American Beauty- Dream or nightmare

Is “American beauty” an American dream or is it in fact a nightmare? The movie pictures a few strong taboos, along with superficial characters and their endless problems, that we all are confronted with every day throughout our entire lives. We are introduced to six characters. All of these characters have some sort of development throughout the movie. They all try to work towards finding a deeper meaning of life or at least to be true to themselves. Lester Burnham who is the main character, starts out as a man in control of his life. He holds a steady well paid job. He has got a daughter and a wife. He is the kind of man, one would call “spineless”. He doesn't stand up for himself in any way, both professionally and privately. He seems like, he is very bored with his life. All in all a man who goes with the flow, and lets himself get pushed around. Especially his wife, Carolyn, and his boss. Carolyn is quite the opposite of her husband Lester. She is a control freak. Nothing is left to coincidence. Lester and Carolyn´s daughter, Jane, is a “troubled” teenage girl, who hasn't found her identity yet. The neighbours to the Burnhams, a father, Colonel Frank fitts, and his son, Ricky, live rather different lives. Frank is a Colonel in the Army. He is a raging homophobic, and when it comes to raising his son Ricky he might be a bigger control freak than Carolyn is. At least Ricky appears to be a disturbed individual at the couple of encounters we have with him. But time tells that he actually is an intelligent young man in control with his inner self, even though he is a drug dealer. At this point all the characters are living the “nightmare”. As the movie sets off, Lester begins to change radically. It all starts with a crush on his daughter's teenage friend. The lust that he has for her, drives him to a new lifestyle. He starts working out to look better. In fact he begins to do so, in order to seduce his daughter´s friend, Angela. He also buys a new car, without even consulting his wife, Carolyn. He even starts to smoke pot. He slowly abides from all