Gattaca and Sociology
SOC 101/110 Gattaca
“Gattaca” is a movie about a man named Vincent who is born into a “new” society that uses genetics as the make-up for what social class you are given and will remain in, no matter what you do. Vincent is a “godchild”. He is born the “natural way”, without any genetic altering and his future is set for him as soon as he is conceived. His place in society is at the bottom of the social class and with all his “birth defects”, he seems to be placed even lower. He has poor eyesight and heart problems among many other things and is only given a life expectancy of around thirty years of age. He is denied the basics of life such as medical care and education. When his brother, Aton, is born through genetic alteration, Vincent becomes even more aware of his “differences” when even his own family begins to turn against him in hopes of furthering Aton to an even better social class than he has already been born into. His father tells him that he can never be an astronaut and that he should be helping his little brother to succeed. Despite Vincent’s dreams, he is a “godchild” and has no real future, until he meets a DNA broker who can, and does, change his life forever. In the movie “Gattaca” we see several terms and theories used in sociology that can be used to break down the movie into a sociological perspective of how life could be in the future. A persons’ values are their ideas of what is important and desirable in life. For Vincent, he wants to be an astronaut. This is impossible because the society that Vincent has been placed into by his birth is one of menial labor. He is placed into a life of servitude and hopelessness. He can only dream of going to the stars. For him, his norms are menial labor and possibly a wife and kids but only if he can find a woman who is willing to accept him for his Invalid status. People in this movie go to a center where they can obtain potential mates’ life history and future in exchange for a DNA
“Gattaca” is a movie about a man named Vincent who is born into a “new” society that uses genetics as the make-up for what social class you are given and will remain in, no matter what you do. Vincent is a “godchild”. He is born the “natural way”, without any genetic altering and his future is set for him as soon as he is conceived. His place in society is at the bottom of the social class and with all his “birth defects”, he seems to be placed even lower. He has poor eyesight and heart problems among many other things and is only given a life expectancy of around thirty years of age. He is denied the basics of life such as medical care and education. When his brother, Aton, is born through genetic alteration, Vincent becomes even more aware of his “differences” when even his own family begins to turn against him in hopes of furthering Aton to an even better social class than he has already been born into. His father tells him that he can never be an astronaut and that he should be helping his little brother to succeed. Despite Vincent’s dreams, he is a “godchild” and has no real future, until he meets a DNA broker who can, and does, change his life forever. In the movie “Gattaca” we see several terms and theories used in sociology that can be used to break down the movie into a sociological perspective of how life could be in the future. A persons’ values are their ideas of what is important and desirable in life. For Vincent, he wants to be an astronaut. This is impossible because the society that Vincent has been placed into by his birth is one of menial labor. He is placed into a life of servitude and hopelessness. He can only dream of going to the stars. For him, his norms are menial labor and possibly a wife and kids but only if he can find a woman who is willing to accept him for his Invalid status. People in this movie go to a center where they can obtain potential mates’ life history and future in exchange for a DNA