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The Metaphorical Meaning of Food in "Soylent Green"

Soylent Green is the "modern-day" Film Noir that forces its audience to truly understand the importance of how we should cherish the aspects of life that we take for granted - such as the abundance of various types of food, clean, running water, a vibrant ecosystem, and comfortable living spaces- through a futuristic, dystopian lens. As I watched this film, I felt as though the director (Richard Fleischer) used "soylent green" as a symbol and a warning for our planet's future.

   Of course, the immediate message one can take away from watching this movie is that if we do not find a solution to fix climate change, pollution, and overpopulation soon, we will see ourselves in a similar fate as the citizens in Soylent Green. But I found myself interpreting a different message. I felt as though the symbolism behind the physical soylent green was referring more to our humanity towards each other. Soylent Green, a dry, brittle, perfectly manufactured, manmade (literally) supplement made into a perfect square is an interesting parallel to the society it hails from. This dystopian society lacks empathy and human decency that every society needs to flourish. The government seems to care nothing about the wellbeing of any of its citizens that aren't considered wealthy or "furniture".

   Laurel Foster references the psychological effects that occur with this type of civilization. She states "This deception of a hungry general public into a reworked cannibalism is depicted as symptomatic of a corrupted and divided society, where social and moral codes have disintegrated alongside the collapse of any urban infrastructure." In this society, there is no clear line between good vs. bad, right vs wrong, harmony vs. chaos. I can't say that I would be completely morally righteous, but what does it say about a country's government when it's own policemen, who are meant to protect and serve, steal from those who are supposed to be protected and served.

   To be completely truthful, I have no idea what I would do if I found myself in this dystopian setting. I know that this future is very much a possibility, but it still frightens me nonetheless. As much as I want to say that I would try to escape, I feel as though I would immediately be turned into a soylent of some sort, preferably blue.



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