Angela's Character example essay topic

In the film "American Beauty", the director Sam Mendes focuses on the idea and concept of human enlightenment and awakening from the standardized "cave", that we humans are born into. The idea that humans are bread to become what our society prepares us to be is the main theme of "American Beauty". The character Carolyn Burnham, who plays a power driven ambitious business woman, who devotes her whole time to her work, and not her family. Carolyn is living in the cave and doesn't realize that the pressure she is putting on herself is driving her into mental anguish and disturbing the relationship she has with her husband and her daughter. Another character that finds her caught up in this cave is Angela. Angela presents herself and believes herself to be this person that she thinks society will socially accept more, gain more popularity and go further in life by being this completely phony person to everyone and hiding the true person she is behind her wall of lies.

Plato's allegory of the cave depicts the idea that humans are born into a society that brainwashes and teaches its subjects, us humans, only what we need to know to survive int his world. The idea that humans are like robots and only learn what they are taught, and that their minds cannot expand beyond the knowledge they are taught by society, because hey don't know that there is more knowledge to be learned. "Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn't turned the right way or looking where it ought to look, and it tries to redirect it appropriately". (Plato p. 190) Plato's argument that humans if exposed to the same things over and over again, begin to think that this regularity and repetitiveness is normal.

Enlightenment meaning a radical change in perspective in which the difference between reality and perspective is closed, and the term to be enlightened is to give intellectual or spiritual light to. And so the director Sam Mendes chooses this theme of enlightenment and self awakening, as the main theme of his movie and challenges his characters with life experiences in hopes that they will eventually come to the state of enlightenment. One character that does eventually reach the state of enlightenment is Lester. Lester suddenly one day realizes the way he has been living his life is not by his own choice but by the choices and responsibilities of his society and by the pressure of being the father figure and the strong back bone of the family. Lester is bored. Lester realizes he is really unhappy with his life and the way he is and does something about it.

Lester finds himself being enlightened with the help of the Character Ricky's help, realizing he needs to free himself from his depressing life and live the life the way he wants to. Lester attempts to help his wife Carolyn to realize how unhappy she really is, and how the free spirited person she once was is still within her. Carolyn in the other hand allows the pressure of her job and her ambition to succeed drives her into complete madness. Carolyn is very uptight and a control freak. She applies a lot of pressure onto herself with her job role and her mother role. She is living in the cave and does not realize the real reality of her situation.

She functions as if like a robot, her day is very routine, she gets up, rounds up the family, goes to work, comes home and takes care of the home and her family. Carolyn doesn't know any life different life routine then this, because this is the hand of cards she was dealt. Carolyn doesn't know that the devotion she has for her job puts a strain on her relationship with Lester, her husband and Janie, her daughter. The pressure to make a certain amount of money depends on her ability and skill of being a good real estate agent. She always appears to be a strong and confident woman to her customers, to her competitors, and even to her family, but the reality is she is weak and scared of becoming a failure in life. She dreams of being a successful business woman, but never stops to think about being a successful wife and mother, which alone could be the key to her true happiness that lives within her, but she doesn't get a chance to ever realize this.

Another character that finds herself living in the cave is Janie's friend Angela. Angela is a young beautiful teen who pretends to be this girl with true knowledge of the "real world" and very experienced in many ways. In reality Angela is a small town girl, who is not experienced, and pretends to be this person who she is far from. Angela is young and influenced by society popular views and critiques.

Angela is someone who needs a lot of attention from everyone, she presents herself to be a shallow person, who only befriends with cool people, with the exception of Janie. She is the captain of her cheer leading squad, has boys running after her including Lester. She presents herself to be a very experienced girl when it comes to sexual issues, when in reality she is a virgin. Angela is so influenced by society's pressure to be this perfect teen girl that she tries to influence Janie and others to be, act and think like her. She feels better about herself by putting others down, not aware of all her insecurities within herself. She bites into this kind of shallow, materialistic fantasy world, where the spotlight is on her and no one can even compare to her.

Everyday Angela wakes up puts on one of her little skimpy outfits goes to school and flirts with as many boys as she can, so she can get the attention she wants and the attention she is used to. Her lies have consumed a huge part in her character and her lifestyle that the constant receptiveness of her lies seems to sink into her as her true reality. Angela's character takes a turn towards the light when she finds herself caught in a sexual encounter with Lester, where she admits to him that she is a virgin, and truly not this slutty girl who Lester and everyone else thought she was. Angela deep down is not truly happy living her lies. Angela begins to shine her true character during a conversation with Lester. She never really got the chance to fully become enlightened like Lester, but she is young and learning.

It is not too late for her to open her eyes and realize that its ok to show her true colors and that no one is going to think of her as any different, but instead gain more respect from people including Lester. Many people would argue that these characters are not necessarily in the cave, but instead conforming and adapting to their regular suburban life they were born into. Others would argue that what person doesn't lie to oneself about who they really are and what their social status in the world is. Every person wants to be better than who they really are. People can argue that Carolyn's character can be considered just a typical American woman with the pressure to bring home an income, support her family and play the role of wife and mother, and for some people that is a lot of pressure and can drive any person to be stressed out and act the same way Carolyn did.

Angela's character too can be argued that she is just a typical teen girl with society's pressure to have a certain image, look and act a certain way. She is young and therefore more vulnerable to give in to society's pressures and expectations. Some people's argument would be that these two characters are only living the life they know and are familiar with. What more can you ask of them if they " re knowledge of the world only goes to a certain limit. "American Beauty" was a perfect example of a film that displays Plato's idea that if humans are exposed to the same things their entire life they will only know and learn what those same things are.

Further human knowledge has to be sought out for by the person. Accepting only the knowledge that your environment provides you, is the gateway into the "cave". Humans need to know that they don't have to accept the life they are given, because that is the society they were born into. Us humans need to know there is a whole world out there to be explored and that change can be good and important to our happiness and well being. "American Beauty" teaches us that life can be beautiful and that beauty exists within us and it is our duty as humans to seek after this beauty and find a world of change, happiness, further knowledge and enlightenment.