The movie Snowpiercer show that earth is plunged into a new ice age, due to the measures used to slow global warming, rendering it inhospitable. They live on a train that continuously travelling around the earth, where the occupants live in different sectors. The train is set to portrays the different class set in society. The movie shows society, its social, political, and economic structures that we live by. Specifically, the problems in the class system, and how it is inherently unjust., how the different sections of train are set out, the power positions of the characters, and what these positions suggest or symbolize, as well as the cause and effect of the revolutionary events of the movie. The movie emphasized that each class are where they are for a reason, specifically with the quote, “so it is.” The lower is the shoe belonging on the foot and the upper being the hat that belongs on the head. The train is approximately sixty sections long from the very back the tail to the very front the engine section
Societies are classified into three broad categories:
Lower class: It refers to people who are uneducated, either unemployed, or with low levels of income. Those below the poverty line struggle even for basic necessities like food and shelter.
Middle class: The majority of the population known as the white-collar workers constitute the middle class. They lie between the rich and the poor. This class generally constitutes the majority of a country’s population. They have dignified jobs and a standard, honorable lifestyle.
Upper class: The wealthy or high-income groups and individuals are known as the upper class of society. Prestige, status, and sometimes even power, all factors coincide with this stratum.
The class difference is visibly shown where the tail people look like homeless people, in tattered clothing and covered in dirt. The tail section is essentially a slum, they never having any real food, just protein blocks that are made from bugs, no access to sanitation or medication. This section is the
lower classes of the world. At one point a they are referred to as being freeloaders showing that who are better off look down on those who cannot get by in the world. the tail where they’re physically beaten up or have a body part frozen and hammered off. the train are heavily guarded, showing how they don’t wish for those at the bottom to make any social progression.
The prison section is further up the train, showing how a criminal from the upper classes have more value than someone living in a tail. The guards’ living area is further up, which has windows, showing the benefits of being a little higher up in society. The guards, as well as others who has a job working for the train, can be considered as part of a working class, another part of the social order in society. The man producing the food for the lower class of people, where he was taken from show that because he performs a service, society views him a little higher. The empty cars show the division in the classes, and how there is a great distance between the rich and the poor.
The next sections of the train hold are the water supply, food supply for the upper classes, an orchard/garden, an aquarium, and a slaughterhouse which show all the thing the upper class possess. the rich can afford to eat better, while the poor are left with food that always leave them hungry or under nourished. There children have the opportunity to be educated. while those at the back starve, those at the front party and do drugs. All these are a part of the upper-class life styles. This shows the continuous motion of present-day society, and how what goes on within it will not cease to exist until the very structure is destroyed. it is obvious how the setting of the movie symbolizes the class structures within society, and how it indicates things about our world
There are times when people look down on those from a lower social class for no other reason than their socioeconomic position. This awareness or acknowledgement of social and economic status is referred to as class consciousness, which includes a person’s beliefs and understandings of their own social class in a capitalist society. the reasons that a person may mistreat someone of a lower class is because they believe that their own class makes them superior to those below them, who they may perceive as simply not working hard enough. You see this happening in the school scene where the children talk about the tail people being freeloaders. You also see it Mason tell them that they are the foot and they should not try to be anything else, she is telling them they belong in the lower level and that they should stay there and not try to level up. You also see it when Wilfred tell Curtis everyone has their preordained position, and everyone is in their place except him. He is tell him everyone plays a part in the train (society) and there are exactly where they should be.
False consciousness is a term that Marxist economists and philosophers use to describe a particular state of mind that prevents a person from recognizing the injustice of their current situation. According to Marxists, this state of mind prevents individuals from combining their efforts and taking action to have a better life than they currently have. This come about with the train babies (children born on the train) they don’t know anything other than what they see on the train, whether they are born in the tail the lower class or the front the upper classes all they know is what is currently happening in the train they are all grow up with the knowledge that they will live out there life on the train. The guard that keep the tail in check , they fail to realize that they are not in that much better situation that the tail person yes they have access to the food water etc., but they are also stuck in the back of the train. They should join with the tail people to take over the train instead of help the front people from the train oppress the tail people which is also oppressing them.
They are 2 types of proletariat people in the movies, the guard and the people from the tail that the upper class need for specific reason so they move them up from the tail section. For the people who come from the tail section to work the bourgeoisie keep then under control with fear of being sent back to the tail section. Since they are work for them they have better condition than the people still in the tail section. They know what it like to be there so they do whatever it take to make sure they stay where they are. As for the guard they give them this false power, they have them believing that they are in control but in actuality they are not. They don’t even have bullets for the gun they use. When the revolts take place the gun with bullets had to be brought all the way from the front in the eggs.
The polar bear at the end indicates that life exists on earth, and also means that there might be resources (food & water) which can sustain human life. It prove what Namgoong Minsoo was tell Curtis. Yona and Tim are both train babies and the only one who survives they have never been outside the train, never seen or interacted with other species. They will become the new Adam and Eve for the next wave of humans.
This train is a complete ecosystem which must respect the balance. Air, water, food, people. Everything must be regulated. For this, it was sometimes necessary use more radical solutions.
The balance can only be achieved by two ways: Either by natural selection or political manipulation. Over the course of its 18 year, the train has had three “revolutions” instigated by Wilford and Gilliam. They understood that they needed to “maintain a balance between anxiety and fear, chaos and horror, for life goes on.” Class warfare was the ingenious method of maintaining the population. The people in the front of the train can never grow too comfortable, for fear the back might rise up and take their place. The tail section at the back are given just enough hope in a future regime-change that they don’t fall into complete despair. By having a controlled “revolution” every five years or so, the political manipulators ( Wilford and Gilliam) could let the Front and Back kill off just enough people to maintain the balance. In essence, Wilford and Gilliam accept the validity of Darwinian social determinism, but believe it can be controlled and maintained more “humanely” by implementing a political solution
Manifest function is show in the movie when Wilford and Gilliam have a controlled “revolution” every five years or so could let the Front and Back kill off just enough people to maintain the balance. It turns into latent function with Curtis they did not expect Curtis to get so far up the train and because of that Gilliam and all the tail section people are killed expect for 18 people to celebrate the 18 year on the train. Dysfunction happens when the train is blown up and only Yona and Tim are both train babies and the only one who survives. Also them seeing the bear which show that you can survive off the train.
Reference:
Patil, Rujuta. “Social Stratification: Types, Characteristics, and Examples.” OpinionFront, OpinionFront, 2018, opinionfront.com/social-stratification-types-characteristics-examples. Accessed 3 May 2019.
“Class Consciousness: Definition & Concept | Study.Com.” Study.Com, 2019, study.com/academy/lesson/class-consciousness-definition-lesson-quiz.html. Accessed 3 May 2019.
“False Consciousness in Sociology: Definition & Examples – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.Com.” Study.Com, 2019, study.com/academy/lesson/false-consciousness-in-sociology-definition-examples-quiz.html. Accessed 3 May 2019.
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