Editing American Beauty (1999 film) (section)

===Imprisonment and redemption===
[[Image:American Beauty jail cell.png|thumb|alt=A computer monitor on a busy cubicle desk: The monitor displays a spreadsheet in seven columns which span the height of the screen. The monitor also shows the reflection of a middle-aged man in a shirt and tie, sitting close to the desk and wearing a telephone headset. The contrasts—the monitor's dark background, and the lightness of the text and the man's shirt—make the reflection more prominent between and behind the numbers.| The theme of imprisonment is evoked in this scene showing Lester's reflection in the monitor behind columns of data, which resembles an inmate in a [[jail cell]].<ref name="chapter 1" /><ref name="anker 348-349" />]]
Mendes called ''American Beauty'' a rite of passage film about imprisonment and escape from imprisonment. The monotony of Lester's existence is established through his gray, nondescript workplace and characterless clothing.<ref name="chapter 1" /> In these scenes, he is often framed as if trapped, "reiterating rituals that hardly please him". He masturbates in the confines of his shower;<ref name="hausmann 118">{{harvnb|Hausmann|2004|p=118}}</ref> the shower stall evokes a jail cell and the shot is the first of many where Lester is confined behind bars or within frames,<ref name="chapter 1" /><ref name="anker 348-349">{{harvnb|Anker|2004|pp=348–349}}</ref> such as when he is reflected behind columns of numbers on a computer monitor, "confined [and] nearly crossed out".<ref name="hausmann 118" />

The academic and author Jody W. Pennington argues that Lester's journey is the story's center.<ref name="pennington 104" /> His sexual reawakening through meeting Angela is the first of several turning points as he begins to "[throw] off the responsibilities of the comfortable life he has come to despise".<ref name="Munt 264-265" /> After Lester shares a [[joint (cannabis)|joint]] with Ricky, his spirit is released and he begins to rebel against Carolyn.<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 8}}</ref> Changed by Ricky's "attractive, profound confidence", he is convinced that Angela is attainable and sees that he must question his "banal, numbingly materialist suburban existence"; he takes a job at a fast-food outlet, which allows him to regress to a point when he could "see his whole life ahead of him".<ref name="hausmann 118-119">{{harvnb|Hausmann|2004|pages=118–119}}</ref>

When Lester is caught masturbating by Carolyn, his angry retort about their lack of intimacy is the first time he says aloud what he thinks about her.<ref name="chapter 11" /> By confronting the issue and Carolyn's "superficial investments in others", he is trying to "regain a voice in a home that [only respects] the voices of mother and daughter".<ref name="hausmann 118-119" /> His final turning point comes when he and Angela almost have sex;<ref name="chapter 25" /> after she confesses her virginity, he no longer thinks of her as a sex object, but as a daughter.<ref name="pennington 105" /> He holds her close and "wraps her up". Mendes called it "the most satisfying end to [Lester's] journey there could possibly have been". With these final scenes, Mendes intended to show him at the conclusion of a "mythical quest". After Lester gets a beer from the refrigerator, the camera pushes toward him, then stops facing a hallway down which he walks "to meet his fate".<ref name="chapter 25" /><ref name="kemp 26" /> Having begun to act his age again, Lester achieves closure.<ref name="pennington 105">{{harvnb|Pennington|2007|p=105}}</ref> As he smiles at a family photo, the camera pans slowly from Lester to the kitchen wall, onto which blood spatters as a gunshot rings out; the slow pan reflects the peace of his death.<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 26}}</ref> His body is discovered by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky's staring into Lester's dead eyes is "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is found where it is least expected.<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 27}}</ref>