Reid Morton
Mr. Weinstein
English 101
11 October 2007

Invasion of the Body Snatchers; Reflection of Paranoia

Paranoia: n. Psychiatry, mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projections of personal conflicts, which are ascribed as the supposed hostility of others.
Since the beginning of time human beings tend to manifest their fears into erratic irrational acts to defend their sense of what is perceived as normal. The Salem witch trials, the patriot act, and McCarthy’s blacklist all exemplify how human beings react when they are threatened. In all three of these instances the cultures reacted to a traumatic event with a backlash of senseless behaviors that in effect did more harm than good. Popular culture imitates society and in the 1940’s and 1950’s cinema was taking off and was becoming a staple of the American pop culture. The movie the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel, was intended to reflect this mass hysteria.
In the 1940’s and the 1950’s communism was spreading exponentially and the Soviet Union was threatening the United States position as the greatest superpower in the world. Joseph McCarthy then catalyzed a way of thinking that a majority of the American public would claim. He made a televised speech producing a piece of paper with a list of 205 names on it. McCarthy claimed that these 205 names were all communists that were currently working for the United States Government. As a result American citizens were fired and even given jail sentences because of the assumption that they were somehow committing treason. The United States of America was thrown into absolute paranoia of anything Communist in turn affecting every citizen including filmmakers.
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers features a doctor named Miles Bennell that witnesses some very strange occurrences in his town of Santa Mira. Some of his patients mention that they believe that their family or friends have not been acting themselves as of late. They have the same physical appearance as they did before but they are totally emotionless. Bennell then concludes that the reason for these weird events is some sort of alien invasion and delves deeper to find a meaning. With the help of his friend, Jack Belicec, they discover that his patients were correct in their suspicions and uncover a race of Pod People that intend to take over the world. These wretched beings kidnap humans and replace them with lifeless organisms that can not think or feel for themselves. This widespread infection of life without emotion, without freedom is an allusion to America’s fear of the spread of Communism.
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a political allegory that was an extension of the terror that the American Culture was undergoing. Communism is an ideal that establishes a society in which there are no classes and the government controls almost every aspect of life, the antithesis of Democracy. This ideal was viewed as this rapid spreading disease that was swiftly infecting the world. Similar to this, the movie featured a town that was engulfed in a comparable epidemic just as quickly. Also the alien’s characteristics are similar to the preconceived notions that Americans had of socialists, they were described to be physically the same but emotionally vacant. It was believed that the members of the socialist movement were not allowed to make their own decisions resulting in emotionless, lifeless human beings.
Another element that should be analyzed is the state in which the humans were converted; they were asleep. The time when the citizens of Santa Mira were most vulnerable, in their slumber, is when the extraterrestrials would strike. This is an allusion to the hatred towards the socialists is because some countries turned to Communism because their economy or government was weak. After World War II, Germany and much of Europe was severely crippled and in a lot of cases completely laid to waste. Countries such as Poland, East Germany, Hungary, and Romania adapted Communism as their form of government; the Soviet Union assisted and for the most part sponsored this transition. Democracy hinges on the ability to freely choose the aspects of one’s own life. Since it was perceived that the Soviet Union imposed communism on weak nations any advocate for democracy instantly resented the Soviet Union.
The whole plot centers on people defending their town from the infiltration of Pod People/Communists, paralleling the dispute between democracy and communism. The bulk of the movie is the conflict between the protagonist, Bennell, and the antagonist, the aliens. The aliens themselves represent members of the communist party because they can not think for themselves; they have no freedom to determine their own destiny. Bennell represents the American culture; he fights to preserve a person’s freedom, a staple of democracy. Also, the conclusion of the movie is a cue to the hysteria that society was in. In a fit of terror and hysteria the good doctor runs into a road stopping an oncoming car and screams “They’re here already, you’re next!” This is a clear parallel to McCarthyism because he believed adamantly that the socialist sickness has penetrated our great country and played off the fear that you too will be the next to become ill.
When the Communist “infection” was at its strongest, it threatened the stature of the American society, a traumatic event that evolved into something worse. The American public was thrown into complete panic and reacted in a way that was un-American. People were stripped of their own freedom and lives were seriously hurt because of the belief that the Soviet Union would someday take over the world. It would be psychotic to make the argument that the entire United States of America had a psychological disability and thus the film a symptom. But the plot, conflicts, and characters in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers clearly mirror a time in American history were the public was in a hysteric craze.

WORK CITED

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Rotten Tomatoes. 11 Oct. 2007 .

Stein, Jeff, and Laurence Urdang. "Paranoia." Def. 1. Random House Dictionary of the English Language. Unabridged ed. 1 vols. New York: Random House, Inc., 1971.