投稿類別:英文寫作類 篇名: the Middle Class Crisis in Parasite 作者
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投稿類別:英文寫作類 篇名: The Middle Class Crisis in Parasite 作者: 葉佳欣。苗栗高中。二年八班 蔡幸紋。苗栗高中。二年八班 徐翔筠。苗栗高中。二年十班 指導老師: 吳曉菁老師 The Middle Class Crisis in Parasite I. Introduction Throughout the history, the class system has been around for ages. Whether it is a powerful country like Japan or a small country in the Third World such as the Kingdom of Tonga, the existence of the royal family leads to the inevitable divisions of the people in a country into the high-statused and low-statused. Among others, the hereditary class system of India even persists under the name of the lawful provision. However, with the growing democratic consciousness and the civil struggles in the history, most countries have discarded the class system nowadays. Even so, it seems not easy for many modernized countries around the world to get rid of the consequent classes following the capitalism. Just like the award-winning movie we would like to dig into --- Parasite, the hidden classifications of South Korean rich and poor people by means of the different forms of residences and their high-lying and low-lying positions have aroused our great curiosity. Thus, we want to dig into the class issue in Korea and investigate more of its cultural sense and then make use of it to examine the phenomenon around the world, including that in Taiwan. I.1 Motivation The hard-earned life of the middle class plays a key role in the movie Parasite. We found out the director intentionally used the contrast between upper classes and middle classes to describe this movie. After watching the movie, we want to understand whether the difficulty middle class faces in the real Korean society is exactly the same as that depicted in the movie. Is this kind of crisis only exclusive to Korea? Whether problems brought by such wealth disparity between the poor and rich are similar across the world? Whether the young generation of Taiwan will face the same situation in the future? As a result, we have the following research questions and expect to look for some inspiring answers from this thesis. Research questions 1. What crisis do the Kim family face in the movie? 2. How are some metaphors employed in the movie to refer to class inequality? 3. Does the class conflict get resolved in the end? 4. How much does the movie mirror the socio-economic circumstances in current Korea? I.2 Methodology By comparing and contrasting the lives of the rich and poor in the movie Parasite, we aim at figuring out what social phenomenon/a in Korea the director tries to reveal and applying this understanding to investigate the struggle of the middle class in Korea. To achieve this, we first watched the movie closely and then made detailed reviews about the backgrounds and settings of the movie. Besides, we enhanced our understanding about the cultural aspect of the movie by reading and watching lots of movie comments. Finally, we have drawn our own observations and perspectives. We also hope to explore this issue of wealth disparity both in Taiwan and around the world. II. Body II.1 The Crisis the Kim Family Faces in the Movie 1 The Middle Class Crisis in Parasite In the movie, the Kim family represents the middle class at the bottom of the society. The director described many aspects of their life to shape their image. Although the son of the poor Kim family, Ki-woo, and his sister, Ki-jung, are both talented young people, they are unable to get decent jobs because they failed to have diplomas of higher education. In fact, diplomas are highly valued in Korean society, so this has stopped them from obtaining job opportunities and made them caught in a cycle of poverty. In addition, their father, Ki-taek opened the shop selling Taiwanese chicken egg cake following the popular trend earlier, which was in fact misled by a high-rating TV program. This shop then caused Ki-taek to lose his job and put the Kim family into an economic crisis. In turn, they couldn’t afford even a moderate living place. Later, because of a high–statused friend’s introduction, Ki-woo entered the rich Park family working as a tutor. Then, his family, Ki-jung, Ki-taek, and his mother, Chung-sook, entered the Park family one after another to get a job. At the same time, Ki-woo’s desire to pursue fame and fortune was sparked. In the end, such desire resulted in a murderous tragedy. However, the Kim family’s dream of climbing up has never been realized. II.2 Metaphors Employed in the Movie to Refer to Class Inequality There are quite a few metaphors used by the director in his brilliant way of telling the story, and we intend to only focus on the following three aspects concerning class inequality to depict the adversity of the middle class. II.2.1 Residence The mansion on the hillside where the Park family lives symbolizes the highest status and economic ability; the semi-basement where the Kim family lives stands for they still have a little freedom but are still controlled by others; the secret bunker where the husband of the housekeeper (Moon-gwang) lives is a metaphor for completely losing freedom. Different levels of residences are employed to refer to different classes in the movie, and the scenes of climbing or going down the stairs appeared several times in the movie as hints of lifestyles belonging to different statuses. As a matter of fact, there is a wide discussion about this obvious metaphor of “stairs” according to the director’s interview (Jung, 2020). Thus, here we will just introduce the origin of the semi-basement in Korea. Semi-basement apartments, known as ‘banjiha’ in Korean, have been thrust into the spotlight by this film. The semi-basement apartment that the Kims live in is common for poorer Seoul residents because of its lower rent, regardless of issues such as dampness and increased risk of disease (Ulaby, 2019). As in one report, “Banjiha can trace their roots back to the 1970s when the government mandated that basements be built to serve as bunkers in case of any North Korean attack” (Ng, 2020), such structure appeared due to the political factor and then they were adapted into a form of housing for young people or those with financial problems. Like the Hong Kong’s cage homes and Brazil’s favelas, banjiha is also a symbol of inferiority and poverty. The upper class, on the contrary, will reside in more spacious and bright places. II.2.2 Smell 2 The Middle Class Crisis in Parasite In one scene, the little son of the Park family mentioned that the new coming driver, Kim Ki-taek, had the same stinky smell as that of the poor without knowing his humble background. The Kim parents had ever tried to eliminate this so-called “poor” smell, but their daughter said, “The problem is not whether the clothes of the family should be washed separately, but that there is the smell of the semi-basement attaching to them; we can only get rid of this smell if we leave.” The short dialogue tells us that this stinky smell refers to the “poor and sour taste” of the low-leveled class. Even before the moment of the rich Park Dong-ik got killed, his expression of being intolerable of such “smell” of Ki-taek then inevitably provoked the poor father to kill Mr. Park, his employer. II.2.3 Cockroach and Spotted Camel Cricket (Stink Bug) Spotted Camel Crickets (referred to as stink bugs in the movie) are a kind of beneficial insect, and are often found in damp and dark basements, utility rooms, or garages. They often take shelter in structures when the weather becomes hot. However, it is harder to get rid of than the cockroach due to their strong vitality. They are despised by people because of its common and terrible appearance in the household. In the movie, there was a touring sanitation vehicle spraying disinfectant passing through the semi-basement where the Kim family lived. At that time, the whole family were coughing. Among them, the daughter, Ki-jung coughed most seriously, but his father, Ki-taek, kept undisturbed. In our view, it was an analogy to compare Ki-taek to Spotted Camel Cricket. Besides, when the Park family went out camping and the poor Kim family occupied the mansion. Chung-sook, mother of the Kims teased her husband while drinking “if the boss came home now, we would flee like cockroaches met with bright light.”It seems to indicate that they knew their existence is similar to that of the cockroaches, that is, a way of parasitization. As a result, we consider that either stink bugs or cockroaches are taken by the director as the metaphor of parasites, suggesting the pathetic lifestyle of the low-leveled class. II.3 How the Class Conflict Gets Resolved in the End The class conflict is wrapped as a series of thrilling killings in the climax of the movie, each with a different motive behind it. We will illustrate how these murders imply the failure of breaking the classes. 2.3.1 The Tragic Murders didn’t Lead to Any Happy Endings The first person to get killed was Ki-jung, who was stabbed by Geun-sae, the husband of the housekeeper. Geun-sae was full of resentment after seeing his wife kicked downstairs and afraid of his “stable” but humble hiding in the secret bunker would be revealed and deprived.