총 48페이지

Eye of The Argus
Kindness Does Not Belong
to Everyone
ByLeeJae-won
EditorialConsultant
I
nanoldSouthKoreandramawithatitlethatIcannotremember,characteristicsoftherichandpoorweredifferent
fromeachother:therichareunkindandthepoorarekind.Suchcharacteristics,however,donotgotogetherwith
currentSouthKoreansociety.Howoursocietyhaschangedisshownintherecentpopularmovie“Parasite”(2019).
Implicitinthemoviearetwointriguingnotions:first,thatthericharekindbutthepoorareunkind;andsecond,thatthe
poorfightwitheachother.
In “Parasite,” three families are positioned at different points on the class ladder: the Kims live in a semi-basement
hovel and the Parks live in a big two-storied house and Geun-se lives in a basement of the Parks’ house thanks to his
wifeMoon-gwang,ahousekeeperfortheParks.Becauseofthewitoftheson,KimKi-woo,whohasbecomethetutor
oftheParks’daughter,theKimsbecometheParks’domesticstaff,pretendingnottoknoweachother.Thefather,Kim
Ki-taek,says,“TheParksareallkindeventhoughtheyarerich.”HissonKi-woowantstomarrytheParks’daughterto
whomheteachesEnglish.TheKimfamilyaspirestobewealthyliketheParkfamily.
Atthesametime,theKimsexpresscontemptforthelowerclass:Geun-seandMoon-gwang.WhentheKimsfoundout
thatGeun-selivesinthebasementtohidehimselffrommoneylenders,Moon-gwangaskstheKimstohelpherhusband,
but they refuse to do so. Why did they refuse even when they had experienced such economic difficulties themselves?
Afewmomentslater,itwasrevealedthattheKimfamilymembersareonefamily,afterwhichMoon-gwangthreatens
theKimsbylashingoutwithabusivelanguage.Whydidshethreatenthemeventhoughshealsohidherhusbandinthe
Parks’house?
For a reply to this question, let us look at two surplus groups in South Korea: the high surplus group and the low
surplusgroup(ShinJin-wook,“ABloodySocietyoftheUnbloody”).Thericharegettingricher(thehighsurplus)andthepoor
aregettingpoorer(thelowsurplus).ManyKoreans,accordingtoShin,criticizethehighbuttheywanttobecomelike
thehigh;andsympathizewiththelowbuttheyfeartobecomelikethelow.TheKimfamilyisatypicalexampleofus
that portrays contrastive emotions to the high and the low respectively. Their behavior indicates the fact?in modern
society,kindnessisnearlyastatebasedonoureconomicconditions,ratherthanafixedpartofouridentity.
Happy ends elude a majority of the film’s characters. This end is one of the outcomes we could face if the conflict
betweentheclassesremainsunsolved.Seekingsolutionstothisproblemisourjob.Howcanwesettletheissue?
The answer is solidarity with “the abject.” Philosopher Julia Kristeva once examined the idea of the abject, which
meanstheabandonedthings.Peopletrytostayawayfromtheabject;andliterallyabandonthem;andseethemasnon-
existent (Moongang Hyeong-joon, “A Politics of Extermination”). When you are looking at Ki-taek, who due to his smell was
belittledbytheParks;andatMoon-gwang,whoduetoherdiseasewasfiredfromherwork;andatGeun-se,whodueto
hispovertywasisolatedfromsociallife?thenyouwillunderstandthatthesecharactersbelongedtotheabject.
“Good society teaches how to live with the abject; bad society eliminates the abject, veiling an imbalance of the
system”(Moongang,thesamepassage).Whenwereachthegoodsocietywherewebandtogetheragainstthecontradictions
inoursystem,onlythenwecansaythefollowing?kindnessbelongstoeveryone.
gh10117@hufs.ac.kr
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