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Courtney Hill

Dr. Arnold

INTL 3111

August 6, 2020

The Purge Series: Monetary Influence on the Social Classes

In 2013, a new film series hit the screen. While The Purge films display a dystopian

American society where all crime is legal for 12 consecutive hours one day a year, there are

many elements that reflect actual society in America. The New Founding Fathers of America

(NFFA) came to power and created a society so fueled by wealth and the accumulation of it that

human life ceased to matter. The separation of wealth further fractured the society and fueled the

rage expressed during the films. The darkest parts of American society are depicted and pushed

to their limits in The Purge (2013), The Purge: Anarchy (2014), The Purge: Election Year

(2016), and The First Purge (2018).

Purge Night started as a social experiment as a way to release pent up anger and rage, or

so it was described to the public when in actuality, it was the NFFA’s way of population control.

The explanation of how this night first started is laid out in The First Purge. The NFFA teamed

up with a social scientist, Dr. Updale, and the first signs that this “experiment” was not just based

in a catharsis of rage was the government offered each participant five thousand dollars, and the

dollar amount increased based upon the amount and severity of crimes the person committed.

Staten Island was specifically chosen because the area is largely lower class and homeless. It

“highlights the deplorable living conditions that the residents of Staten Island endure” (Egan,

2018). The prospect of financial gain in this area was too great for many to pass up because there
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was so much poverty. The NFFA was clearly exploiting these people because if the trial

happened in an upper scale city in America, there would not have been nearly as much

participation. While the trial Purge Night took place in Staten Island, it focused on one specific

neighborhood where there were predominately black and minority communities. It became clear

throughout the film that this was not just a social experiment, but rather a genocide disguised as

population control. Government funded militias took to the streets and slaughtered many people,

often dressed in uniforms similar to the KKK and Nazis. The Purge’s success was due highly to

the propaganda spouted by the NFFA, claiming it was cathartic for people to “purge” all their

hatred that had been built up over the past year, and in turn, it will significantly decrease crime

the rest of the year. It is obvious though that the reactions of Purge Night are drastically different,

depending on the social class.

Throughout the course of the series, those in support of Purge Night are clearly wealthy

and reside comfortably within the upper class. These people can afford high-tech security

systems to protect themselves whereas the lower class and the homeless population are left

virtually defenseless. The middle class has basically disappeared because the price of purge

insurance and security systems rise so these people are either left with nothing, or become part of

the upper class. Though the NFFA claimed to fully support any ‘purging’, when the victim is a

supporter of the NFFA, then it is an outrage. In The Purge: Anarchy, this is evident with people

being grabbed off the street, then sold to the NFFA for them to hunt. The anti-purge resistance

group, led by Carmelo Johns, break into the hunting arena and open fire on those inflicting the

violence and terror. The NFFA was horrified someone would dare attack them and called for

backup. The NFFA believed themselves to be above any sort of attack because Purge Night was
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intended solely for killing homeless people and lower class. Though one of the main reasons for

Purge Night is population control, the decision was very much financially driven.

The New Founding Fathers of America were profiting off the Purge in many ways.

Insurance rates spiked along with added ‘purge coverage’ and in The Purge: Election Year, it was

hinted that the NFFA had investments in insurance companies so many supporters and politicians

were financially profiting off the Purge. While insurance investments is clear, there were other

way the NFFA was using the Purge to its advantage. The night targeted lower income people and

with less of these people in America, the government needn’t spend as much on welfare,

medicare, food stamps, and social security. At first glance, it may look counterintuitive to target

America’s cheap labor force, but it was economically beneficial to the NFFA because these

people would most likely be the ones protesting, as depicted in all four films. These groups of

people could turn into revolutionaries and eventually cause more financial damage to the NFFA’s

system so that is why the government funded militias targeted these communities (Judson, 2016).

American society continued to fracture and break down as the Purge continued year after

year. Human life came to just represent a dollar amount because wealthy families would pay

people to come to their homes for them to kill them. In The Purge: Anarchy, Cali’s sickly

grandfather, Rico, surrenders himself to a family’s murderous whims just so his daughter and

granddaughter can have some money for their future. The dehumanization of these people is

sickening; the wealthy literally hunt people that have been grabbed off the street for fun. The

message that runs through all these films is that if you have money, then you are above just about

everything. This is clear in The Purge when the masked purgers express their “right” to murder

the “useless swine” that the Sandin’s son saved. In The Purge: Anarchy, the NFFA hosted a gala
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where they could pay to kill people in an arena. Possibly the worst depiction of humanity was

expressed in the third film, The Purge: Election Year. Up until this point, all government officials

had been “off limits” but Senator Roan made clear she wanted to end the Purge, the ban was

lifted solely to kill her. Time and again, the NFFA used their position in power to control

America. They have used their power to exploit lower income communities to turn the violence

against each other, rather than attack the people responsible.

The Purge series may be a dystopian version of America, but many aspects of real

American society are reflected in the films. Money rules the world and especially in America.

Prices for just about everything continue to rise while minimum wage continues to stay the same,

forcing more and more people closer to the poverty line. Minorities have been disproportionately

targeted in America for decades and today’s social climate has continued to escalate the issues. In

The Purge films, the people targeted are largely black and people of color, further displaying

America’s inability to deal with deep societal problems.

The Purge films depict a society extremely similar to that of America today, though the

only difference being there is no 12 hour time frame where all crime is legal. All other social

issues are still evident and despite claims from the NFFA, have not been corrected. If anything, it

has worsened the attitudes towards different communities in America because 364 days out of

the year, these people know they will be targeted by the wealthy and privileged so there’s a new

level of distrust factored into society. The prospect of financial gain has completely ruined The

Purge’s America; human life has been left to mean next to nothing.
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Works Cited

Egan, Caroline. "The First Purge." Irish Gothic Journal.17 (2018): 146-9. ProQuest. Web. 7

Aug. 2020.

Judson, Abraham. “Marcuse, Foucault, and The Purge: Film Review.” Spectra, vol. 5, no. 2,

2016, doi:10.21061/spectra.v5i2.374.