The Virgin Suicides: Living In Suburbia
American Beauty and The Virgin Suicides: Living in Suburbia “I hadn’t realized how many arcane pursuits there were out in suburbia.” This quote by Robert Drewe, begins the mysteries that lie under the rugs in a suburban home. The movies, The Virgin Suicides and American Beauty, expose the elements of confinement, loneliness, and image, which most suburban families try to disguise. Behind the picket fences, and beautiful homes, lies a secret, which these movies revel in such a manor it baffles people who have never been exposed to these realities before hand. Confinement is found in both films and set the stage for what suburban life can feel like to those who live in it. Confinement is defined as the act of restraining a person’s liberty
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When you drive into the neighborhoods you see beautiful homes, with perfectly mowed lawns. Inside the house, is like a display of your family, so most of the time the home can feel like a museum to those who live in it. In American Beauty, Carolyn is overwhelmed with the image her family portrays. She does not want others to see them for who they really are. She goes out of her way to make the yard, filled with roses, look beautiful. The décor of her house is fancy and it is as if she is just trying to fit in to the standards of the rest of her neighborhood or “keeping up with the jones”. In one scene, Lester tries to get Carolyn to loosen up and rekindle their love, but she panics when she sees that his beer may spill onto the couch, and the moment is ruined. Carolyn also tries to control what Jane wears so that she does not give of the wrong impression of their family. Her obsession with image pushes her daughter and husband away. In The Virgin Suicides image is shown after the death of their first daughter. The priest even tells them that he listed the death as an accident, as if to protect the family’s image. The Lisbon’s are not a rich family like the Burnham’s, so you do not see the same fretting of self-image. The surrounding neighbors all worry about their own image, they all have magnificent homes with fancy cars, as the girls point out on the way to the
When you drive into the neighborhoods you see beautiful homes, with perfectly mowed lawns. Inside the house, is like a display of your family, so most of the time the home can feel like a museum to those who live in it. In American Beauty, Carolyn is overwhelmed with the image her family portrays. She does not want others to see them for who they really are. She goes out of her way to make the yard, filled with roses, look beautiful. The décor of her house is fancy and it is as if she is just trying to fit in to the standards of the rest of her neighborhood or “keeping up with the jones”. In one scene, Lester tries to get Carolyn to loosen up and rekindle their love, but she panics when she sees that his beer may spill onto the couch, and the moment is ruined. Carolyn also tries to control what Jane wears so that she does not give of the wrong impression of their family. Her obsession with image pushes her daughter and husband away. In The Virgin Suicides image is shown after the death of their first daughter. The priest even tells them that he listed the death as an accident, as if to protect the family’s image. The Lisbon’s are not a rich family like the Burnham’s, so you do not see the same fretting of self-image. The surrounding neighbors all worry about their own image, they all have magnificent homes with fancy cars, as the girls point out on the way to the