preview

Identity In Gattaca, And Mending Wall

Better Essays
Open Document

Many things, forces that are both inside and outside of us, shape our identity. One of the oldest disputes in history, that of nature versus nurture, is highly evident as our environment has a large impact on our lives and the way we are. The people in our life teach us many things to further shape our identity, though our surroundings also play a fundamental part in doing so, with culture being oft reflected in our characters. The chosen texts are prime examples of how identities are shaped by both people and surroundings. These texts are the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, the film Gattaca, composed by Andrew Niccol, and the poem Mending Wall by Robert Frost. Set in a dystopian, futuristic world, Nineteen Eighty-Four is an excellent …show more content…

Colour is used to create a clinical sort of setting, with cold blues, muted dark colours and stark whites as contrast. As part of the narration in the flashback at the beginning of the film, Vincent Freeman (the protagonist) says, “I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the colour of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science.” This refers to the use of technology to modify genetics. In the world of Gattaca, what is considered as the “natural” way of birth is to take fertilised eggs from a woman and erase any genetic defects, such as chance of disease and mental illness. Any who are born without modification are known as a “faith-birth”, “god-child”, “degenerate”, or “invalid”. They are generally looked down upon, as these people are more prone to disease and are set up for failure. Vincent’s identity is complex in that during the film, he is shown to be two different people, but still the one person, with the one personality. Vincent is one of the underclass in his society, and all throughout his life, the people around him told him that he would never truly amount to anything – his own father tells him this one morning at breakfast, when Vincent is reading an advanced scientific text – “The only way you’ll see the inside of a spaceship is if you’re cleaning it.” His surroundings taught him much the same – this is a society for those of superior genetics, not “faith-births”. Yet despite his upbringing, Vincent believes he can do more – and he does. He becomes a “borrowed ladder,” taking the identity of Jerome Morrow, a former athlete who is now paralysed from the waist down. Furthermore, he works at the Gattaca Corporation, and in the end, fulfils his dream of becoming an astronaut, beating the system that does not

Get Access