Re: American Beauty

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: Lester Burnham: 4w5, INFJ : Hardened on the outside (Fe Judging auxiliary) and insecure on the inside (Ni Perceiving primary). "Validates himself" (I like Rotten Apple's expression, and can think of no better on my own) via self-pity and ambivalent attention seeking. Speaks in a depressed drone that is more frustrated (4-ish envy) than resigned (9-ish indolence). Devalues ordinariness, and blames the abundance of same in his life for his unwanted "sedation." Uses immature behavior as a method of egoic self-display. : Mrs. Burnham: 1w9, NT : I'll stick by Perciever's insightful description. : The King-3w4, SP(?) : Ditto. : Daughter (I've forgotten her name, too, Percy): 4w5, INFP, social variant. : Bemoans her station in life, with a keen sense of something missing, just as her father does, yet in her case, the object of self-conscious scorn is her parents. Like a good little unhealthy 4, she's willing to wish ill fortune on the father who has "failed" her. : Her father focuses more on the ordinariness of his life. In a sense, I would say that the father is healthier, if only slightly, because he seems to realize that he's responsible for his lot in life, hence his self-liberation, which is a jumbled confusion, representing both stress path 2 and security path 1. His self-understanding may be due also to his introspection (Ni primary). : Daughter's friend: 3w2, ESFP. : Boastful and vindicative, as long as someone's listening. She has a slight air of confusion regarding her own needs, too (2 wing). : Ricky Fitts: 4w3, ISFP, self-preservational variant (also high intimate, low social variants). : I'm going to have to dissent here. The question is, <i>why</i> does he live life as a voyeur? Is he collecting information in order to develop some specialized skill, with the objective of overcoming his fear of involvement with the dangers of life? If that's what a 5 is, whether normal or unconventional, shy or forward, then I can't see it here. I see, in this character, an intense appreciator of beauty, and a mercurial, deliberately unconventional wooer of what's-er-name. In response to his father's directives, he's chosen the path of resistance, the passion of which fuels his rebellious, if subdued, self-display (3 wing). : Aside.... : Double-4 relationships, often (justifiably) considered stagnant, can survive best, it seems, if the two 4's are sufficiently different. In this film, between the two young lovers, we have the NF and the SP, the "shameful" and the "reckless," the leisurely and the mercurial. : My girlfriend and I are similar to this movie pair: she's the 4w5 INFP, I'm the 4w3 INFJ. She's the leisurely, I'm the dramatic; she's the intimate variant with high social, I'm the self-pres variant with low social; she's sweet and natural, I'm affected and assertive. And we get along very well. It's when 4's are too similar that they stagnate together. : OK, back to our program.... : Colonel Fitts: 6w5, ISTJ, intimate variant, "contraphobic." : Good description, Perciever. ;) : Watching the movie again after the revelation at the end, one gets a poignant insight into this character's internal motivations. He's driven by a conflict between his latent homosexual feelings and his desire to maintain his stability and security by seeming strong and dignified in the conventional sense (intimate variant).

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