'Perfection In The Film Gattaca'

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The film ‘Gattaca’ touches on the idea of perfection through the character Vincent who is played by Ethan Hawke. Vincent is a man who was born with many disabilities in his body and therefore he is not perfect and eligible to be part of society’s higher ups. It is said that he has a one percent chance of living to pass the age of 30, but Vincent later states that he is ‘10,100 beats overdue.’ This could mean that although the science in the time set in the film is very advanced, it is not always accurate. In the film, perfection for their society means to have perfect genes and perfect genetic codes. The idea of perfect seems so farfetched to the extent that being left handed could be ruled out as imperfect. The obsession Vincent has with wanting to fly out into outer space motivates him to lie about his own body. He does not see himself as ‘perfect’ and uses another man’s urine and blood to get to his owns dreams of flying into outer space. This man is Jerome who was born ‘perfect’. It is a routine for Vincent to scrub himself dry everyday without any water as a way of getting rid of his own genetics by scrubbing his dead skin, making sure hair on any part of his body stays on his body so that it doesn’t leave any traces of his invalid self behind. His …show more content…

The discrimination in this film is much like racism today in our world. The discrimination in this film goes deep into the genetics and if you are found to be invalid, you might as well not have big dreams because it is impossible in the world of Gattaca to even get that far. Those that are valid are eligible to fly to space whilst the invalid don’t even have a chance of entering the rocket unless ‘you’re cleaning it’ because of the invalid’s defects. The flying into outer space is only for the genetically perfect people and this is a way of segregating the invalid and the valids to make the world a much more perfect

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