Family Values

In viewing American Beauty, I feel the film confirms that family values do not resemble the “traditional family” of yesterday. Firstly, in the film, we can see that each of the families involved are dysfunctional. Lester, (the father) is obviously suffering from a mid-life crisis and sees that his marriage is failing. He tries to communicate with his daughter (Jane), who has already made her decision that her family is in jeopardy. Jane is probably …

…A wife and husband give up their sexual freedom, their financial freedom, their right to “pursue happiness” entirely on their own terms the moment they leave the altar. No matter what may come of the marriage, they have tied their identities and fates together. Through the act of having children, they seal them. Marriage is about life and death, blood and sacrifice, and about this generation and the next, and one’s connection to eternity.