The film American Beauty is a 1999 drama about an office worker named Lester Burnham, who is going through a mid-life crisis. During this time, he becomes obsessed with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela. Lester lives with his wife, Carolyn Burnham and their only daughter Jane. In the film, Lester Burnham worked as a magazine reporter and actually hates his job. His wife, Carolyn, was a real estate agent and seemed a little tense. Their daughter Jane hates Lester and Carolyn and suffers from low self-esteem. New neighbors move in next door, including a homophobic former United States Marine, Frank Fitts, his wife, and his teenage son Ricky, who goes to the same high school as Jane and Angela. Jane and Ricky cross paths because Ricky loves recording his surroundings, of which Jane is his main subject. Frank is a strict disciplinarian towards Ricky. The boy was often beaten by his father throughout the film. American Beauty presents a progressive and darkly cynical view of American suburban culture, suggesting that cultural norms present within American society encourage loneliness, depression, and fanatical materialism. In essence, the title of this essay is “The Suburban Prison.” Looking at this film from an existentialist perspective, one must first refer to Jean-Paul Sartre's essay “Existentialism is Humanism”. Sartre wrote the essay to respond to these criticisms and clarify the main ideas of philosophy. In the essay, Sartre mentions the expression “existence comes before essence.” What does this mean? For human beings, there is no set pattern to which one must adapt. Live life and that is what truly defines a person, not an idealized set of characteristics. This concept applies to Americans... middle of paper ... what was really going on with Ricky and Lester's friendship. He asked Ricky about it and when he heard the answer that he wasn't looking for, even though it was a lie, he kicked Ricky out and said he never wanted to see him again. Frank went to the Burnhams to confront Lester. Frank tried to kiss Lester but he refused and Fitts left. In his discussion of abandonment, Jean-Paul Sartre emphasizes that "man is free" or "man is condemned to be free", which simply means that you have the right to move away from everyone the problems. Big or small. You wanted to be free. We can see the meaning that Sartre gives to these two quotes at the end of the film American Beauty, when Frank Fitts killed Lester Burnham by shooting him in the head. Lester's voice at the end let viewers know that even though his loved ones were grieving, he was free from his misery. He was happy to be free from all his problems.