GATTACA: Overcoming Great Adversities

Matt Miller

Period 5

Honors Biology

GATTACA

   

Another theme that’s portrayed in the movie GATTACA is the ability to overcome great adversity. The main character, Vincent Freeman, was born with several disabilities, including an unhealthy heart, awful eyesight, and possibly worse of all, a predicted life span of just 30.2 years. These setbacks limited what Vincent could do in the GATTACA, since that society discriminated people with below average genetics, like Vincent. But because of his determination and strive to succeed, he overcame all the nasty comments so he can reach his goal of going into space.

    Vincent was born without the assistance of genetic engineering, which limits his strength, height, and other physical traits. Because of this, his parents lost faith in him and his future, and put all their faith in their younger son Anton, who had fantastic genetics. There was a scene in the movie that portrays this: His mother states, “You have to be realistic, with a heart condition like yours..” In defense, 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 was receiving all this “hate mail”, he still had one great characteristic: he was motivated. When Vincent and Anton were young, every time they went to the beach they would take part in their favorite game, Chicken. Chicken is a game where the competitors swim out to see, and the first one to withdraw, loses. Vincent lost every single one of these games because of his endurance, or lack of. Part of this horrendous losing streak was the difference in stamina, but was also because Vincent knew he was going to lose. As he got older, he realized he could win, he just had to believe. So the times after that, he would put more effort and determination into each contest. As a result of all the extra work, the last two times the brothers played the game, Vincent had to carry Anton to safety, therefore willing by default.

    In the movie, the real Jerome Morrow was born genetically perfect. But he had three major setbacks; no passion for what he does, addiction to alcohol, and depression. Even though Jerome had all the physical qualities needed to be successful, his imperfections led him onto a different path. The path that led him to becoming an alcoholic and attempting to commit suicide. Oddly enough, Vincent is the complete opposite. He has the desire to become an astronaut, but doesn’t have the physical qualities to achieve that goal. When Vincent uses the fake identity of Jerome Morrow, he faces a number of challenges each day. Right when he wakes up, he goes into this mini vat and shaves every hair on his body, clips his nails, scrubs away all the dead skin, anything that can be tested and might give away his true identity. Basically every room he enters his identification is checked through blood samples, eye color, fingerprint, and so on. All this hard work payed off, with a little assistance from Jerome, as Vincent finally reached his lifelong goal: to go up into space.

    Throughout his lifetime, Vincent encountered genetic discrimination and disheartening criticism from his family, colleagues, and head honchos. What he did to overcome all these negative obstacles was to stay positive and motivate to reach his objective. After months of strenuous servitude, Vincent Anton Freeman achieved his lifelong goal: to go to space.