American Allegory essays

American Allegory essays Lester is lying in bed smiling contentedly at the ceiling. I feel like Ive been in a coma for the past twenty years. And Im just now waking up. (American Beauty). On the ceiling is Angela covered in deep red rose petals. Slowly the petals float down from her to Lester, showering him with lust. Does Lester Burnhams quote sound like a line from a comedy? Roger Ebert seems to think so. He has said the film is a comedy because we laugh at the absurdity of the hero's problems, and a tragedy because we can identify with his failurenot the specific details, but the general outline. Even though Ebert clearly packages American Beauty into the cookie cutter drama/comedy, the allowance he leaves in the last phrase should lead a person to reevaluate the films category. Comedy is defined as inciting within the viewer humor and mirth and ending happily (Konigsberg 59). Moreover, dark comedy allows laughter to be somewhat muted by our realization of serious implications and perhaps even by an unhappy ending (Konigsberg 59). The dark comedy definition fits American Beauty quite beautifully. The average person, however, would not equate muted laughter and an unhappy ending with comedy. We are left with only one alternative classification: the allegory. Allegorical films deal with expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence. It is very similar to a metaphor, which uses a seemingly unrelated object in place of another to show similarities (www.m-w.com). The Matrix, for example, can be considered an allegorical film. The audience walks away with an understanding that the movie did not have directly state. American Beauty accomplishes this. After watching the movie trailors, moviegoers expect a Lolita remake. American Beauty is linked to Mena Suvaris character Angela ...