Vincent was born through a faith birth, and wasn’t taken to a genealogist to be genetically engineered. He suffered very badly with myopia; short-sightedness, high chance of heart-failure and early death. When he was born, his father, Anton didn’t name Vincent as Anton because of the chance of him being nobody in his life. When the second baby came, which had been genetically engineered, they named him Anton. During a scene where Vincent is at a table, reading a book about space, his father says to him that he will be nobody, but he doesn’t listen to them. His family didn’t really believe in his talents because they knew that he would be discriminated no matter how intellectual he was. This sense of inferiority drove Vincent to success as he had determination to prove them wrong. He even beat his brother Anton in a swimming race to prove him wrong.
As Vincent grew into an adult, he learned about the cruel world everybody lives in and the discrimination that faces some. He studied incredibly hard and memorised books relating to space so he would have a chance of receiving a job in his desired career. But he was rejected because he was an Invalid. No matter how much effort he put into learning he would be dismissed because he was Invalid. Eventually he had to resort to being a janitor to make some money. This is an unfair society because Invalids aren’t given any opportunity to achieve as no one believes they can achieve as much as Valids.
As Vincent’s determination to prove to himself that Invalids were as capable as Valids grew in his early years, he became increasingly more desperate to find a way to prove it. He finally came to the conclusion that he should contact a Gene Broker so he could disguise himself as a Valid. The gene broker introduced him to Jerome Morrow, a Valid with a broken back. Vincent changes his appearance, from putting on contacts to change the colour of his eyes to growing his bones to make him taller. Jerome prepared fake fingertips with Jerome’s Valid blood and urine pouches with Jerome’s Valid urine, while Vincent scrubbed himself every morning to rid himself of any loose skin and hair. I thought this act was very desperate at first but anyone in his situation at that point in time would have been just as desperate. He lived a very devious and quiet life in his early years to avoid exposure to the harsh reality of life.
Vincent, though an impostor, is one of the most diligently working people at Gattaca. When the mission director gets murdered at Gattaca, the whole building is searched for any sign of DNA which shouldn’t be there. Vincent left an eyelash at the murder scene even though he didn’t murder the mission director. All of the detectives in charge of the case assumed it was the Invalid Vincent who murdered the director, but they didn’t recognise him as he was disguised as Jerome. When Vincent found out he was a suspect of the murder, he lost hope in his disguise and threatened Jerome that he would get caught. Jerome told him not to lose hope and encouraged him so that he would continue disguising himself. Jerome was let down after Vincent lost hope because it was he who didn’t have hope so he lent his life to a person who did.
In this society, the world of Gattaca, the one thing missing is dreams. This quality is only possessed by few in the movie, one being Vincent, and others being Irene and Jerome. Vincent is the one who stands out most in this movie, and this is because he looks to achieve as much as possible out of himself and achieve his dream to fly into outer space. Irene also possesses the quality to dream, which is evident when she always looks up to the sky to see the shuttles leave for space. Jerome is different in many aspects to Irene and Vincent, one is that he doesn’t have dreams that will benefit himself; he dreams he will succeed in offering someone else to live their dream, which is Vincent. The lack of people with the skill to dream makes the people who can feel isolated and a misfit in society.
The society of Gattaca is driven to success but solely for the purpose to achieve success, not to live out their dreams. The few people with dreams are always the people who succeed.
