La’Raye Francisco

February 23, 2020

Reel Food and World Cinema

Soylent Green


In the article, Laurel Foster talks about how food can be a metaphor for social concerns. “These mass, international mean of producing and distributing foods have been a factor in global food concerns regarding surpluses in some nations and food shortages in others, with no politically satisfactory means of ensuring the obvious equality of food supply.” In the film, soylent green does just that. The actual food, Soylent Green plays a huge role in the film. The food, and the lack of food, shows the characters’ status in terms of class. In the movie, the characters’ economic status played a part in what kind of food they had access to. Those who were rich were able to obtain healthy and fresh foods. For example, they would eat things like lettuce, beef, tomatoes, and celery. While the poor people were stuck eating soylent green. There is an immense lack of resources for those who are not rich.
Foster makes another good point in her article. She talks about how many are vulnerable due to ‘outside social, cultural, and technological forces.’ She mentions how that things which are seen may not be what they truly are. “What is visible regarding foodstuffs may conceal deliberate or unavoidable toxins and impurities hidden within.” The big secret in Soylent Green was that soylent green was made from deceased remains.

I could not even fathom what I would do if I were in a situation such as the characters that were in Soylent Green. People had no homes, they slept in the stairwells, there was no real food for those who were considered poor and living in poverty, and overall, they were unknowingly eating deceased people’s remains. I guess if I were to be put into that situation, I would attempt to stop eating and find something else to eat, if this were an option. I hope that I would never be put in a situation where my only options are to eat people or starve to death.

Poverty, lies, and desperation. What would you do?




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