Diana Florez
ENGL 101-0768
Dr. Vasileiou
Essay # 1
10/10/12
Not
Utopia at all
A place where there
exist discriminations because of one’s genes would not be considered a utopia.
Utopia will be a place where everything would be perfect no discrimination
would exist and nothing will go wrong and for me this is not Gattaca. The essay
“The man on the moon” by George J. Annas has different pieces of writing that
can be compared to the dystopia place I considered Gattaca to be. Would you
expect a murder to be committed in utopia?. In Gattaca there are also examples
of where we see the other being discriminated. Technology and science have helped
human being create a better place that can be perfect but can offer us a better
quality life.
As the essay by George J. Annas says, in
the article about the Unholy wars “The Nazi experiments involved murder torture,
systematic and barbarous acts with death as the planned endpoint. The subject
of these experiments, which included lethal freezing and high-altitude
experiments, were concentration camp prisoners, mostly Jews, gypsies and Slavs
people the Nazi viewed as subhuman.” This is very similar of what is going on
in the movie Gattaca. Vincent’s mom “put her faith in God's hands, rather than her local geneticist” when she conceived him. This affected
Vincent’s life drastically because he was considered an invalid person in his
society. This discrimination makes me think of Gattaca as a dystopia place,
were you are discriminated because of your genes. In Gattaca children were born the “natural
way” when the eggs of the mother were
fertilize and you could be able to pick the best candidate to be born. One could
also chose the color of the hair, eyes and even gender of their child. A child born by genetic engineering could be
benefit from it because by having the chance to pick the best candidate, parents
would pick a child with less illnesses, but they would not be perfect at all. Irene
was considered a valid person in Gattaca but she wasn’t perfect, she had an
unacceptable risk of heart failure. Also, in Gattaca your genes will determined
the kind of carrier you would be able to have. Valid persons would have higher
jobs while the invalid people like Vincent would have also be considered but eventually
became part of an underclass and once his job was to clean toilets. Would utopia
discriminate others by not giving them the chance to prove themselves just
because they were not born the “natural way”?
I believe a place where murder is
attempted to commit will immediately be considered a dystopia. In a perfect
place nobody would have to kill others because you do not accept the decisions they
make at work. And this is what happens in Gattaca a mission director is killed because
he was trying to cancel a mission. Would you expect this in utopia place?. “The
enemy was the nonbeliever, the infidel; killing the infidel became a holy act.
The ability to label an enemy as “other” and subhuman, and to justify killing
the “other” in the name of God …” so it
will be a holy act committing a murder because simply the “other” does not believe what you do or want what you
desire? . Utopia does not consist of this; there is no trust between your
co-workers.
Technology plays a big role in the movie
Gattaca. There are many technological advances. It is almost incredible how Vincent
is able to get away with his plan, and is able to achieve his dream. Gattaca is also very
advanced in science and they have frequent space travels. Many people now days would
benefit from these advantages if this was their dream like it were for Vincent.
As mentioned in the essay about the voyage of Apollo 11 it was the most spectacular
exploration, and more of these voyages would be something incredible in our
society. But if you look at the world we live in, and the past years,
technology and science have advanced tremendously. There are a lot of
technological devices that help us have a better life, science is so advanced
that we might be born with certain illnesses but the scientist also have come
up with a lot of cures for this illnesses. There are so many things that in the
future there will be that we don’t even think of them now or expect.
I strongly believe Gattaca was just an
attempt of utopia. There could be much eradication of illnesses, the
environmental safe mans of transportation and even the frequent space travels
and advances in science but our planet has also change drastically over the
years. We live in a world that day by day also attempts to be perfect, but I think
no one and nothing would ever be perfect in earth. There will always be
differences and obstacles that one has to overcome in order to succeed and from
this thinks is the way one learns. If we would live in utopia we would of have
being born with a lot of knowledge and would not have to learn anything.
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