“Is Vincent the Hero in Gattaca?”

The film Gattaca fails to provide us with a character that can be clearly defined as a hero. By definition a hero is a person of distinguished courage or ability and is admired for their noble qualities and exhibits certain traits that are deemed to be heroic. In Andrew Niccol’s film the character Vincent freeman at times display heroic qualities but they do not consistently show them to prove to us that he is a heroes.

Vincent takes on a whole new identity changing from an in-valid to a valid which makes it difficult to distinguish his true identity from the borrowed one he has become. Throughout the film it is hard to see Vincent’s true personality through the façade he displays to the outside world. And there are many cases where Vincent shows quite admirable qualities like when he is with Irene and he lets go of the strand of hair saying “the wind caught it”. At first this may seem a very heart felt gesture but for Vincent this could be a form of insurance gaining Irene’s trust and if she was ever in a position to protect Vincent’s identity she might do so. Up until the point where Vincent decides to infiltrate Gattaca, he is just an average person, an outcast of society, a lonely person with no life who’s survived on nothing but a dream. Up until this point there are no characteristics being shown by Vincent which show that he deserves to be classified as a hero.

The character Vincent Freeman from the moment he was born was seen as weak and genetically imperfect but he is able to overcome these constraints. Vincent was labelled as an in-valid, a label which determined how long he would live to what he could be able to do. Vincent’s strong character, determination and desire to achieve his dreams displays his true heroic qualities. He refuses to abide by the rules of Gattaca and with little hesitation finds a way to make his dreams come true no matter what the cost. “They used to say that a child conceived in love has a greater chance of happiness. They