American Beauty
A Sociological Movie Review

American Beauty, a film that was written by Allan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in 1999 is a unique piece that demonstrates many sociological themes throughout the development of the plot. The characters strive to portray themselves as the All American Family. They live in a nice house, drive nice cars and seem perfectly normal to the general public, but the audience is allowed to view the deep set issues that plague the main characters; Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening), Jane Burnham (Thora Birch), and Jane's best friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari). As the plot develops there are many obvious parallels relating the lives of the characters to Merton's Strain Theory. As the plot unfolds and we begin to understand the values and emotions of the characters, they can each be categorized into one of the five modes of adaptation discussed in this theory.
Robert Merton was a sociologist in the 1930's who......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: American Beauty
Approximate Word Count: 2123
Approximate Pages: 9 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on American Beauty, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!