 According to the reviewer, Carolyn's preference for "Muzak" and "nutritious yet savory" food most likely symbolize:
Apparently, Lester doesn't realize that snipped roses are garden-variety symbols of castration, or he'd know what he has lost. The movie is convinced, too--which is odd, since the fantasy of an underage cheerleader making a middle-aged man's wilted roses bloom is a tad ... primitive. A merican Beauty is so wittily written and gorgeously directed that you might think you're seeing something archetypal--maybe even the Great American Movie.
 The characters' desperate desire to be perceived as ordinary
 The characters' desperate desire to be perceived as ordinary  The deterioration of the American nuclear family  The tendency for people to be consumed by what their values  The dangers of standing out in a society that demands conformity