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Analysing Social Class Inequality and Poverty in Parasite Movie with Marxism Theory

25 Aug 2021

This article is originally written for Literary Criticism final exam

Introduction

Parasite is a South Korean dark comedy thriller drama 2019 movie. The director of this movie is Bong Joon-ho, who also became a producer and scriptwriter of this movie. The movie is about a lower-class family – the father Kim Ki-taek, mother Kim Chung-sook, daughter Kim Ki-jeong and son Kim Ki-woo – who do not have a higher educational background and live-in shabby basement houses. Their phone’s internet connection is from the neighborhood’s Wi-Fi, and they work part-time, which there is no certainty at all. One day, Ki-Woo’s friend’s offer him a substitute private tutor for Park’s daughter until Ki-woo’s friend is returning to South Korea. Ki-woo asked Ki-jeong to help forge his college certificate, and he became the private tutor for Park’s daughter.

Nevertheless, it turns out that the Kim family is scheming to become wealthy after Ki-woo becomes the private tutor because of their greediness. So, the Kim family decided to remove the Park family’s maid from the house and have all the low-income families infiltrate to become the employees of the wealthy family by being the maid, art therapist, private tutor, and driver. However, it turns out they see the real side of the Park family and the secret of the Park’s luxury home after working with them for a long time with unpredictable twists.

Bong Joon-ho makes this film based on social class inequality; it is about the story of poverty and the different treatment between rich and poor. More like this film satirizes the social lives of the society metaphorically or abstractly, which is why there is a connection to Marxism theory and parasite. Parasite represents how the capitalist system and socio-economic works, as it must end in hope. How Bong Joon-ho tells the story of social inequality in the parasite is equivalent to the real-life of society in South Korea and around the world –poverty, injustice, inequality. It is more like a message for people not to see the world only through our eyes, and people must know that life is truly unfair to some people. That is why this film is truly a masterpiece and won 4 2020 Oscars nominations –best picture, best director, best original screenplay, and best foreign-language film– a new achievement for South Korean movies.

Theoretical Review

Marxism is a theory that tells us about social norms, social values, and social equality. This theory is positioning the current condition of political, social, and economic philosophy. Karl Marx, a famous philosopher, author, social theorist, and economist, is the inventor of Marxism. Marxism tells about the struggle of poverty, capitalism, and the working class. The core of this theory talks about social class; in literature, it always talks about the story of the different treatment between rich and poor. The literature in Marxism told the perspective as to how Marxism’s effect on society was. Nevertheless, the different treatment, literature in Marxism told the story of relationships between parties and workers.

Karl Marx proposed this theory as an argument against capitalism and class conflict. The approach of Marxism is based on the capitalist system and its demise. There are two classes of capitalist, which are the bourgeoisie and the workers. The bourgeoisie is the business owner, or we can say it as a controller of means of production. Meanwhile, the workers are the ones that are ordered to do a bourgeoisie class. The bourgeoisie is the upper class or prosperous people, and workers are the lower class or poor people.

Social inequality in Marxism may be a distribution of goods and wrong in society. A good is often, for instance, income, education, employment, or parental leave. In contrast, samples of bad are drug abuse, criminality, unemployment, and marginalization. The things in social inequality in the parasite are the same as the example of the goods and burdens of social inequality. As in Marxism, there is a connection in social inequality with Marxism.

Poverty means depravations in well-being. The one that experiences poverty lacks financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living. The income level from employment is so low that lower-class people cannot meet basic human needs. Poverty-stricken people and families might go without proper housing, clean water, healthy food, and medical attention. In Marxism, poverty is like the consequence of a capitalist society.

Analysis/Discussion

The parasite is considered as a relatable side of poverty and social inequality. Satirizing the social class in society is one of the essential keys of this film. The portrayal of the wealthy family can be considered based on their personality and treatment against Kim’s family. It shows that the wealthy family is a naïve one, while the low-income families are crafty and deceitful. Kim’s family is brilliant, but they cannot attend university because they cannot afford the fee; it is one of the poverty cases. We also see that both classes are sometimes egoistical, as, from Kim’s family and Park’s family, they only care about their family life and do not want to help the other people and use them for their benefit. This egoism from both sides shows that their personalities are the same no matter what social inequality happens in both of them.

The wealthy family degrades Kim’s family when they are not around them. The wife and husband are disgusted with Kim’s family smell of “poverty” -the smell defined like dirty slum basement- they only appreciate their work ethic, not as human beings. It has shown the relationships of a wealthy family and Kim’s family, just like the bourgeoisie and workers. The parties only regard them as slaves who carry out their orders, as they do not care about the workers’ condition and healthcare. Even the parties are feeling superiority toward their status and constantly demeaning the workers. The smells have become the main symbol of inescapable poverty in Kim’s family; they do not have the power to become an affluent class. It is just a dream of Kim’s family that, in the end, becomes a fantasy.

There is a thing that impressed the audience on the parasite, the stairs, incline, upstairs, and downstairs. Maybe some of us are confused why stairs and inclines or upstairs and downstairs are making us impressed. They only saw it as an object, but we know that Bong Joon-ho makes these two things visually the main symbols in the parasite. The symbols of class separation between the family.

Kim’s family lives in the basement, or should we say they live downstairs. The access is complicated, not safe from flood, shabby, and dirty. The size of the house is diminutive, crowded, and cramped. The lower income from the part-time job brings them still struggling in their house, leading them to dream of becoming a wealthy family faster by infiltrating the house like a fox. It shows that no matter what, lower-income people are still struggling due to poverty and social inequality, as they always struggle with the minimum standard of living and capitalist systems.  The house has also become the side of the life of the lower class.

Park’s family lives in the extensive luxury big house on the upstairs and incline, a symbol of the upper class. The house and the sun are also a symbol of the better life of the upper class. It shows that the Park family is higher up in society, physically, and closer to the sun. Something the wealthy family achieves in life, and what lower-income family wants to be. The roadway and stairs that lead up to Park’s house and downward to Kim’s house have vertical relationships, or should we say the vertical distances, the symbol of class separation and inequality. However, there is an unknown dark side in Park’s house that the family does not wish to become, a shabby basement like the Kim family’s house. A place where the husband of the former Park’s maid is living to avoid debt collectors. Showing that no matter what, there is still a poverty side to the wealthy family, and this basement in the lavish house is like the social inequality that is happening in this world.

Conclusion

How amazing to see parasite with so many symbols of poverty and social class inequality. The main point of the symbols shown is how Bong Joon-ho’s direction is made a social satirizing film metaphorically, from smells to visual architecture. However, poverty and social inequality cases are still happening worldwide, as there is a stigma from both of the classes. The symbols in the film are the message to us that lower and upper can coexist and live together, not to care about their levels in society. There are not vertical distances between us, as it is just a form of class separation from what society sees in life, something that we wish to dissolve class inequality.

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Nadia Salsabila