Soylent Green

Soylent Green is a film that occurs in the year of 2020, in New York City. In the film Soylent Green, food was use metaphorically to introduce the problems that was presented throughout the film. For example one of the main problems that are revealed is the food shortage that is happening because of global warming. Metaphorically food helps us to see the crises that New York City is facing. In the film you noticed that when Cheryl walks in to the butcher shop, the piece of meat that she is given was “special”.  It being considered “special” shows that the piece of beef is scarce. Throughout the film you also notice all the other problems that New York City is facing, like, housing and water shortages. The scenes that reveal these problems are the people you see sleeping in the hallway of thorn place and when thorn is sent to investigate a crime how his thrill for water was ultimately high. The metaphorical meaning of food was strategically used to show food shortage. When thorn brought back the food for sol and him that he had gotten from the wealthy home of a crime scene, the expression of sol face reveals the excitement as if he was a child in a candy store. Also the conversation that thorn and sol has over dinner also reveals that he had not had a meal like that in years. The metaphorical meaning behind food helps us to draw an conclusion that in maybe years from now, New York City will suffer from food, shelter and water shortage. 

At the end of the film one of the biggest metaphorical meaning of food is revealed when thorn discovers that Soylent green is producing meat out of human corpse. This helps the viewers to draw the conclusion that as the shortage of food continued to grow the more society became less symptomatic, they were willing to do anything to provide food. Personally if I was in this situation, I would have to strive really hard to figure out ways for me and the people I care about to overcome the shortages. I know for sure that my first step would be to stop the consumption of Soylent Green products. After finding out how and what they food was made out of, as a human being who has sympathy and just plainly disgusted by cannibalism, there’s no way I’m supporting the Soylent green company by buying their products. Lastly, I would try to raise awareness of what I discovered with hopes of that people would come together and have them shut down.