The Relation of American Beauty and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
An innovative, decidedly individual film, American Beauty saw its U.S. debut in 1999, grossing 130 million dollars at the box office. The film has been the recipient of over 88 awards, including 5 Oscars and an Academy Award for Best Picture, plus 68 other nominations, despite its controversial nature. Watching director Sam Mendes’ third film, the viewer witnesses the transformation of Lester Burnham from an empty man possessing little more than the thoughts in his head, to being a self-actualized individual using the parameters suggested by Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” Maslow initially outlined this theory in his 1943 work titled A Theory of Human Motivation, and later in Motivation and Personality.
Written by Alan Ball, who also made his mark working on the HBO series Six Feet Under, the Internet Movie Database outlines the film by stating:
“Lester Burnham is in a mid-life crisis, caused by his stressed wife Carolyn and rebelling teen-age daughter Jane. When Lester and Carolyn go to watch Jane cheerleading, they meet Angela Hayes, and Lester, caught in sudden lust for Angela, decides to change his life. Angela’s and Jane’s friendship is not all it seems, too, because Angela only brags about how many times she’s “done it” with other men. That doesn’t help an already insecure Jane very much but she finds solace in the arms of the next-door-neighbors’ son, Ricky Fitts. Ricky, himself from a broken home as well, and Jane find they have a lot in common and eventually turn out to be soul mates.”
As the protagonist, Lester appears to have made the biggest transformation by the end of the film. This change is brought about by his interactions with three other people in his life: his wife, his daughter’s best friend, and his daughter’s boyfriend. His wife is the initial catalyst for of his character change. Until his metamorphosis begins, Carolyn places herself on a pedestal, dominating the lives of her family while Lester fades into the background (Newman). “What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization” states Maslow (1970, 18), and this statement relates directly to Lester. The only control that Lester exerts during the exposition of the film is his morning habit of masturbating in the shower. The fact Lester can only satisfy himself in this manner shows his control lies only at the base of Maslow’s “pyramid” where physiological needs are considered beyond that realm of having no control.
For the most part, argues Maslow, the need or desire for a stable, firmly based, (usually) high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others is present in most functioning members of society (1970, 21). In American Beauty most of the characters have problems emotionally connecting with others and deteriorating relationships are present throughout (Lester and Jane, Lester and Carolyn, The Fitts’ in general, Angela and Jane) (Newman). Lester is quite aware of these facts, and his dissatisfaction about his present state motivates him to “be what he could be” after he begins to desire Angela.
Carolyn controls the plateau of “Safety Needs.” Issues like protection, security, order, law, limits, and stability are addressed here and her controlling nature encompasses all of these things in the film, down to the very music that the Burnhams listen to during dinner. This is where Lester makes his first efforts towards satisfying his needs. The Burnham patriarch begins to assert his role in the relationship by subtly changing parts of himself. The next level of the Hierarchy, “Love Needs” plays a part in this turning point of the film. When Lester meets Angela he finds new purpose in life, to better himself and gain her acceptance. Angie is someone who appears to be interested in Lester. She is the first person in the film to speak to him and about him like a human being. Her outward appearance of perfection is the antithesis of what surrounds him in everyday life, and Mendes begins to create cinematic montages for the illusions in Lester’s mind where he fantasizes about making love to Angela. For a time, Angela’s alien beauty is all that Lester can think about, and after he overhears her comments to Jane about liking him more if he had more muscle, Lester begins an intensive workout regimen. His starting this routine is also a visual show of his reclamation of manhood. Angie also stands in contrast to Carolyn, who is demanding, conceited, and past her prime. While Angela begins to stimulate his almost-forgotten libido and the “love needs” that Lester lacks, he gains a new neighbor who begins to date his daughter and serves as a “role-model” (albeit an unhealthy one) of Self-Actualization.
Ricky serves as a pseudo-brother/son to Lester, and the former melancholic views the interactions with the artistic youth and the others as catalysts for his own developmental journey to find happiness in his life. It does not take long before Lester finds that the most pleasing things to him are things that were a part of childhood. He quits his pointless office job and goes back to work at a fast food restaurant similar to the one from his youth. There he finds that he has responsibilities again, and it is evident that his hard work earns him achievements. These new decisions can be classified as “Esteem needs,” where reputation and status also fall. The purchase of a Trans-Am, the dream car of his younger days, acts to re-enforce his idea of “status” as it relates to his childhood goals.
Lester is protective of his newfound place in life, especially as it regards Carolyn, who by this point is addressing her own needs (per usual) for affection by sleeping with another realtor. She convinces herself that being around someone as powerful as the “Real Estate King” Buddy King vicariously empowers her to re-establish control over her life and the lives of Jane and Lester. This bliss is short-lived, however; the relationship with Buddy and her regained attitude crumbles quickly once the pair is caught while ordering food at Lester’s drive-though. Despite Lester’s understanding and lack of anger, Carolyn ignores him, believing that he has taken power away from her. Her overactive control needs drive her to plan his murder. This is an extreme method of re-establishing her dominance in her relationship.
By this point in the film Lester has addressed most of his needs from Physiological to Esteem, though he has still not experienced self-actualization. Angela runs into Lester while he is taking a break in the kitchen from working out, and she remarks on how fit he appears, much to the disgust of Jane, who overhears. Seizing upon the opportunity that he has been waiting to present itself the entire film, Lester begins to address one of his last unresolved needs; the same one that helped set the other changes in motion and the one that he believes will offer self-actualization. When he discovers that Angela is a virgin though, he abstains from potentially scarring her and they instead discuss the state of his daughter. He is delighted to find that she is in love. Maslow describes moments like this as a “Peak experience”. He goes on to elaborate that these experiences are transient moments of self-actualization (1971, p.48).
Lester reflects on his life and interactions with his wife and daughter, thinking about how the thing that made him the happiest was the will to love his family. Using the theory of Self-Actualization, any experience of real excellence and perfection, like the one at this point in the movie, tends to produce a peak experience (Maslow 1971, p. 175.) Ricky’s father enters their house, prepared to murder Lester because he fears his own homosexuality after revealing it to Lester and thinking he will reveal the Colonel’s secret. The last thing that Lester sees is a picture of his family, happy and caring, before the trigger is pulled. For Maslow, the highest peaks include “feelings of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being. Simultaneously more powerful and also more helpless than one ever was before, the feeling of great ecstasy and wonder and awe, the loss of placing in time and space” (1970, 164). Symbolic of Maslow’s description, the film closes with a flyover shot of the city and suburbs where the families live while Lester addresses the audience about how it feels to die.
Watching Sam Mendes’ film American Beauty, the viewer witnesses the transformation of Lester Burnham from an empty man possessing little more than the thoughts in his head, to being a self-actualized individual using the parameters suggested by Abraham Maslow. Lester used the people in his life to further himself despite the intentions of some to limit him. Though his death at the end of the film is anti-climactic, the viewer should keep in mind that Lester passed in a state of peace and fulfillment.
References
- Maslow, Abraham. “A Theory of Human Motivation” Psychological Review, 50. 370-396. Scribd. 2007. 11 Nov 2007.
- Maslow, Abraham. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Viking Press, 1971.
- Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality (rev. ed.). New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
- Newman, Jeff. “American Beauty Analysis.” Screenwriting. 2000. 18 Oct, 2007.
- “American Beauty” International Movie Database. 2007. 12 Nov. 2007.
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