In his summary of Gattaca, Shaw comes away from the movie with the message that the force of one’s aspirations and willpower will emerge triumphant over any obstacle. He begins by saying that Gattaca is “obsessed with class differences”, the reason being that humanity is segregated into two distinct classes: the genetically superior valids and the lesser invalids. Shaw highlights this class difference in the various scenes in which invalids are looking up and conversely where valids are looking down; a literal and metaphorical act exemplifying the class difference between the genetically modified and the god-children. However, he claims that when Vincent gazes through a barred window at a rocket taking off, it is a look of “defiance”; a challenge …show more content…
to the current social hierarchy that Vincent looks to demolish. Shaw then explains that in order to accomplish said goal, Vincent must position himself at the top of social hierarchy by swapping genetic identities with Eugene; as a result, Vincent successfully enters the Gattaca space program.
Shaw takes note of when Vincent returns to tell Eugene that he was successful in getting the job and extrapolates this scene to show how unstable the social hierarchy is with respect to Eugene. One minute you can be on top of the ladder, but the next instant you can be at the bottom symbolized by Vincent being at the top of the double-helix like staircase and Eugene being at the bottom. Shaw continues to say that the only way to escape the confines of this unstable social hierarchy is to literally leave earth and that Vincent will never be able to escape by adhering to the physical and genetic rules of earth; which leads to Shaw’s main point: transcendence. Ultimately, he suggests that, as shown through Vincent, the immaterial willpower and aspirations can ultimately transcend the material genetic limitations and social barriers. I agree with Shaw’s overall claim that physical and social constraints can be transcended by one’s aspirations and willpower, however I would suggest these are merely the minimum …show more content…
requirements. In order to not only reach for the stars, but arrive there; you need luck on your side. The movie’s plot suggests this, history tells us it is and Shaw’s article accepts it, even if it wasn’t mentioned. In Gattaca, there is no denying that Vincent had spirit and drive to accomplish his goals. But the entire story hinged on his admission into Gattaca, and for that he needed to assume someone else’s identity. Jerome just so happened to be the perfect match. Highly similar phenotype, a slight height difference correctable by surgery and because Jerome just so happened to become crippled outside of the country, his injury never showed up on his online genetic profile. The fact that the entire story was able to come to fruition was due to sheer luck that Vincent was able to find the perfect identity to assume, and this wasn’t the only time in the movie where luck came into play. Vincent just barely switching blood vials with the geneticist when getting his blood sampled, Anton not finding the incriminating equipment in Jerome’s house, Vincent not getting caught at the piano concert and Vincent not getting killed crossing a busy highway while essentially blind, are all mainly due to sheer luck. Shaw’s ideals alone also aren’t able to stand the test of time. An example can be extrapolated be contrasting the Paris uprising of 1832 with the American war for independence. In both cases a weaker entity, being the small colonies of the United States and the citizens of Paris, opposed a monumentally larger opponent, the French and British governments respectively. Both the French revolutionaries and American patriots were willing to give up their lives to uphold their beliefs and to break through what they perceived to be injustices to their way of life enforced by their overlords. However, where the American patriots were triumphant, the French revolutionaries were crushed. According to Shaw’s claim, they should have both been able to succeed in overthrowing their respective oppressive governments as they both had the willpower and aspiration; so what happened to make one fail and the other successful? Again, it came down to serendipitous external circumstances that tipped the scales ever so slightly in the favor of whoever is victorious; it came down to luck. In the middle of Shaw’s article, he states that Vincent will “never get to the ‘other world’ by adhering to the physical and genetic rules of this world”.
On the surface it would appear to mean that Vincent would need to break his social and physical constraints in order to get into space, but on a more literal term this could mean that Vincent’s safe arrival to the Saturn moon of Titan is not assured. Shaw states that Titan, the utopian realm, is a place where “material details are replaced by immaterial dreams and aspirations”. All variables considered, Vincent’s journey to Titan is going to be accomplished through metaphysical means; and what is more of an embodiment of the metaphysical than luck? People can develop aspirations, people can develop will-power what can’t be developed and still remains a mystery is
luck. In spite of what has been said, no credit should be taken away from Vincent with regards to his accomplishments. Yes, he had the willpower. Yes, he had amazing aspirations. But, unlike other invalids who lived in his broken world, in-valids the movie and Shaw’s article didn’t acknowledge who may have had similar traits as Vincent, he had luck on his side. The valids calculated that his chances of being anything greater than a janitor were effectively zero. However, through the unquantifiable traits that make us human, Vincent did it. He aimed for the stars and is now on his way to Titan. Nevertheless, willpower didn’t save him from not getting hit by a car on the high-way, just like willpower alone didn’t save the American patriots from the British Empire. In order to transcend social order, strong willpower and great aspirations are the minimum requirements; as for whether or not one succeeds, it may just come down to a matter of luck.
William Manchester, the author, wanted us to comprehend that it is goal-oriented people such as Desiderius Erasmus who doubtlessly have all the capacity to alter the world. As Erasmus once said, “There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are those who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other”. If people do not have faith in themselves and work hard towards their goals, then they will never reach said desired goals and continuously remorse the days that they did not take advantage of.
Larson uses this metaphor to send a message that the ruthless drive to succeed is harmful to the wellbeing of a civilization. The direction in which Larson is “pushing the world” towards is away from materialism and power. He views ambition as destructive to the morality of the people it inhabits, and to the people affected by those goal-obsessed civilians. Larson’s ironic statements and comparing and contrasting of people and places serve to show that you cannot have immense fame, power, and success without
The film Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol is a science fiction that discovers the overall effects of genetic engineering. This is shown through the idea of a imminent society compelled by eugenics, where hypothetical children are conceived within a world of genetic manipulation. By doing this, it ensures that the upcoming generation posses the finest hereditary traits to benefit the future.
o informant Tommaso Buscetta there is a clan hierarchy within mafias and gangs (Dickie). The higher someone is in clan hierarchy means the likelihood of something being pinned to them goes down because they have less association with the event in question.
This to most is the goal, what is strived for to achieve in the span of a lifetime, but for those who have and those who seek to have, the perspective greatly differs. To the lower class citizens of the world, what more could one want than to have achieved the pinnacle of wealth. A person no longer wants for anything, one simply has and can have more. The epitome of contentment and endless possibilities. This is not the case however for those in the position of having such means. Gill uses the quote “When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were no worlds to conquer.” in comparison to the life of people suffering from perfection anxiety. To make having everything possible, one most no longer have anything left to obtain. Without a goal or an ambition to strive for there is a prominent lack of purpose to one’s life, painting a rather depthless view of the inside life of the incredibly
Social orders have existed for many years and have been passed down from one generation to another. In history class we have discovered that “social order” was a product of “civilized” societies. Social order was the structure of a civilized society created by human and it determines where one is placed and their duty. The way social order was justified was through philosophical and religious beliefs and morals. The wealthy and the people who reinforce these justifications are the ones who benefit from a social order. I’ll be supporting my paper on social order through information from Vedic India and China.
What elements of social structure do you see in this video? How could they lead to crime or criminal behavior?
Social order derives from an interpretation of a net of relations, symbols and social codes. It creates 'a sense of how individuals all fit together in shared spaces' (Silva, 2009, p. 308), and thus relies on encoding of human behaviour in physical spaces as well as among various individuals. In any society, people must acquire knowledge of how to relate to one another and their environment. Order is then established by a normalisation and standardisation of this knowledge. This essay will examine two views on social order, applied to social sciences, and embodied in everyday life. It will compare and contrast a Canadian sociologist, Erving Goffman, and a French philosopher, Michel Foucault. Through an analysis of these two figures, the text will present different ways of looking at social ordering and individuals' place in a human society. Firstly, it will be shown how Goffman and Foucault approach the subject of social order, finding patterns of behaviour in micro and macro-social realities. Secondly, the essay will explore Goffman's and Foucault's views on underlying characteristics of social order, one drawing on performances, and the other on a reinforced adaptation. Finally, it will be argued that each theorist comments on a perception of the self, and its authenticity as a result of social ordering. In conclusion, it will be clear that order is a set of linked social structures, which cannot be reduced to one single theory.
There are many things that influence our behavior from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are implicit or explicit rules that govern how we behave in society (Maluso, class notes). Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us feeling uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens.
The marxist lens reflects the gap between the rich and the poor during the 1920’s through the glass ceiling effect and female economic status. The glass ceiling is an unseen and unbreakable barrier that keeps one from rising to the upper class regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The different settings in the novel represent this effect: East Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and
Unaware to some, The Great Gatsby not only tells a story, but contains great meaning to those who understand it. Published in 1925, Fitzgerald’s novel holds a myriad of topics and themes that depicts what life was like at that time. One such topic included is the class structure 1920s. During the 1920s, there existed invisible borders that separated people based off their socioeconomic class. Each class had particular attributes associated with people living in them as well as reasons why they are in that specific class. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates characters with specific attitudes and behaviors that generalize the social stratum they are placed in to convey a message about how the American class structure functions. Through
Class structure in the 1920s was synonymous to prejudice. The 1920s was known as a period of wild excess and great parties with excitement arising from the ashes of the wars in America’s history. It was a period in history where rapid materialism and narcissistic ideals grew uncontrollably, and it was the days where Jay Gatsby, illegally, rose to success. Having social classes was the same as segregation, except it was through economic standings, the two both instil injustice within social standards. Class structure was used to describe the difference between the new money and old money. The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, written during the 1920s, emphasizes the division between the social classes and the reasons behind why they are separated; the novel also emphasizes on the daring tasks in which— the bottom of the social class is willing to take in order to climb the ladder. The poor are daring enough to involve in illegal acts to gain success. However, even with success they are still not ultimately complete. Class structured is portrayed in this novel through Myrtle who is the poor, Gatsby—new money, and the Buchanans—old money. These characters are divided through wealth; the poor lacked money while the old money were born into it. However, the difference between the old and new money is that the new money must work in order to achieve the wealth, this is the reason why it is so difficult to climb the social ladder.
In this new technological society, eugenics, which is the concept of bettering one’s genes, has created a social prejudice against humans who come from a natural birth. Vincent is part of this lower class while his brother is genetically produced and favored by his own family. It is shown in every aspect of society, including the choosing of candidates for jobs. If you were natural birth, you had the menial jobs such as janitor but if you were a test tube baby, you could have a desk job with higher pay. Vincent, who tries to exert his free will, decides to pass this system by taking on a new identity of Jerome who is deemed as the perfect man. His hard work and determination leads him out of his confinement of social and physical expectations. For example, coming from a natural birth, it is already determined that he is weak and have significant heart problems. His brother on the other hand, has great physical abilities. As young kids, they played a game of who can go further out into the sea. After a certain amount of time, Vincent suddenly has this freedom of biological causation and wins the game against his brother. This proves that not only was he able to surpass the nature of his birth, but also his expectations. He is able to decide to take on a different path that he was
The "American Dream" supposedly allows everyone to climb the "social/economic ladder," if they wish to do so. Anyone that works hard is supposed to be able to move to a higher class. However, society often prevents social mobility. Social classes dictate who moves to a higher class and who does not. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, this issue was especially prevalent. The rigidity of classes was often an underlying theme in many novels during this time period. For example, The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby both feature the exclusive nature of social classes as a motif. In both The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby, the rigidity of social classes and the desire for social mobility leads to the downfall of several
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald peers into American life during the roaring 1920s. In the story, Fitzgerald not only discusses the ideas of power and greed but also that of social stratification. Fitzgerald focuses on the thought of a contemporary society: In chapter 3 Gatsby's holds a party that s both a description and parody of Jazz Age decadence. It presents the fortitude of conspicuous use, and is an amalgam of the boorish and the reputable. Fitzgerald accentuates the unique social classes through the descriptions of Gatsby himself, the guest’s behaviors, and the conclusion of the party, in order to suggest the superficiality of society.