Want to get to The Island?

This film is similar to the context of the anti utopian world of ‘1984’ by George Orwell, whereby human thoughts were restrained and every single action was scrutinized with the use of Newspeak, Hypnopaedia and telescreens.

Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlet Johansson) are residents in a utopia world with contaminate free facility. Everyone is dressed in white and there is almost nothing that distinguishes an individual from another. Kinesic codes such as body movement, gesture, facial expression and eye behaviour is monitored and regulated so to prevent any form of rebellion or unorthodoxy. Communication is limited and sexual instincts are repressed, which affects power and knowledge since linguistic determinism holds true. As language is symbolic, the residents in this world have no idea that they are merely clones of people in the real world used as substitutes for malfunctioning body parts. They live for just one thing: to be chosen to win a trip to The Island by a lottery based system. The Island is an abstraction, a brainwashed idea that it is a paradise but yet, it ceases to exist.

Nonetheless, Lincoln Six-Echo discovers a moth inside the building and begins questioning what is in the outside world. With the help of Steve Buscemi who is a worker from the outside world, he evaluates and recognizes the logical inconsistencies of the infiltrated thoughts. Together with Jordan Two-Delta, they escape from the utopia and discover the significant existence of language, behavior, and social identity in the real world.

Amidst the adventure to find their donor and to stop the cloning processes, Lincoln and Jordan understand the real world through human constructions. The film dramatizes into car chases, supernatural forces and flying vehicles while they are being chased by the controllers of the clone world to be exterminated. The last scene of this film is extremely evocative as it portrays the mass release of these clones into the outside world whereby freedom of thoughts, expressions, communications and sexual gratification are no longer undermined.

‘The Island’ illustrates the importance of communication and language in generating thoughts and perceptions. As quoted from our textbook, it is a “uniquely human process.” Also, the significance of phonology, semantics, syntactic and pragmatics in forming relationships and the ability for independent thought is examined through the characters of Lincoln Six-Echo and Jordan Two-Delta. This film also questions the humanity of the clones and arguments have been given that they cannot be humans since they exist as a result of purely utilitarian process without any souls. What do you think?

Furthermore, it emphasizes that language is the key to knowledge and with knowledge, comes power. It seems too futuristic and virtually impossible for such events to happen, right? Yet, who knows what the world might be just a few hundred years down the road? That, we know we’ll never know.

Sensors track the thoughst and emotions of Lincoln Seix-Echo

PS: interestingly grossed.

Cheers,

nicole!