Sangeetha Damiano_Gattaca Essay

Gattaca Essay:

One important theme that is portrayed in the movie GATTACA is being able to overcome great adversity. Vincent, the main character was born with genetic disabilities, including an unhealthy heart, poor eyesight, and estimated lifespan of 30.2 years. Having these disabilities significantly limited his duties in his society, especially because the society is critical to those who have poor genetics. However, due to his determination to become an astronaut, he strived to overcome those obstacles and discouraging comments he received.

Living in a dystopic society, like the one in GATTACA, really limits one’s opportunities if they do not meet the society’s genetic expectations. Unlike most other children, Vincent was born without the aid of genetic engineering, consequently not developing physical strength, height, and dominant physical traits. Because of this, his parents lost faith in his abilities, while favoring his genetically stronger brother, Anton. At the beginning at the movie, Vincent and his parents were arguing about his condition. His parents echo the society’s sentiment by losing faith in their son. His mother states, “You have to be realistic, with a heart condition like yours..” In defence, Vincent states, “ Mom, there's a chance there's nothing even wrong with my heart.." His father states, “ Listen for God's sake, you gotta understand something, the only way that you'll see the inside of a spaceship is if you're cleaning it."

Even though Vincent received many disparaging comments and discrimination from the people around him, he had an important attribute: spiritual motivation. When Vincent and his younger brother were young, they used to play a game called Chicken, which required them to swim as far out into the ocean as they could. The loser was the one who puckered out. For the first several times, it was Vincent who lost. However as they got older, Vincent realized that he always expected himself to lose. Instead, he put more effort and determination into swimming farther. As a result, he won twice, both times carrying his younger brother back.

In the movie, Jerome was born genetically perfect, but with imperfections in his emotional traits such as lack of desire, addiction to alcohol and depression. Even though he was able to accomplish so much due to his physical genes, his imperfections lead him in the opposite path, consequently being an alcoholic and committing suicide. Ironically, Vincent contained many physical genetic disabilities but had a great desire to go to space. When Vincent enters Gattaca as a different identity, he goes through many physical challenges, such as getting through genetic tests, being able to complete strenuous tasks and scrubbing off skin cells daily. Vincent worked really hard to overcome those challenges. In the end, he got himself out of trouble and eventually accomplished his goal: to go up into space.

Throughout his life, Vincent experienced genetic discrimination and discouraging comments from many people, like his family and others superior to him. He worked hard to overcome the obstacles in his life by staying determined and spiritually motivated to achieve his goals. Eventually, he accomplished his long life goal: to go up into space.