Parasite Deception: A Discourse Analysis on Class Inequality Depicted in Bong Joon Ho’s Movie

Abstract

Movies are a combination of technology and entertainment with the consideration of aesthetics. Movies reflect society and transform the citizens’ views about things and basically about everything else in the world. A movie does not only entertain, but it also educates the viewers about society. Lessons from these movies can also be applied in real-life scenarios. Also, some movies reflect the context of the society in which the movie is reflected into. Some of these depictions even reflect the social setups of society. Social set-ups in movies show the different classes as people compete for resources and survival. This study investigates the class inequalities depicted in the movie Parasite by Bong Joon Ho by delving deeper into its characters, settings, and symbolism. Related Literature and Related Studies serve as the foundation of this study. The data from the chosen literary work is analyzed using a qualitative strategy through discourse analysis and is scrutinized through the lenses of Conflict Theory and Symbolic Interactionism Theory. The findings show that there are class inequalities present in the movie Parasite. Furthermore, the class inequalities found in character analysis are life, income and wealth, membership, and treatment and responsibility. Meanwhile, income and wealth, and life inequalities are found in settings analysis. Lastly, in symbolism analysis, the class inequalities that are found are income and wealth, life and treatment, and responsibility inequality. Moreover, future literary researchers are recommended to conduct a psychological analysis of the characters, shot by shot analysis of the settings, and a content analysis of the symbolisms to extract the class inequalities that are found in the movie.