How is Lester Burnham Represented?

In the film American Beauty there is a man in his fortys, he is married, has one daughter and works in sales. He works in an office cubical almost as if he is being boxed in, he has been working in this profession for 14 years now and is known as a white collar worker. The house that he lives in I would say looks fake compared to his life as it is bright and vibrant unlike him because he still goes around everyday life in his dull and boring ways. It also looks like Lester does not get control over decorating the house as it looks very feminine and looks as though his wife controls the family as she is the Bread Winner. One scene in the film he is with his Wife and daughter in the car, you would expect that he would drive but instead his wife drives the car and he is in the back seat. He is slouched and looks as though he is asleep, this gives an impression that he doesnt care about anything including his wife and daughter and is happy living his bland life. The camera angles that the producers have used are also very important, in one scene the camera looks down with a birds eye view angle, this makes it seem that the viewer has more power and shows Lester in a less significant way. He is also seen in a mid shot camera angle in this scene, along with this he plays an act of Voyeurism in this shot. This is because he is dreaming about his daughters friend as he watched her cheer leading in an earlier scene and became very obsessive over her. The sound that the film makers have used are also very thought through, they have made Lester Narrate in the film and therefore this is biased and creates sympathy for him. They used a fair amount of background music also and this describes him a lot because it is what is

known as Elevator Music which is monotonous because it is dull and boring like his life.