Blog #4 Essay #1 Complete Draft

Tasmin Perry

ENGL 101-0768

Dr. Vasileiou

Essay #1

10/3/12

The Costs of Living

     We all dream of a life based on a Utopian society. We hope that our lives will exceed limits and our children will be perfect. But what length would a person go to ensure this perfect life? I feel the people in the movie Gattaca are living in a dream world. For a parent to be able to choose their child’s destiny before they are even born seems like scientists are trying to play the role of God in my opinion. It comes to my attention that in this world generally you’ll know how your life would turn out just by the make-up of your DNA. It is not fair that if someone wasn’t genetically engineered to be perfect their success rate would be low and they would lose hope to pursue their dreams. So taking into consideration how much I am against genetically engineering ones child, I feel the world presented in Gattaca is a portrayed as a Dystopia.

 Now I do see how it is possible for a person to see the Gattaca society as a Utopia. Due to environmental polices like electronic transportation as a result there is far less pollution which slows down the process of global warming. Also due to advancement in technology there are no illnesses so people don’t have to be concerned of dying from diseases because they are prevented. Also they are far more advanced and are able to take daily trips to outer space.

However to support my position of Gattaca being portrayed as a dystopian society I would like to bring up three key points to help my argument. To start with any parent granted the opportunity ensure their child a good life would accept it at all costs. Especially if you could choose their fate before they were born. But what if you are in the position where you cannot afford to pay for the process of having your child genetically engineered, or if the child was not planned. The child would grow to be weak and not have as many aspirations as a child that was made to succeed. They would constantly struggle with the stigma of not being good enough. 

     My next point would be if majority of the people in the society are perfect, No one would find the need to work hard. There wouldn’t be any struggle or hard bridges to cross if everything was basically handed to you. From firsthand experience and throughout history I have noticed that a person who has endured a great deal of struggle puts forth a large amount of effort to get out of the current situation they are in. It also builds character to not be able to take things for granted. Lastly, as seen in the movie Jerome Marrow who was born genetically engineered himself, was destined to prosper. He was once a swimming star who always came in first place. When suddenly during one of his meets he came in second place. Bringing him to try to commit suicide, he failed and became disabled. I feel this shows how much pressure one could feel living in this society of such high competition to always be better. In the movie it is portrayed that with the help of science society would lead a flawless and healthy life. We saw that though Irene was genetically engineered and she still she was able to have a heart disease. Though the crime rate seemed low the mission director of Gattaca killed a man. This shows that science is not always perfect and naturally things can go wrong.