In the Purge, every crime is allowed on a predetermined day for 12 hours only. Many people use the opportunity to pilfer, steal, and even murder. Some people, on the other hand, choose to hide and hope they don’t be killed. According to my understanding, the United States is a dystopia for just a minority of people. A dystopian society is one in which is highly controlled by the government and miserable for the citizens. The government in the Purge convinced their citizens that a day filled with crime is beneficial to the citizens and the country. With propaganda, many citizens believed what the government stated and followed suit and participated in the annual purge.
One specific dystopian element in the movie is the national holiday, the Purge. In the movie, the founding fathers created the holiday to decrease crime. They believed that if there was one single day designated to crime, crime throughout the year was least likely to happen. Essentially, it was a day to get your darkest desires out to prevent tragic murder and crime every other day. The founding fathers also created this day as a preventative method against overpopulation. Today, China’s government, a one-party communist dictatorship, uses a strict two-child per family policy to prevent overpopulation.
The movie also depicted the owners of suburban mansions brandishing large firearms and yelling at an injured and frightened black person to leave their property. This is similar to a form of oppression against a particular race. Recently, this form of oppression was exhibited by the McCloskeys. During the Black Lives Matter protest, this couple was seen with firearms yelling and threatening protestors to get off of their property.
