Parasite: The Smell of Poverty

Image from IMDb

I had to make a second post because Green’s text reminded me of a pop culture reference. The second point I would like to bring up is in response to the midrash that we interpreted on Tuesday. Green wrote that “odor, whether pleasing or foul, enters almost every aspect of our lives- its subtle pervasiveness affects our attitudes and judgments toward both the mundane and the sacred.” This quote reminded me of the movie “Parasite” where the rich Mr. Park comes to hate his housekeeper/driver simply because his scent is one of poor people. Green wrote about how fragrance provides a lens through which to view hierarchy, social constructions, and theological motifs, like those in the Bible, and it also affords the same lens for viewing the families in this movie.

As Mr. Park begins to notice the unsettling and distasteful aromas of the Kims, the audience also becomes hypersensitive to their presence, and the Parks’ privileged position leaves them feeling entitled to dictate which smells cross a line. As we talked about in class, smell can be a measure of virtue. In the film, the word “poor” is never uttered, so the Kims’ social standing is revealed through body odors and scent/ Mr. Park sees it as vice. 

In many of the midrashim on historical moments, aroma is deployed as “an interpretive tool - bringing scent into discussions where it had not been before - in order to render new frames, scenes, events, and meanings,” and scents do the same in this movie. After reading Green’s chapters, I will definitely be more aware of how aromas are used as a tool in texts and movies because they add a special dimension and perspective to stories.