





































This essay analyzes the ways in which food throughout 

the film Parasite symbolizes the divide between rich 

and poor, using contemporary research to further build 

on how food is a signifier of class and wealth. From 

the less wealthy eating prepackaged foods, to using a 

fruit allergy as a weapon against someone, there is a 

clear indication throughout the film of food as a signi-

fier of status and class. I take this divide and analyze 

its significance to the modern culture and society of 

South Korea, then further apply this to its relevancy in a 

modern United States. Parasite flourished in American 

society—both are countries wherein a capitalist ‘meri-

tocracy’ rules for the most part, and an analysis of the 

culture around the film will show the ways in which the 

cultures that consumed this media are similar in their 

class divides. 

Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite received numerous 
awards and much critical acclaim at the 2020 
Academy Awards, a remarkable feat in general, 
let alone for a foreign film. The film was also 
the first non-English production in the Oscar’s 
history to take home the award for Best Picture. 
Joon-Ho, however, is neither new to the directo-
rial world, nor to the theme of class and division. 
Unfortunately, because of its recency, having 
only debuted in cinemas a little over a year ago, 
Parasite has not yet received much scholarly 
criticism. However, there is no shortage of cri-
tique on class structures in the U.S., as well as in 
South Korea, and enough film commentary exists 
to suggest a viable popular opinion regarding the 
film. The division between classes and the differ-
ence in opportunity and accessibility as exempli-
fied through the Kim and Park families is a consi-

stent and prominent theme throughout the film, and thus can easily be intuited to show the ways food 
studies further complicate this class divide. Utilizing contemporary research and commentary, this 
essay will analyze the ways in which class divide is represented in the film through the lens of food 
studies and consumption, including poverty as demonstrated through food insecurity, an ignorance on 
the part of upper classes, and food used as a physical conduit for violence and aggression. 
 Parasite was a film that was very well-received internationally, and its many awards and ac-
knowledgements are proof of this. As already noted, it was the first non-English film to receive Best Pic-
ture, among several other Academy Awards, as well as being featured and receiving recognition at the 
Cannes Film Festival in France. The film follows the Kim family, who live in a small basement apartment 
in Seoul, South Korea. The family is visibly poor, until they are presented with the opportunity to find 

work with the Park family, who are visibly wealthy. Obtaining these jobs, however, requires lying about 

their identities and creating false personas more qualified and educated than the Kims really are, as well

Food for the Dogs: Consumption and Wealth 
Inequality in Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite

Tauri Hagemann, Ball State University

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Hagemann | 96



as spreading lies about the others already employed by the Parks to garner mistrust and get them fired to 

open more opportunities for the Kims. All of these lies and cutthroat tactics to achieve financial prosper-

ity end up catching up to the Kims, and the final arc of the movie results in intense violence and blood-

shed. The main theme or premise behind this film is the unbridgeable gap between the poor and the 

wealthy elite, and this is a notion that people internationally, especially in the United States, understand 

to an extensive degree. We are told that we live in a meritocracy wherein all one must do to become 

successful is put in hard work. At the same time, the rich keep getting richer and the poor remain poor, 

showing that there must be a flaw in this ideology. 

 The COVID crisis and the quarantine of the last year have been clear contributors to furthering 

this class divide. Over the course of around three months of shutdown of everything non-essential, many 

people were unable to work and therefore unable to bring home a paycheck for their families. After 

some businesses started reopening, many remained closed or were forced to permanently shut down 

because of financial losses from three months with no business. A CNBC article from mid-October found 

that at that time over 100,000 small businesses had already been forced to permanently close their doors 

because of an inability to keep up revenue while complying with new COVID guidelines and regulations 

(Adamczyk). The government did send out a stimulus check, but many people either did not receive any 

stimulus or the small amount they received did not compensate for their loss of employment. Now, a 

year since the United States’ official lockdown, the COVID crisis is finally beginning to push through 

more stimulus aid and work on making vaccinations and treatments more readily accessible.

 Not everyone faced these struggles during the quarantine, though; because of in-person retailers 

and shopping options being closed for so long, many people took to shopping from online sources like 

Amazon. Over the course of the quarantine and the pandemic, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, contin-

ued to grow richer and amass a greater net worth. Over a roughly seven-month period, Bezos’s wealth 

growth was over $90 billion, bringing his total net worth to over $200 billion (Stebbins). In a time where 

people in our nation were struggling to even put food on the table, Bezos continued growing richer and 

richer and nearly doubled his net worth. This ties directly into the idea of food security—Bezos and oth-

ers like him had no worries for their families or their own well-being financially, whereas those 100,000 

small businesses that were forced to close have resulted in an even larger number of people now unem-

ployed and afraid if they will even be able to afford to put food on the table for their families with what 

little income they may have. In an interview with The Atlantic, Joon-Ho discussed this wealth gap inter-

nationally, saying, “I think the state of polarization applies not only to Korea but anywhere across the 

world. [South] Korea has achieved a lot of development, and now it’s a fairly wealthy country, but the 

richer a country gets, the more relative this gap becomes” (Sims). Marcus Noland remarks how “South 

Korea’s development over the last half century has been nothing short of spectacular. . . .[yet] still needs 

to fix a labor market in which some workers have extensive benefits and job protection and others do 

not” (17, 20-21).

 The South Korean education system has also played into this increasing class divide and polar-

ization. In South Korea, as in other countries including the United States, “higher education has been 

transformed from an elite system to a mass system” (Doo Hwan Kim 436-437). University education is

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no longer something that puts a person a step ahead in the workforce as much as it is something that is 

expected and seen as necessary to find sustainable work. However, despite this ideal, income and class 

status in South Korea still heavily impact available opportunities: “They view expansion of higher educa-

tion as a process of diversion, which reserves higher-status opportunities for the elite by channeling chil-

dren of the working class to low-status post-secondary opportunities” (Doo Hwan Kim 437). We can also 

see this phenomenon clearly reflected in Joon-Ho’s Parasite. Kim Ki-Woo has a long-time friend named 

Min who connects him with his job with the Park family in the first place. Min is university educated, 

and this is what helped him find his position tutoring for the wealthy family—his education has provided 

him with opportunity. Education brings opportunity, opportunity brings financial stability, and financial 

stability brings food security—all things of which the Kim family were lacking at the start of the film. 

 As has been referenced several times throughout this essay, money and food are inherently relat-

ed in that money is needed to obtain food. This is made very clear in one of the first scenes of the film, 

wherein we see the poorer Kim family sitting around their small kitchen table eating food that looks—

and sounds—like it is coming out of plastic packaging. We also see them all with the same canned 

beverage, though whether it is soda or beer or an alcoholic beverage is unclear (Parasite). They’re eating 

cheap, packaged, processed foods like one would buy from a vending machine because this is what 

their family is able to afford on the small income they make folding pizza boxes. According to Barbara 

Briers and Sandra Laporte, “financially dissatisfied people may try to replenish their need for financial 

resources by consuming caloric resources or food energy because money and food are closely related, 

exchangeable resources” (767). Briers and Laporte also posit that because of this increased value as-

signed to food energy, those who are financially dissatisfied also tend to consume food in larger quanti-

ties and higher caloric contents. Going from the vending machine assumption, this would make perfect 

sense of the Kim family. Prepackaged snacks and beverages tend to be high in calories and cheap to 

acquire, while also being alarmingly lacking in nutrient or vitamin contents. Another study also found 

that the amount of people who are financially dissatisfied, particularly in developing Asia, is startlingly 

large: “Around 560 million people lived in slums in Asia and the Pacific in 2014, which corresponds to 

about 30 percent of the population.” While the percentage has fallen year to year, “the absolute number 

has risen . . . due to overall population growth” (Aizawa 28). Looking at the Kim’s basement apartment 

and the small table they crowd around in their center room to eat, it is not too out of bounds to assume 

that they would fall into this category of financially dissatisfied people.

 This wealth divide becomes more apparent once the Kim family becomes employed by the Parks. 

The Parks are a family that live a life drastically different from the Kims—they employ several personal 

assistants and tutors, they live in a sizable house with a lavish and manicured lawn, and they can do 

so off of the patriarch’s salary with the mother and children of the house not having to work at all. One 

scene that is particularly striking in showing this wealth divide is when the Park family decides to go on 

a camping trip for their son’s birthday and leave Kim Chung-sook, their caretaker and the mother of the 

Kim family, to stay in the house and look after their dogs. The matriarch of the Park family goes into ex-

tensive detail on each of the dog’s diets, explaining how one of them eats differently from the others and 

has food that is made from crab legs (Parasite). She seems completely oblivious to the extent of luxury 

and comfort this exemplifies in her family, ignorant and unappreciative of just how prosperous they

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really are. For the Kims, who can only afford to get themselves a pizza after several of them have been 

working for the Parks for a few weeks, seeing dogs who eat fancier ingredients than them is very unset-

tling. This dichotomy is especially seen after the Parks have left and the Kim family have made them-

selves comfortable, taking advantage of a space and a prosperity that at any other time is unavailable to 

them. While the Parks are aware that Chung-sook is in the house, they are unaware that any of their oth-

er employees are related and therefore do not know that the family is all present in their absence. While 

the Kims are lounging around the house enjoying the Parks’ food and drink, daughter Ki-Jung inspects 

this package of dog food and scoffs upon seeing what it is composed of. One scholar argues that this 

idea of “upward comparison to those with more income generally leads people to feel they need more to 

be satisfied” and how this “perceived need has a precise relationship to risk taking” (Payne 4643). Com-

paring what the Parks have to their own resources, the Kims develop a feeling that they need more to 

be happy, which causes them to take greater risks in order to achieve this wealth and satisfaction. They 

feel a sense of injustice at the wealth gap they are experiencing firsthand and decide to take matters into 

their own hands to level this gap as much as possible. 

 What serves to make matters even worse for the Kims is that the Parks, who have the wealth 

and prosperity to eat basically whatever they want, also seem to have a strange affinity for cheap and 

easy food. When a storm starts and the Park camping trip eventually turns into a bust, the mother of the 

family calls Kim Chung-Sook on their way home and asks her to prepare their son, Da-Song, his favor-

ite meal for when they return. This favorite meal? Ramdon, a combination of packaged ramen and udon 

noodles (Parasite). For a family that is so well off, it comes as somewhat strange that Da-Song’s absolute 

favorite food is comprised of pre-packaged noodles that are affordable even to poorer families like the 

Kims. It is not only Da-Song who enjoys the cheap and easy meal, though—when the Park family returns 

home, Da-Song is upset and angry and retreats to his room without eating. The family matriarch offers 

the food to her husband but, upon his declination, eats the Ramdon instead. Not only does she eat it, 

she eats quickly, signifying either an intense hunger, a deep love for the dish, or a combination of both 

(Parasite). It’s not just their young son who enjoys cheap food—it’s the adults in the house as well who 

supposedly have an appreciation for the ‘finer things in life’ that would exclude something this simple. 

This serves to emphasize a very important point in the film: while the Parks have the means to obtain 

practically anything, they are not necessarily appreciative of this fact. This is the same idea emphasized 

through the image of the crab leg dog food; the family is completely oblivious to their own wealth and 

prosperity and therefore do not appropriately acknowledge their privilege. The Kim family, on the other 

hand, knows that they are not at all considered wealthy, but, in contrast to the Parks, they are willing to 

do nearly anything to find a way to obtain the means to that wealth and prosperity, even if it takes lying 

about their lives and identities to do so.

 Another very interesting yet less obvious way in which food comes to play a role in the signifi-

cance of class divide in Parasite is through smell and connotation. When the Park family returns home 

from their failed camping trip, the Kims have not yet had time or opportunity to leave without being 

seen, and as such end up hiding under the table in the main living room area. While here, the Parks can 

be overheard talking, and at one point the patriarch of the household can be heard saying that Kim Ki-

Taek, the Kim father who at this point works as the Parks’s chauffeur, smells badly—specifically, he says

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that he smells like radishes (Parasite). This is a comment that strikes Ki-Taek much more deeply than one 

would anticipate and plays a very large role in the climactic final events of the film. 

 While the Parks are out the old housekeeper returns, and conflict ensues between the old and 

new help of the Park family. The old housekeeper had been working in that house since the previous 

owner, and it is revealed that she had been hiding her husband in a nuclear cellar underneath the house 

that the Parks were unaware of, allowing him to live there for free and providing him with food. When 

he was much younger, Park son Da-song saw this man coming up the stairs late at night and was so 

frightened that he had a seizure. In the climax of the film, more conflict embroils between the Parks and 

the old help, all hidden underneath the Parks’s elaborate picnic party for Da-song. Eventually, this man 

leaves the basement and grabs a knife as he passes on his way to the yard, where he attacks the Kim 

family and gravely injures the daughter Ki-jung in front of a crowd of people. Upon seeing this terror 

from his past resurface, Park son Da-Song has another seizure and needs to be taken to the hospital. His 

father yells for Kim Ki-Taek to get the car ready and go, not knowing that the body Ki-taek is cradling 

is that of his daughter. Instead, he throws the keys towards the Parks, and they land in the grass and 

end up under the body of the previous housekeeper’s husband who has been physically struggling with 

the mother Kim Chung-sook most of this time. When Mr. Park goes to retrieve the keys, he recoils for a 

moment and holds his nose before grabbing them. This is the action that ultimately makes Ki-Taek snap 

as he rises, grabs the knife previously used to hurt his daughter, and drives it into the chest of Mr. Park. 

Ki-taek’s daughter is about to die, bleeding out on the grass in his arms, and Mr. Park has the audacity 

to think his bodily odor lingering on the car keys is repulsive enough to take pause in acting to help his 

own son. There are several places where food makes itself present in the carnage of this final scene—the 

smell of radishes lingering on these car keys, Mrs. Kim taking down the man who killed her daughter 

by stabbing him with a sausage skewer, and the whole scene centering around Da-song’s birthday and 

beginning while Kim Ki-jung was bringing out his birthday cake. This is perhaps the most extreme, and 

yet the most clear and significant, example throughout the film of this disparity between the families and 

the gap between their lives that they will simply never be able to bridge. 

 There is also another very direct tie between food and violence in this film, specifically with 

peaches. The Park’s old housekeeper, who gets fired and replaced by Chung-Sook, has an intense and 

dangerous allergy to peaches. The children in the house enjoy the fruit, but never have it because of 

their housekeeper’s allergy. When trying to get rid of the housekeeper, the Kim children who are em-

ployed in the house already use this allergy to their advantage and spread the fibers off the skin of 

peaches in the air around her, making her cough and react aggressively. Upon these reactions happening 

increasingly frequently, the housekeeper goes to see a doctor and is spotted there by Kim Ki-Taek, who 

takes a selfie with her in the background and later expresses concerns to Mrs. Park, saying he overheard 

the housekeeper talking about tuberculosis. This is ultimately what ends up getting the housekeeper 

fired—a fabricated sense of secrecy surrounding her health and a perceived endangerment of the Park 

family. Later, when she comes back for her husband while the Parks are away and the Kims are relaxing 

around the house, the peach becomes used as a more literal weapon against her, shoved in her face and 

rubbed against her skin to cause a reaction. In Bong Joon-Ho’s words, “Peaches are so pretty to look at, 

but you can attack someone with them” (Murray). Beyond just the physical representation of the food, 

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this further exemplifies how food and consumption are used throughout the film as signs of aggression 

and class divide. The Kims use the peaches as a weapon against the housekeeper to secure their jobs 

with the Parks and obtain a better financial standing, thus pushing the poor housekeeper down into un-

employment 

and poverty. 

 Through these given examples, food and consumption clearly play a major role in the way that 

class and social status are portrayed throughout Parasite, being so vital as to be the conduit for the final 

moments of violence and bloodshed within the film. One’s means of obtaining food and for consump-

tion are inherently tied to their social and financial standing, and this is clear to see in the divide be-

tween the food and consumption habits of the Parks and the Kims. This is not just an issue that exists 

within the screen either—wealth gaps in South Korea as well as the United States are an ever-present 

issue as the rich grow richer and the poor stay poor, and this film is an exemplary demonstration of the 

destructive nature of this social structure. While Parasite is unarguably a dramatized representation of 

the consequences of this divide, it brings about some very important points and one essential question 

for us to consider: Who is really the parasite of the film? Is it the rich who rely on the services of the 

poor to thrive without being appreciative of these services or the privilege that they themselves have? Or 

is it the poor who sap money and resources from the rich in hopes of financial ascension?

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