'Adulthood Paper: American Beauty Essay\r'

' fit to Berk, 2012, â€Å"Middle adulthood, which begins roughly the age 40 and ends at about 65, is marked by narrowing behavior options and a shrinking future as electric shaverren leave home and c beer paths pay ass much determined. In other ways, center of attention age is k nonty to define because huge variations in attitudes and behaviors exist.” Ameri cannister Beauty is a ikon created by director surface-to-air missile Mendes in the late 1990s. The movie cerebratees on the display case Lester Burnham, a man in his middle-40’s breathing out through an exquisite mid keep crisis; he’s gr possess cynical and is convinced that he has no grounds to go on. Lester’s dealingship with his married woman Carolyn is quite dysfunctional, piece of music Carolyn works hard to make it seem as if she has adept control of her spiritedness, she is vent through her proclaim crisis as well; feeling desolate and desperate (MSN Entertainment, 201 3).\r\nAlthough American Beauty focuses on other characters as well, including Lester and Carolyn’s teenaged daughter Jane, Jane’s sh bothow shoplifter Angela, the next door neighbor Colvirtuosol Fitts, and his son Ricky; this paper is mainly going to focus on Lester Burnham, his adulthood, and life transition. The purpose is to reason how the main character can be viewed from a biological, cognitive, and psychosocial status. The paper entrust in alike(p) manner discuss how the main character copes with biological changes as a contribute of aging, what changes draw in the family composition and lifestyle of the character, how the character copes with the idea of terminal, dying, and any theories on â€Å"the afterlife”.\r\nEach character within the movie has their own idea of what path they read to take to achieve happiness and what choices will lead them there. Lester is quite impulsive and makes many a(prenominal) choices that lead him down the p ath of destruction. The starting line event that leads Lester into a midst of abominable decisions is discovering that Angela (Jane’s friend) has been lusting over him. They begin an unpaired and secretive relationship revolved about sexual desires. In the midst of this Lester discontinue his job that he had been working at for nearly 14 years and finds a new cargoner within a fast food restaurant. He begins take marijuana, working out, and buys a red Pontiac cardinal; confronting desire to turn back the biological process to obtain his spring chicken again.\r\nThese actions and choices Lester has been making would lead anyone to suggest that he is going through a midlife crisis. concord to Bestic, 2012, â€Å"A midlife crisis represents that state when the human headway gets in conflict with the inner self-importance. It is a natural process that results from one or more transitions in life.” From the biological view Lester is going through this crisis becau se he is in conflict with himself. His marriage is not healthy, he does not like the physical changes brought on by adulthood, has an unsatisfactory job, and finds boredom in his lifestyle routine.\r\nFrom a cognitive perspective Lester shows that he is well aware of what is going on more or less him at all times. Because he is the one who is narrating the story he tells the audience what all the other characters are up to, mainly in anxiety to his daughter Jane and wife Carolyn. However, he is for rough reason well aware and can process situations going on with the neighbors while the neighbors cannot even comprehend what is going on in their own lives. He is brisk to figure things out, and has great concepts behind nigh of his erratic solutions to his life’s problems. period he may not unavoidably understand why his and his family’s life is on the road to destruction, he knew that things were in spades changing. Because of Lester’s midlife crisis it cou ld be discoverd he was also going through embossment and feelings of carelessness.\r\nHis relationship with his daughter Jane is not really great; in fact Jane claims to detest Lester. It is also quite obvious that Lester and Carolyn’s marriage was deteriorating, and Lester seems to not care more about any of the relationships in his life. According to Cherry, 2013, â€Å"Erikson believed that a conceptive sense of in the flesh(predicate) identity was important for developing strong relationships. Those with a poor sense of self tend to have less connected relationships and are more likely to have got emotional isolation, loneliness, and depression.” This clearly describes why Lester has confront the problems he has in his adulthood because of his escape of personal identity. Cherry, 2012 goes on to say, â€Å"During the generativity versus stagnation coif we continue to build our lives, focusing on our career and family. Those who fail to attain this skil l will feel unproductive and unconcerned in the world.” Mostly, Lester acts as a child stuck in an adult life, getting more depressed as the show goes on that adult life is meet not turning out to be fun.\r\nHe loses his job, he has not had sexual relations with his wife in a very(prenominal) long time, his marriage was falling apart, and he just was not finding his life very fulfilling any longer. Because of Angela, who acts as a type of stimuli for Lester, makes him realize that aging should not be the end of his life. This is when he begins to show his wife who is boss, and that he is not going to let her nag at him any longer, begins working out, smoking marijuana, leaves his job for one that will provide less responsibility, and behaving in other matters such as an childish or young adult would. forward Lester’s midlife crisis one would think that the Burnham family was the classifiable happy suburbia family. The family composition drastically begins to chang e once Lester begins his midlife crisis journey in search of himself and happiness.\r\nInstead of taking the orders around the house, he begins giving them. Lester and Carolyn begin to go their opposite ways although still animation together, and Jane continues to be a normal teen (angry, insecure, and confused). It seems as though the family becomes more single(a)istic, everyone doing their own thing, rather than as a unit. Jane does not like her father, and Carolyn’s hate toward Lester continues to nurture until the end of the movie. Lester makes a statement in the movie saying, â€Å"I could die in my sleep and I would not be the only one happy.” One could assume that Lester is welcoming of death because either he has just accepted that eventually he will die, or he just dislikes his life so much that death would be a better alternative.\r\nIn conclusion, middle adulthood comes with its’ own trials and tribulations. Depending on how an individual has deve loped in foregoing stages of their life can determine how they will respond to the transition of adulthood. There are many perspectives including biological, cognitive, and psychosocial theories that conclude how individuals develop and alter during these transitions. There are many changes that fleet during adulthood that can affect the family composition, how the individual copes with biological changes as a result of aging, and how they perceive the idea of death and dying. Lester Burnham is alone a prime example of what it is like for a man in his mid 40’s to go through a midlife crisis during his middle adulthood transitions.\r\nReferences\r\nBestic, V. (2012). What is a midlife crisis: Understand the urge to start again. Retrieved from http://psychologicaldisorderscenter.com/what-is-a-midlife-crisis/ Cherry, K. (2013). Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosocialtheories MSN Entertainment. (2013). Am erican beauty: Synopsis. Retrieved from http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-synopsis/american-beauty.3/\r\n'