Where Lester Burnham Falls Down: Exposing the Facade of Victimhood in American Beauty  

Oleh:

Arthur, Erica

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Men and Masculinities vol. 7 no. 2 (Oct. 2004), page 127-143.
Topik: American Beauty; Falling Down; victimhood; culture of complaint; white male backlash; crisis of masculinity; misogyny
Fulltext: 127MMS72.pdf (201.43KB)

Isi artikel

This article establishes the means by which Lester Burnham, the white, male protagonist in American Beauty, is able to indulge in trangressive and damaging behavior while remaining a sympathetic figure. Through an initial comparison with Falling Down, the victim politics at play in American Beauty are shown to be covert, nonconfrontational, and contained by the film’s domestic setting. However, close reading exposes the filmic strategies that shape Lester’s claim to victimhood and disguise the oppressive nature of his journey to reempowerment. Ultimately, Lester emerges as the victimizer rather than the victim, and the liberal pretensions of American Beauty are recast in terms of a conservative agenda.

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