Gattaca Movie Essay

In the 1997 movie, Gattaca, Vincent Freeman is an invalid born into a valid world. This means his parents decided not to pick and choose the ideal genes in the process of conceiving him, causing Vincent to be born with heart problems, asthma, and myopia. He then makes the decision to become Jerome Eugene Morrow and pass himself off as valid in order to achieve his dream of traveling into space. In the movie, there is a clear divide between the valids and invalids, revealing many connections to sociology. Through the poor treatment of invalids, the worshipping of valids, and the lengths Vincent goes through as Gerome all connect to symbolic interaction, Durkheim’s labeling theory, deviance, and the structural-functional paradigm. In the film,
In Gattaca, the two parts of the whole are the valids and invalids. As shown in the movie, the valids have a better, higher ranked roles in the workforce and in society in general. They are the ones who get to go into space, go on other expeditions, do jobs that require physical exertion, basically anything they want. Society isn’t stopping them. However, society is stopping invalids from pursuing many jobs and are not offered the same opportunities. These people are the ones who, by default, get the the jobs as janitors, garbage men, assistants, and other menial jobs. This divide in roles is what keeps the society in Gattaca going. Many of the things they do and the way things work revolves around the fact that invalids get the shorter end of the stick. But, even though invalids appear to be useless, the reality is actually the opposite. If the invalids don’t fill the roles that are commonly looked down on, then who will? There is little to no chance that a valid would be willing to be a janitor. At the same time, valids are traditionally the only ones who are allowed to fill the prestigious positions. Without the people to fill both of these roles, the society in Gattaca would eventually