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 . In these scenes , he is often framed as if trapped , " reiterating rituals that hardly please him " . He masturbates in the confines of his shower ; the shower stall evokes a jail cell and the shot is the first of many where Lester is confined behind bars or within frames , such as when he is reflected behind columns of numbers on a computer monitor , " confined [ and ] nearly crossed out " . The academic and author Jody W. Pennington argues that Lester 's journey is the story 's center . 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 " . After Lester shares a joint with Ricky , his spirit is released and he begins to rebel against Carolyn . Changed by Ricky 's " attractive , profound confidence " , Lester 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 " .