Discrimination And Prejudice In The Movie Gattaca

The movie Gattaca, takes place in a world of discrimination and prejudice, although different from what most people might first imagine, the principals remain the same. Instead of racism because of someone’s physical appearance, it is racism because of someone’s genetic code. Society has never looked at physical appearance less in history. The resources are abundant in this world and genes can be very easily viewed at genetic code booths, much like a ticket booth. This movie contains several important characters, a protagonist who is overcomes discrimination to make his dream come true, and presents a unique possible future of society that humans may have to decide on.

The main character in this movie is Vincent Anton Freeman. In a world

of genetic selection and discrimination, he is a “faith birth”. His parents let fate decide his genes and he ended up with a life expectancy of 33 years, a heart condition, and other health conditions.

Although he is impaired in everything aspect seen as valuable in that day, he himself is happy, especially compared to his friend Jerome. He has a dream of going into space amongst the stars and the way to make it there is by working at Gattaca, a space mission company, that only accepts valids while he is an in-valid. Jerome Morrow is a genetically engineered man that stepped in front of a car and became paralyzed from the waist down. He was a swimmer at one point, and with the best genes possible, he was expected to be the best. But at the race, he only earned a silver medal, taking second place. Jerome is depressed and angry most of the time, drinking, and tried to kill himself with the car incident but only crippled himself instead. He signs a deal with Vincent to give him his DNA samples to earn a job at Gattaca and after helping Vincent and becoming friends, he appears to be more humorous and happy with himself. At the end of the movie, we see the deal fulfilled, Jerome lent Vincent his body, and Vincent lent Jerome his dream, to reach the stars. Jerome climbs into the incinerator shower and puts on his medal. He ignites the flames and ironically reaches the stars before Vincent

could on his rocket. Anton is a secondary character in the plot, Vincent’s younger brother. Unlike his sibling, Anton Freeman is genetically engineered to be the best of his parents. He is taller, stronger, healthier, and longer lasting than Vincent. He also displays arrogance, a trait common among valids. He and his brother play chicken often and Anton wins every time, except the last time they play for years. Vincent surpasses him and saves Anton from drowning. During an investigation for the murderer of a mission commander at Gattaca, Anton discovers his lost big brother is working there, in disguise, and then challenges him to another game of chicken which he loses for the final time. The last major character in this movie is Irene, a co-worker of Vincent’s at Gattaca. She is genetically engineered but still has heart troubles like Vincent. Vincent narrated to himself, after all these years of working to get away from here, I finally find a reason to stay, referring to Irene. These characters all develope the conflict in the Gattaca and help Vincent to overcome his challenge.
What is Vincent’s challenge? Acquiring a job a Gattaca, which only accepts valids, while he is an in-valid. Anton helps him with the game of chicken by showing him that he is not inferior to the genetically superior. Irene gives him the confidence he needs by knowing that he is not alone with his troubles. Jerome gives the largest contribution by far, fixing blood and urine samples to get the new Jerome through the genetic security at Gattaca. But Vincent must also take some of his own steps to become Jerome. He must get a new hairstyle, similar to that of Jerome’s, and wear contacts to correct his vision and match his eye color. Every morning, Vincent scrubs himself with a rough sponge to reduce the chance of leaving behind any of his actual DNA. But the most difficult change was his height. He needed to add a few inches and the only option was a bone implant in his legs. A gruesome undertaking with surgery and a long recovery of laying down. With all this work, Vincent shows his determination to go to the stars and willingness to pay any price.
One final interesting prospect of Gattaca is genetic engineering in society.

Is it good to have? I believe that humans will eventually have to cross this bridge of interfering with nature or not. I see the positives and negatives on boths sides of the argument. However, collectively, I believe that genetically engineering children to the extent of that in the movie is a bad. I believe this for several reasons, one being that there, as seen in the movie, would be very little excitement about anything and everything would lack passion. Everyone who works at Gattaca is very bleak and shows no emotion for fear of being judged by other people. Another reason is that no one would really succeed at anything, and it would not be impressive if they did because they were only fulfilling their potential predicted at birth. If someone were to be faster than others, it would be expected because of their genes, and have nothing to do with personal training or effort. The only thing one could do is fail. Jerome had one of the best possible genetic codes and he only managed to win second place after being guaranteed first. If they do not live up to what has been decided about them, they only see themselves as failure. The biggest reason though, not to engineer your children, is the same as we see in the movie, discrimination because they lack a preferred genotype. Vincent was looked down upon, and was only ever expected to mop the floors superior people worked on. Not everyone

will be engineered, those who are become the standard and not exceptional, and those not are like diseased children. The racism would be worse than ever before in history.
These characters, conflicts, and possibilities make for a thought provoking film and enlightening message. If humans decided to follow in the footsteps of the movie and walk down the path a genetic engineering children, we will send ourselves spiraling downward to a dark hole in history. We would likely drive ourselves to war and push ourselves off of this world.