Gattaca – Analytical Essay - Dystopia and Utopia

‘We now have discrimination down to a science’.

Gattaca shows that some human habits will always be the same. Would you agree?

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Utopia, a perfect society, is a vision that exists in every human beings head; a scene of beautiful tranquillity, a perfect socio-culture class, an impeccable legal system and of course a society that is rid of all hatred, discrimination and other terrible human habits. Throughout Andrew Niccol’s film, Gattaca, evidence of this vision is prevalent – genetic engineering is viewed as the path to this “perfect” society. However, it is not as easy as once thought; discrimination still exists, although more subliminally. This shows us that discrimination will always exist in one form or another.

Although this “utopia” is meant to be completely impeccable, there are large amounts of genoism (genetic discrimination) evident throughout the film, and it is often scientific in nature. The use of technology to enhance individual’s capabilities is what rules Niccol’s Utopian/Dystopian society of Gattaca. An ideology of success, linked with genetic engineering dominates civilization. ‘Ten fingers, ten toes, that’s all that used to matter. Not now. Now, only seconds old, the exact time and cause of my death was already known.’ Parents choose the ‘very best’ of themselves for their children, eliminating all their imperfections. Even the people marked INVALID are shown to be unhappy that they are perhaps a ‘little different’, or that their parents decided to leave a little to chance – this is evident when Vincent said “I’ll never understand what possessed my mother to put her faith in God’s hands rather than those of her local geneticist”. These so-called perfect specimens are the unopposed Alpha class in this “Utopia”, while INVALID’s- those...