Cutting Class
Unlike the beliefs of Michael Parenti in his essay "Class and Virtue" not all movies present the third class as "unlettered and uncouth" and generally "less desirable and less moral than other people." The movie The Silence of the Lambs presents very complex class issues to demonstrate the inadequacies of the current class system. Clarice Starling the main character is forced to examine which class she would be placed in. Has she been able to escape the past she desperately wants to overcome? Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic psychopathic serial killer, is very contradictory to normal class assumptions. He is very upper class in his tastes, yet his actions are those of a monster who belongs in the lowest class imaginable. What point is the movie making? The movie is demonstrating how ridiculous the class system is. It shows the audience how the class system causes people to harbor unnecessary and damaging stereotypes and prejudices. Clarice Starling is the most visible example of the effects of the class system. Starling is from what many would consider a low class background. She grew up in a small West Virginia town until her father died, and she was moved from orphanage to orphanage. Her strong
accent and her lowly past make her feel that she has to prove herself to everyone. Her desperate attempts to appear as a member of the upper class and her desire to overcome her past is what creates her need to be successful and prove everyone's assumptions wrong. This is why she joined the FBI in the first place. She will not let her past get in her way. When Starling first interviews Dr. Lecter he is quick to pick up on this desire and uses it against her. His comment on how she is "not one generation from poor white trash" helps to expose her and she becomes aware of how obvious her efforts to cover up her past are. The ineffectiveness of the current class system is shown throughout the movie The Silence of the Lambs. The main characters are used to show the flaws of the current system. The system forces Clarice Starling to waste time and energy to overcome the discrimination caused by her background. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is used to show how the values associated with the upper class can in fact be the same values of a monster. The class system is shown to be a very poor reflection of actual society. Examination of the current system reveals many problems and shows the need for a new system. Dr. Lecter's character makes it clear how ludicrous the class system can be. Why should people place any value in a system in which a serial killer can be grouped with the best people society has to offer? What does this say about the rest of the upper class? The fact that Hannibal Lecter can be
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Approximate Word count = 1021
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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