac Firebird.

Carolyn and Jane are going through their own romantic troubles. Lester finds out Carolyn is cheating when he sees her with her lover in the drive-through lane of a fast-food restaurant (where he has a job he likes). Jane is being videotaped by Ricky ( Wes Bentley ), the boy next door, who has a strange light in his eyes. Ricky's dad ( Chris Cooper ) is a former Marine who tests him for drugs, taking a urine sample every six months; Ricky plays along to keep the peace until he can leave home.

All of these emotional threads come together during one dark and stormy night, when there is a series of misunderstandings so bizarre they belong in a screwball comedy. And at the end, somehow, improbably, the film snatches victory from the jaws of defeat for Lester, its hero. Not the kind of victory you'd get in a feel-good movie, but the kind where you prove something important, if only to yourself.

"American Beauty" is not as dark or twisted as " Happiness ," last year's attempt to shine a light under the rock of American society. It's more about sadness and loneliness than about cruelty or inhumanity. Nobody is really bad in this movie, just shaped by society in such a way they can't be themselves, or feel joy.

The performances all walk the line between parody and simple realism; Thora Birch and Wes Bentley are the most grounded, talking in the tense, flat voices of kids who can't wait to escape their homes. Bening's character, a real estate agent who chants self-help mantras, confuses happiness with success--bad enough if you're successful, depressing if you're not.

And Spacey, an actor who embodies intelligence in his eyes and voice, is the right choice for Lester Burnham. He does reckless and foolish things in this movie, but he doesn't deceive himself; he knows he's running wild--and chooses to, burning up the future years of an empty lifetime for a few flashes of freedom. He may have lost everything by the end of the film, but he's no longer a loser.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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American Beauty (1999)

Rated R For Strong Sexuality, Language, Violence and Drug Content

120 minutes

Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham

Mena Suvari as Angela Hayes

Chris Cooper as Colonel Fitts

Annette Bening as Carolyn Burnham

Thora Birch as Jane Burnham

Wes Bentley as Ricky Fitts

Directed by

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In What Ways Did the Movie “American Beauty” Portray the Typical Family Values? Report

The movie showed some typical American family values. “A passing comment reminds viewers that life is more than the possessions”. Through the death of “Lester”, the movie shows that death is what a man deserves for being bad in his life. His neighbor’s son, “Ricky”, was nearly the only character that showed the typical suburban family values. He always uses a video camera to film scenes. He tries to see the beauty in everything he sees around him. But mostly, the movie doesn’t portray American family values (“Beauty”). What is bad about this movie include:

• “Sexual Content”: Lester was sexually obsessed with his daughter’s friend, “Angela”. There are scenes of Lester’s fantasies of her. Those scenes include partial nudity and a sexual encounter that was about to occur. “Carolyn” cheats on her husband, Lester. She and her lover, “Buddy Kane”, reserve a room in a motel, and a sexual scene take place there. The scene contains some nudity. Lester’s daughter, “Jane”, also had her sexual affair with Ricky. She even uses his video camera to make a videotape of his nude body. She gets nude regularly by her room’s window so that Ricky can watch her from his room. Also, many dialogues in the movie contain candid sexual meanings (“Beauty”).
• “Violent Content”: “Colonel Fitts” physically abuses his son, Ricky. Lester shows extreme rage at home. And most notably, Lester kills himself with a gun (“Beauty”).
• “Crude or Profane Language”: The “f-word” and the “s-word” are used many times during the movie. The crude language consists primarily of insults that have sexual meanings. Also, “Christ’s name is also abused” (“Beauty”).
• “Drug and Alcohol Content”: Although Ricky’s character doesn’t show too much evil like other characters, it turns out that he deals with drugs. He even sells some of his stuff to Lester (“Beauty”).

The Psychological Evolution of Lester’s Character

Lester is an unhappy man who feels like he doesn’t get enough attention from his boring wife, Carolyn, and his disobeying daughter, Jane. He sees no beauty in his life. Suddenly, he starts to find what he considers the missing beauty in his life after he sees Jane’s friend, Angela (Greydanus).

After that, he decides to turn his life upside down and live according to his own decisions. He tries to make his body shape better by exercising to grab Angela’s attention. He “quits his job and blackmails his boss for a year’s pay. Then he buys himself a spiffy 1970 Firebird, and gets a job at a fast-food joint”. But pressure keeps going strong on him. After that, he decides to end his miserable life by killing himself (Greydanus).

The Lifestyle of Characters and the Pressure That It Creates on Their Sexual Life

• Lester: He is a typical man from a “middle-class” family. It’s not expected from someone like him to have an affair with a teenager (Greydanus).
• Ricky: A tight relationship connects him and Lester because they are neighbors and because Ricky sells drugs to Lester. This creates pressure on Ricky’s relationship with Jane because she is Lester’s daughter (Greydanus).
• Colonel Fitt: He is an “ex-Marine”. The nature of such a tough job creates pressure on his homosexuality (Greydanus).
• Carolyn: She is Lester’s wife and Jane’s mother. She cannot do anything but hide her secret relationship with her business partner, Buddy Kane (Greydanus).

Works Cited

“American Beauty.” Plugged in Online . 2009. Web.

Greydanus, Steven D. “American Beauty (1999).” Decent Films Guide . 2009. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2021, November 17). In What Ways Did the Movie “American Beauty” Portray the Typical Family Values? https://ivypanda.com/essays/in-what-ways-did-the-movie-american-beauty-portray-the-typical-family-values/

"In What Ways Did the Movie “American Beauty” Portray the Typical Family Values?" IvyPanda , 17 Nov. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/in-what-ways-did-the-movie-american-beauty-portray-the-typical-family-values/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'In What Ways Did the Movie “American Beauty” Portray the Typical Family Values'. 17 November.

IvyPanda . 2021. "In What Ways Did the Movie “American Beauty” Portray the Typical Family Values?" November 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/in-what-ways-did-the-movie-american-beauty-portray-the-typical-family-values/.

1. IvyPanda . "In What Ways Did the Movie “American Beauty” Portray the Typical Family Values?" November 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/in-what-ways-did-the-movie-american-beauty-portray-the-typical-family-values/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "In What Ways Did the Movie “American Beauty” Portray the Typical Family Values?" November 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/in-what-ways-did-the-movie-american-beauty-portray-the-typical-family-values/.

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Ideological Analysis of American Beauty

In this paper I am having a closer look at the movie American Beauty (1999) and how it challenges the ideology of the American dream.

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Charlie Redif

2 ABSTRACT This essay is an insight into how society affects the characters in the film “American beauty”. This report explores the question from an array of many different viewpoints. The American dream has an effect on the characters in the film leading them into false hopes and loss of identity. The characters dreams and desires they possess are not there own but manufactured for them by society and all follow society’s rules and dictates, which shape and control the lives they live. It will explore how the repression effects the characters mainly Lester and explains why his obsession for Angela is a representation of how the media has shaped our views and ideals. It delves deeper into exploring the statement that to what the characters see in the film, “Nothing is quite what it seems and we live in a society

Chelsea Oden

The most transformative moments in life cause us to look both backward (reflection) and inward (introspection). Likewise, reflective and introspective moments in film often align with important plot points. Separating music and dialogue from the rhythms of the image, these moments suspend time, creating a distinct temporality for the character(s) and the viewer to observe the past and the present in juxtaposition. The music of film composer Thomas Newman brings to life some of the most beautiful reflective and introspective moments in cinema. In this thesis, I approach Newman’s understudied, but highly successful film scores from narrative, musical, and audiovisual perspectives. Recognizing time as a linear common denominator between the multimedia elements of film, I examine case study scenes in Little Women (1994), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and American Beauty (1999). Additionally, I present Kofi Agawu’s method of generative analysis as a tool well-suited to Newman’s unique harmonic language.

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This essay examines several theories about artistic creativity, as well as the practical means by which to teach or enhance aesthetic ingenuity in film students.

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Louis-Paul Willis

In today’s highly sexualized visual culture, the young girl as object of desire has become ubiquitous, resulting in a decidedly questionable and problematic fantasy of femininity. In this context, the following paper aims to question the fantasy of girlhood as it is conveyed by certain contemporary popular films, while at the same time approaching the topic from the perspective of contemporary Lacanian film studies. As such, focus is drawn on the theoretical standpoints offered by Slavoj Žižek, as well as by Joan Copjec, Elizabeth Cowie and Todd McGowan, all of whom approach film and its gaze not as a tool of objectification and mastery, but as an objet a. Fantasy is therefore presented as the veil that conceals a repressed desire that emerges through the perverted gaze implied by the young girl. Upon demonstrating the pertinence of present-day Lacanian film theory in the study of the aforementioned fantasy, an analysis of Sam Mendes’ American Beauty problematizes this very fantasy and its hidden, traumatic kernel. The ultimate aim is to determine how a certain cinema attempts to defy the mainstream ideology of sexualization by showing that which the symbolic cannot explain, namely the young girl as object of desire, and as a contemporary, inverted and perverted form of Oedipal fantasy. In so doing, it will be shown how this type of film demonstrates cinema’s potential in triggering reflections on complex social and cultural phenomena.

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Best Movies Essay Examples

American beauty movie analysis.

657 words | 3 page(s)

Introduction Throughline dictates the development of a movie and the actions of a character in the film. It helps the viewers in understanding the motivations behind roles undertaken by a character and how the plot builds as the story develops. The throughline is the super-objective of the main character in a film, small objectives making up ma scene often builds up to the super objective of the whole movie. This paper seeks to discuss the throughline in the movie “American Beauty.”

American Beauty In the movie “American Beauty,” the lead actor Kevin Spacey plays the part of an unhappy suburban family man Lester Burnham. Alluding from the movie’s headline, the characters in the movie are all stuck at trying to find the beauty in their life; the story revolved around the family of Lester Burnham and his struggle to live the American dream (Ball, 1999). The throughline in the film is in Lester’s desire to live a life of happiness as opposed to the current life of working with little appreciation. The opening scene in the movie sets the tone for the movie as Lester narrates the deteriorating family relationship, his family do not appreciate him as his daughter Jane thinks that he is a sad excuse for a father while his previously intimate relationship with wife Carolyn is no longer there (Ball, 1999). The situation is not different at work; he finds out that the company he has been working for 14 years has decided to lay off some of its employees and required him to write down what he contributes towards the betterment of the company to keep his position (Ball, 1999). His life has fallen to a constant repeat of misery; he quits his job in a bid to change his life to a happier one.

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To change the family, Lester and his wife go to their daughter’s basketball match where he meets Angela, Jane’s friend, and immediately becomes infatuated with her (Ball, 1999). He dreams about her in a bed of roses while sleeping with her wife, his desire for Angela and his super-objective to live a happier life coincide. After finding out that Angela thinks he would be sexier if he worked out he decides to start taking part in physical exercises. This shows Lester breaking out of the restrictions and the placid life he has been living as he tries to look for happiness. He buys marijuana from his next-door neighbours Ricky; whose life is the exact desire of the Lester (Ball, 1999). He realizes that the pursuit for material things has been the undoing of their life when he finds outs that his wife has been cheating on him, he is more happy than sad as it releases him from her yoke.

As the movie draws to a close, Angela and Lester flirt when she comes for a sleepover at his house, the object of his desire draws nearer. However, we are taken to his run-in with Ricky’s father Colonel Fitts who suspects that he is gay and has been trying to woe his son. The colonel kisses Lester who politely refuses his advances, his self-control and calm manner to which he reacts to the colonel shows that he has evolved through the movie and is close to realising the throughline (Ball, 1999). He is detached from the society’s expectation of him and lives life for his wellbeing.

Conclusion The ultimate realization of the throughline happens when he is about to consummate his lust for Angela, she tells him that she is a virgin. This changes his view of her and makes him look at her as a fellow human being and not just an object for his desire, his discussion with her after the incident brings him genuine happiness. However, when Angela walks from the room, he is murdered but only after realizing that he could be happy.

• Ball, A. (1999). American beauty: The shooting script. New York: Newmarket Press.

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American Beauty: an Inspiration to Try and Change Your Life

Analysis of lester burnham in the film american beauty, the false nature of the american dream in sam mendes’ movie american beauty, relevant topics.

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The Proliferation of Starbucks Across the United States: a Detailed Analysis

This essay about Starbucks explores its evolution from a small coffee shop in Seattle to a major cultural and economic force in America. It highlights how Starbucks has influenced coffee culture, consumer behavior, and social practices, while also addressing the criticisms related to environmental issues and business practices. The essay reflects on Starbucks’ broad appeal and its role as a symbol of lifestyle and community in the U.S.

How it works

In the rich mosaic of American coffee culture, Starbucks emerges as a vibrant highlight. From the energetic avenues of New York City to the tranquil neighborhoods of Oregon, Starbucks’ familiar green emblem serves as a magnet for coffee lovers throughout the nation. Yet, the rise of Starbucks from its modest beginnings to a global powerhouse is more than a story of growth—it represents a profound shift in cultural values, economic impact, and social evolution.

Picture yourself in 1971, at a quaint coffee bean shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

This small enterprise would soon evolve into a vast coffee empire, spreading over 15,000 outlets nationwide. Starbucks has become more than a place to buy coffee—it has grown into a cultural phenomenon, offering a space for productivity, social interaction, and the inviting aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

Starbucks’ distinction lies in more than just its coffee; it’s about the experience it offers. Entering a Starbucks, one is immediately wrapped in the comforting scent of coffee beans, the soft murmur of conversations, and the cozy ambiance created by stylish lighting. It provides a haven not just for travelers or students, but for anyone seeking a moment of peace.

Starbucks’ menu has grown to appeal to a broad audience, featuring everything from rich Frappuccinos to savory pastries. Seasonal offerings like the Pumpkin Spice Latte and the Peppermint Mocha have become cultural icons in their own right, signaling the arrival of holiday seasons and new traditions.

However, it’s not just the products that make Starbucks a powerhouse; it’s its branding. The iconic green mermaid logo symbolizes more than just coffee—it represents a standard of quality, a sense of belonging, and a distinct lifestyle. Starbucks transcends being a mere coffee shop; it’s a part of daily life and a marker of social identity.

Yet, success brings its own set of critiques. Some criticize Starbucks for its aggressive expansion and its impact on local cafes. Environmental concerns about waste and sustainability are also at the forefront of discussions, alongside debates about ethical labor practices in its supply chain.

Despite these issues, Starbucks has engaged in significant initiatives that reflect its commitment to community and environmental responsibility. Programs like the Starbucks College Achievement Plan highlight its focus on employee benefits, while its efforts in sustainable sourcing and energy conservation demonstrate its environmental commitment.

Ultimately, the narrative of Starbucks in America is a complex one, interwoven with successes and setbacks. It reflects the essence of innovation, the impact of strategic branding, and the changing preferences of consumers. Loved by many and criticized by some, Starbucks remains a pivotal element of American coffee culture, continually shaping and reflecting our society’s evolving tastes and values.

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Pop Culture

Miss usa and miss teen usa resign days apart, casting a spotlight on the organization.

Rachel Treisman

Miss Teen USA, UmaSofia Srivastava, left, and Miss USA, Noelia Voigt pictured at a New York Fashion Week event in February. They both announced their resignations this week. Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Supermodels Unlimited hide caption

Miss Teen USA, UmaSofia Srivastava, left, and Miss USA, Noelia Voigt pictured at a New York Fashion Week event in February. They both announced their resignations this week.

The 2023 Miss USA and Miss Teen USA relinquished their crowns within days of each other this week, leaving their parent organization without its two biggest titleholders — and under mounting scrutiny.

Their departures are the latest in a string of recent controversies at the Miss USA and Miss Universe organizations and have prompted a slew of state titleholders to publicly pressure the pageant for more transparency.

Miss USA Noelia Voigt announced her resignation in an Instagram post on Monday, citing "the importance of making decisions that feel best for you and your mental health."

A Thai media mogul and transgender activist has bought the Miss Universe competition

The 24-year-old became the first Venezuelan-American woman to win Miss USA in September 2023, representing Utah. In her resignation statement, she expressed her gratitude for the connections and platform from over seven years of competing in pageants and urged others to "never compromise your physical and mental well-being."

"Deep down I know that this is just the beginning of a new chapter for me, and my hope is that I continue to inspire others to remain steadfast, prioritize your mental health, advocate for yourself and others by using your voice, and never be afraid of what the future holds, even if it feels uncertain," Voigt wrote.

Eagle-eyed followers noted in the comments section that the first letters of the first 11 sentences of her statement spell out "I AM SILENCED" (the remaining three spell "HIP").

Concerns and criticisms compounded in the days that followed, especially after Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava, 17, announced her resignation in a similarly-formatted Instagram post on Wednesday.

Srivastava, of New Jersey, was also crowned in September 2023 — and said her resignation comes after "months of grappling with this decision."

The Picture Show

At this international pageant, trans women around the world blend beauty and activism.

"I will always look back on my time as Miss NJ Teen USA fondly, and the experience of representing my state as a first generation, Mexican-Indian American at the national level was fulfilling in itself," she wrote. "After careful consideration, I've decided to resign as I find that my personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization."

She didn't elaborate, but added to the intrigue by opening her statement with this quote attributed to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: "There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth."

Srivastava said she looks forward to finishing 11th grade and applying to college, as well as continuing her collaborations with education- and literacy-focused nonprofits and promoting her multilingual children's book about acceptance, calling that work "my TRUE purpose."

Cheslie Kryst, former Miss USA, has died at age 30

Voigt was among the many people to leave positive comments on her post, writing in part, "So proud of you my angel."

The organization has not responded to NPR's requests for comment.

But the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Instagram accounts each acknowledged their titleholders' departures, in near-identical posts, thanking them for their service and wishing them the best.

"The well-being of our titleholders is a top priority, and we understand her need to prioritize herself at this time," wrote the Miss USA account of Voigt. "We are currently reviewing plans for the transition of responsibilities to a successor, and we will soon announce the crowning of the new Miss USA."

The 2024 edition of the Miss USA pageant is scheduled to take place in early August.

A Miss USA employee had resigned days earlier, slamming "workplace toxicity"

Voigt and Srivastava aren't the only recent departures from Miss USA.

Former social media director Claudia Michelle first announced her resignation over the weekend, in an Instagram post that accused the organization of mistreating all three of them.

"Being offered your dream job and seeing that it was anything but is so disheartening," wrote Michelle.

Michelle said she felt compelled to speak out because "this is a women's empowerment organization," noting she had not signed an NDA.

She said she wasn't allowed to bring anyone else onto her social media team of one — something "absolutely necessary" for a "brand of this caliber" — and that she worked without financial compensation for her first two months on the job.

She went on to say that she witnessed "a decline in [Voigt's] mental health since we first met" and "the disrespect toward [Srivastava] and her family," opining that the teen titleholder didn't get enough attention on social media.

Beauty Pageant Economics: The Sash Isn't Cheap

"I've first hand seen Noelia and Uma be unable to share about their personal advocacies on social media and be threatened by [Miss Universe Organization] 'social media rules and guidelines' that I still have yet to see," Michelle wrote. "I feel the way current management speaks about their titleholders is unprofessional and inappropriate; I disavow workplace toxicity and bullying of any kind."

The organization told USA Today in a statement that it is "troubled to hear the false accusations made by a former Miss USA employee."

"Miss USA is committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment, and we take these allegations seriously," it added. "Indeed, we have and will continue to prioritize the well-being of all individuals involved with Miss USA."

After a rocky few years, titleholders are calling for "full transparency" from the organization

The Miss USA Organization has had a turbulent few years, as Business Insider reported.

In early 2022, Cheslie Kryst , the 2019 Miss USA winner, died by suicide. Later that fall, days after R'Bonney Gabriel was crowned Miss USA, other contestants publicly accused organizers of rigging the competition in her favor.

The Miss Universe Organization responded by suspending Miss USA President Crystle Stewart and launching a third-party investigation into the allegations.

Around that time, news emerged that Stewart's husband, Max Sebrechts, had stepped down from his role as Miss USA vice president earlier that year after multiple 2021 pageant contestants accused him of sexual harassment.

In January 2023, Gabriel won the Miss Universe title, becoming the first American to do so in a decade and relinquishing her Miss USA crown to runner-up Morgan Romero of North Carolina.

The new Miss USA is Elle Smith, a local TV reporter from Kentucky

In August, the Miss Universe Organization said the investigation had found the allegations of rigging to be false, but was parting ways with Stewart nonetheless. Current Miss USA President and CEO Laylah Rose was announced as her replacement that same day.

Critiques of Miss USA resurfaced since the titleholders' resignations this week.

Several 2023 state titleholders have shared a joint statement on social media, saying the majority of the Miss USA class of 2023 supports Voigt's decision to resign and asking the Miss USA Organization to release her from the confidentiality clause of her contract in perpetuity "so that she is free to speak on her experiences and time as Miss USA."

The statement, which began circulating on Wednesday, requests a response within 24 hours.

"Our goal is to give Noelia her voice back," they wrote. "We are asking for full transparency for contestants in the class of 2024 and beyond."

• beauty pageant
• workplace culture
• Resignation

American Beauty

By sam mendes, american beauty summary and analysis of scene 1 ("the high point of my day") through scene 4 ("the gym").

The movie opens with a grainy shot of Jane Burnham reclining on a bed, complaining about her father. An unseen boy (presumably the camera operator) asks her if she wants him to kill her father, to which she replies, "yeah. Would you?" The opening credits roll, and the shot switches to an aerial view of a neighborhood. As we fly over suburban America, Lester Burnham begins to speak, introducing himself to the audience and informing them, "in less than a year, I'll be dead." The shot then transitions into Lester Burnham's bedroom, where he is sleeping alone. An irritating alarm rings, and Lester, still in voice-over, ruminates on his sense that "in a way, I'm dead already." The voice-over continues as the camera follows Lester Burnham into the shower, where he masturbates - the "high point" of his day.

The next shot is a close-up of a beautiful red rose. The camera pans out to show Carolyn Burnham snipping roses from her garden with pruning shears that match her gardening clogs. Lester Burnham continues to narrate as the camera switches views. He describes the gay couple who live next door: Jim Olmeyer and Jim Berkley . Lester is watching from the window as his wife talks to one of the Jims about her roses. The view then switches to Jane, who is researching breast augmentation surgery on the Internet. Jane looks at herself in the mirror before leaving to join her mother, who is outside honking the car horn. As Jane walks out, her mother sarcastically congratulates her on having succeeded at making herself look terrible. As Carolyn nags Lester for making her late, he accidentally drops his briefcase, spilling the contents everywhere. In the car, Lester sleeps in the back seat while his wife drives and Jane sits in the passenger seat. The voice-over continues as Lester muses about how his life used to be different, how it used to be better. Lester then comments, "it's never too late to get it back."

The voice-over ends as the shot switches to a computer screen upon which Lester's face is reflected. He is at work, one man in a cubicle in a room full of men in cubicles. He is on the phone attempting to get some information from someone on the other end, and he learns that the person he needs to speak to is, yet again, not there. As the phone call ends, Brad Dupree approaches Lester's cubicle and asks for a minute of his time. The scene switches to Brad's office, where Brad is telling Lester about a new performance review. Lester cuts him off and begins to rant about the fact that the company paid for the hotel room where a higher-up got a hooker who then stayed for a week, running up a bill of fifty thousand dollars. Brad insists that this is only gossip, and he insincerely assures Lester that no one's being fired: they're just being asked to put in writing how they contribute to the company.

On the drive home Lester complains to Carolyn that he thinks the performance review is wrong. Carolyn is completely unsympathetic and tells him to stop over-dramatizing and give the efficiency expert what he wants. Carolyn points out that they have new neighbors and comments that the house would have sold faster if their old neighbors had hired her as their real estate agent. Lester reminds her that she cut down their sycamore tree, and she gets upset, insisting that as a substantial amount of the roots were on their property, it was not "their" sycamore tree. They go inside the house.

The camera focuses on several happy family pictures before settling on the Burnhams, who are sitting around the dining room table. Lester, Carolyn and Jane eat in a formal dining room, with candles lit and music playing. Jane asks if they always have to listen to this music, and Carolyn comments brightly that when Jane cooks dinner she can pick the music. Lester asks Jane how school was, but when he tries to get her to elaborate she becomes sarcastic and sullen. He starts to talk about Brad the Efficiency Expert, but quickly realizes that no one is listening to him. He comments that Jane doesn't care about how his day was, to which Jane responds that as he has barely spoken to her for months, he can't expect her to care. She leaves the table. Carolyn gives Lester a look, and Lester snaps at her. Carolyn becomes furious, and Lester gets up and goes into the kitchen. He tries to talk to Jane, apologizing for seeming distant and asking her what happened to their relationship: they used to have such a good one. The camera pans out and the shot becomes fuzzy: suddenly, it is apparent that there is someone standing outside, filming Lester and Jane through a window. The shot reverses to reveal a teenaged boy holding a video camera. He watches as Jane leaves the kitchen, and then films Lester as he begins washing dishes, looking frustrated. Finally the boy lowers the camera and walks away. Lester looks up, but no one is there anymore. The final shot of the scene is of a happy family picture sitting on a side table: clearly, things didn't used to be this bad in the Burnham household.

The next scene opens with Carolyn Burnham putting an "Open House" sign on the front lawn of a house she is trying to sell. She hums as she unloads her supplies from the car, but her good mood vanishes when she spots another agent's sign across the street - Buddy Kane , the "King of Real Estate". Inside the house, Carolyn proclaims, "I will sell this house today." She repeats this mantra as she strips down to her slip and proceeds to clean the entire house from top to bottom. Once she is finished, she opens the doors wide to reveal her first visitors. Carolyn walks several visitors through the (decidedly ordinary) house, brightly enumerating its positive attributes, but none look particularly interested. The last visitors, two women, complain that the pool is not "lagoon-like", as it was described in the ad. Carolyn desperately tries to put a positive spin on everything, but at the end of the day the house remains unsold. After the last visitor leaves she shuts the blinds of a sliding glass door, leans against them, and begins to cry. She sobs uncontrollably for several moments, but then suddenly screams at herself to "shut up!" and slaps her own face again and again. After a few gasping breaths, she pulls herself together and walks towards the front door.

The next scene begins with Jane sitting in a high school gymnasium with her cheerleading team. The girl sitting next to her asks her who she's looking for, and Jane tells the girl that her parents said they were coming, wondering aloud why her parents can't just settle for their own lives. In the car on the way to the game, Lester asks Carolyn how she knows Jane even wants them to come. Carolyn insists that it's important for them to be there, and Lester complains that he's missing some good television. Lester then comments that Jane hates them both. At the basketball game, Jane watches as her parents arrive, disturbing an entire row of seats as they take their places. The cheerleaders get up to perform at halftime, and Lester asks Carolyn if they can leave right after this. Carolyn gives him a look. The cheerleaders begin to execute a choreographed dance routine, and Carolyn awkwardly tries to clap along to the music. Suddenly, as the girls form a "V", Lester notices the girl Jane was talking to earlier, Angela Hayes , and his jaw drops. His eyes are glued to Angela as the routine progresses, and he begins imagining that she is standing alone on the court, dancing provocatively for him. She winks at him, running her hands down her body, and she starts to unzip her sweater, revealing bare skin underneath. As she takes the sweater off, a cloud of bright red rose petals flows out from beneath the cloth.

Suddenly, Lester snaps back to reality and is once again in the crowded basketball stadium, watching the cheerleaders as they hit their final pose. As the crowd claps, Lester sits motionless, his mouth still open. The game over, Jane and her friend walk out of the gym and see that Jane's parents are waiting in the parking lot. As Carolyn tells Jane how much she enjoyed the performance, Lester awkwardly introduces himself to Angela and tells her she was very "precise." A beaming Carolyn tells Jane that she "didn't screw up once!" Carolyn says they need to leave, turns, and walks away. Lester asks the girls what they're doing, and Angela says they're going out for pizza. He brightly asks if they need a ride, but Angela tells him that she has a car. He starts babbling, telling her that Jane is thinking of getting a car, but Jane cuts him off by coldly reminding him that Carolyn has already left. He smiles mawkishly and tells Angela that it was nice to meet her. Jane looks at him like he's crazy, and he finally leaves. Jane is horrified by her dad's behavior, but Angela merely comments that she thinks he and Carolyn "haven't had sex in a long time."

In some ways, American Beauty has a fairly traditional plot structure. The first section of the film introduces the main characters and outlines their characteristics through a series of illuminating interactions. The "problem" of the film is revealed, and the audience begins to connect with the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists. At the same time, these first scenes also introduce some of the ways in which American Beauty will deviate from the traditional and the expected. First of all, the movie begins by giving away the ending: in a year's time Lester Burnham, the protagonist, will be dead. Even more unexpected is the audience's almost immediate realization that the "problem" of the film is not Lester's death, but rather his life.

The focus of the film is on a seemingly typical nuclear American family consisting of Lester, Carolyn and Jane Burnham. In only a few brief scenes, Mendes reveals that this is a family in crisis: Lester and Carolyn quietly despise each other, and Jane displays startlingly low self-esteem and a high degree of animosity towards her parents. Lester Burnham accurately and pithily sums up the character of Carolyn Burnham when he notes that the handles of her gardening shears perfectly - and intentionally - match her gardening clogs. Carolyn, it seems, is a woman determined to control the appearance of things past the point of normalcy, and who fervently believes that by doing so she effectively prevents others from noticing how imperfect her life really is. Carolyn strips down to her underwear and scrubs a house that she is trying to sell until it is spotless because she believes that doing so will cause people to look on the house through her eyes, rather than through their own more critical ones. Carolyn is wholly focused on surface appearances: she comments that her daughter must be trying to look unattractive, and in doing so ignores the possibility that Jane may be attempting to send her a signal that she is in need of love, attention, or help.

Despite his status as the film's protagonist and narrator, Lester cannot escape his identity as something of a loser. A grown man who masturbates in the shower, drops the contents of his briefcase all over the front walk, and huddles in the backseat while his wife and daughter shepherd him to work - all before 9am - can hardly be viewed as strong and masculine. However, it is Lester's failings that position him as the film's hero; it is his humanity that makes his story so poignant and deeply meaningful. Though Jane and Carolyn's pain is also apparent, it is Lester that the film focuses on, Lester who is followed from home to work and back home again. Clearly, Lester's misery is a product of his environment. Lester is a loser because Lester lives the life of a loser. The audience understands that Lester's failings are simply byproducts of his lifestyle, and thus sympathizes with this everyman hero as he combats the indignities that he must suffer each day.

At the same time, one cannot help but feel that Lester is at least somewhat deserving of his pathetic condition. While he seems unhappy about the current state of his relationship with his daughter, he must be dragged to her cheerleading performance, all the while complaining about missing a TV show. His marriage is a wreck, but Lester reacts not by working on his relationship with his wife, but by creating vivid (and deeply inappropriate) fantasies about one of his daughter's friends. Indeed, Jane's complaints about her father at the beginning of the film ("I need a father, not some horny geek-boy") seem largely supported by his actions. While Lester does not seem like a bad sort, and thus does not really deserve an unloving wife or an unsatisfying job, it is his own inability to take control of his life that stands in the way of his happiness - no one is forcing him to live as he does. Lester's humanity is what enables the audience to relate to him...and what hopefully enables them to apply the lessons that Lester learns over the course of the film to their own lives.

American Beauty Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for American Beauty is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How is Jane Burnham immune to Ricky's troubles?

Jane is completely immersed in her own misery and unable to see beyond herself. She is so used to living in a state of perpetual unhappiness that when she meets Ricky she continues to obsess about her terrible home life despite the fact that...

Can the family photo be used as a symbolism, as it is shown at the beginning and the end of the movie?

Yes, the family photo definately serves as a symbol.... a symbol of the tragic breakdown of the family.

what is beauty for Colonial Fitts?

I believe it would be control rather than discipline.

Study Guide for American Beauty

American Beauty study guide contains a biography of Sam Mendes, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About American Beauty
• American Beauty Summary
• Character List

Essays for American Beauty

American Beauty essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the movie American Beauty directed by Sam Mendes.

• American Beauty as Melodrama
• Sweet Release: The Redemption of Carolyn Burnham
• How does Mendes’ ‘American Beauty’ manifest the representation of mimetic desire in Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’?
• American Beauty: The Troubled Pursuit of Happiness and Self-Worth

Wikipedia Entries for American Beauty

• Introduction
• Themes and analysis

What lies beneath Gaza’s rubble and ruin

The hysteria over campus protests in the United States has shifted American attention away from the depth of the ongoing calamity in Gaza.

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In a fit of ideological pique last week, far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) scoffed at protesters agitating against pro-Israel policies on campuses across the United States . “I get a strange inkling that all these Columbia and UCLA students running around yelling ‘Free Palestine’ would not be jumping at the opportunity to do a semester abroad in Gaza,” she wrote on social media , before later journeying to a protest encampment at George Washington University and almost sparring with students when trying to pull down a Palestinian flag.

Boebert’s scorn is shared even by some of her opponents in the Washington establishment, many of whom have cast the student demonstrations as, at best, unproductive far-left agitprop or, more darkly, dangerous antisemitic behavior that must be expunged from the academy. Hundreds of campus protesters have been arrested in recent days in police crackdowns from California to New York.

Boebert’s comment, though, drew derision on two counts: First, that protesters angry about alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza would need to go to the besieged territory itself to justify their anger. And, second, that students could even do “a semester abroad” in Gaza, where Israel has spent the past half year systematically destroying most of its educational institutions, including all of its universities .

For months, Palestinian civil society activists have drawn attention to the steady eradication of Gaza’s cultural patrimony. Israel’s punishing campaign against militant group Hamas has seen much of the territory reduced to ruin. In the process, many libraries, museums and colleges have been ransacked and razed — in some instances, by deliberate Israeli demolition. Thousands of artifacts in various collections, including Roman coins and other materials from Gaza’s pre-Islamic past, have been potentially lost during the war .

The hysteria over campus protests in the United States has shifted American attention away from the depth of the ongoing calamity in Gaza. U.N. officials and aid agencies are still grappling with the scale of the destruction in the territory, where dozens are still dying every day. Since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 terrorist strike on southern Israel, more than 34,500 Palestinians in the territory — many of them women and children — have been killed. Some 5 percent of Gaza’s overall population has been killed or injured, according to a U.N. report that cites local data.

That figure doesn’t include the more than at least 10,000 people that the U.N. estimates are still missing beneath the rubble, citing the Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD). The challenge of finding the missing is growing more dire, given the widespread destruction of heavy machinery and equipment needed to dig through the debris.

“Rising temperatures can accelerate the decomposition of bodies and the spread of disease,” the U.N. humanitarian affairs office said in a statement , adding that the PCD was appealing to “all relevant stakeholders to urgently intervene to allow the entry of needed equipment, including bulldozers and excavators, to avert a public health catastrophe, facilitate dignified burials, and save the lives of injured people.”

Sifting through Gaza’s wreckage will be no simple task. Israel has dumped a huge amount of ordnance on the territory. Mungo Birch, head of the U.N. Mine Action Program in Palestinian territory, said last week that the amount of unexploded missiles and bombs lying in the rubble is “unprecedented” since World War II. He said tiny Gaza is a site of some 37 million tons of rubble — more than what’s been generated across all of Ukraine during Russia’s war — and 800,000 tons of asbestos and other contaminants. He said his agency has only a fraction of the funding it needs to begin clearing operations whenever the war ends.

Over the weekend, U.S. and Egyptian officials attempted to facilitate a last-ditch effort to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas . A delegation from the Palestinian militant group was in Cairo and expressed optimism that a breakthrough could be found. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faced mass protests at home against his continued tenure in office, seemed more wary of the arrangement and remains bent on carrying out a full offensive against the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians already displaced in the territory have taken shelter.

Top U.N. officials say famine has already gripped parts of Gaza. Beyond the desperately insufficient trickle of humanitarian aid into the territory, the war has also “severely hampered” Gaza’s “ability to produce food and clean water,” according to my colleagues . “Israeli airstrikes and bulldozers have razed farms and orchards. Crops abandoned by farmers seeking safety in southern Gaza have withered, and cattle have been left to die.”

The fear surrounding Rafah and the uncertainty over a potential cease-fire sit against the looming reality of how difficult it will be for Gaza to recover. More than 70 percent of all housing in the territory has been destroyed. A report by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) found that the war has reversed 40 years of development and improvement in social indicators such as life expectancy, health and educational attainment in Gaza.

The agency estimated that reconstruction, at this point, would cost some $40 billion to $50 billion. And if it follows the pace observed after previous conflicts, UNDP estimates that it will take “approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units” in Gaza.

“My very big concern — in addition to the numbers — is the breaking down of communities and families in Gaza,” UNDP regional director Abdallah al-Dardari told The Washington Post . “If you know 60 people in your family have been killed — like our colleague Issam al-Mughrabi who was killed with 60 people in his family during one raid — you will go numb,” Dardari said. “The consequences of this war will stay with us far beyond the end of the war.”