The main themes of Parasite are class conflict, social inequality and wealth disparity.[46][47][48] Film critics and Bong Joon-ho himself have considered the film as a reflection of late-stage capitalism,[49][50] and some have associated it with the term "Hell Joseon" (Korean: 헬조선), a satirical phrase that posits that living in hell would be akin to living in modern South Korea. This term came about due to high rates of youth unemployment, the intense demands of pursuing higher education, the crisis of home affordability, and the increasing socioeconomic gap between the wealthy and poor.[51][52][53] In Coronavirus Capitalism Goes to the Cinema, Nulman writes that the word "parasite" originally referred to a "person who eats at the table of another", which occurs in one scene of the film.[48] Nulman also notes the connection between parasites and the Karl Marx quote:
The capitalist... is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital. But capital has one sole driving force, the drive to valorize itself, to create surplus-value, to make its constant part, the means of production, absorb the greatest possible amount of surplus labor. Capital is dead labor which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.[48]
The film also analyses the use of connections and qualifications to get ahead, for rich and poor families alike.[54] Some argue that its discussion of class relates to Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus.[48]
Bong has referred to Parasite as an upstairs/downstairs or "stairway movie",[17] in which staircases are used as a motif to represent the positions of the families in the homes of the Kims and the Parks, as well as the basement bunker.[55] The Kims' semi-basement apartment is typical for poorer Seoul residents due to its lower rent, despite having issues such as mold and increased risk of disease.[46] Monsoon floods such as the one depicted in the film commonly damage these types of residences the most.[54] The film presents class in spatial terms that speak to hierarchy, according to Nulman.[48][56]
According to Bong, the ending implies that Ki-woo will not be able to earn the funds needed to buy the house, as the final shot shows him still in the basement flat and recalls the first scene; he described this shot as a "surefire kill" (확인사살), referring to a coup de grace to ensure death.[17] The ending song refers to Ki-woo working to make money to get the house. Choi Woo-shik estimated that it would take approximately 564 years for Ki-woo to earn enough money to purchase the house. Nevertheless, he was optimistic: "I'm pretty sure Ki-woo is one of those bright kids. He'll come up with some idea, and he would just go into the German family's house, and I think he will rescue his father".[11] But on many interpretations, this dream subscribes to a bootstrapping mentality and is unlikely to be achieved;[17][49][11] furthermore, "it does not address the fundamental problem at hand. Even in this fantasy scenario, Ki-taek would still be contained in the house by a legal system that would seek his prosecution and imprisonment. The forces that created and upheld the Kim family's separation would not be undone, merely adapted to".[57]
Critics have also considered the themes of colonialism and imperialism. According to Ju-Hyun Park, the film plays out within "the capitalist economic order inaugurated and upheld in Korea by colonial occupation", and the use of English in the film denotes prestige within that system.[57] Park Da-song is obsessed with "Indians" and owns Native American-themed toys and inauthentic replicas.[58][59][48] Nulman makes the link between the "native" Park family and the invaders: the Kims, who bring with them deadly parasites to which the natives have no immunity. Nulman points to the miasma theory of scent carrying disease: it was thought that natives could catch diseases just by smelling the noxious air carried by colonising Spaniards. This connects to the film's theme around the class distinction of smell.[48] Bong has noted: "I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a commentary on what happened in the United States, but it's related in the sense that this family starts infiltrating the house and they already find a family living there. So you could say it's a joke in that context. But at the same time, the Native Americans have a very complicated and long, deep history. But in this family, that story is reduced to a young boy's hobby and decoration. The boy's mother mentions the tent as a US imported good, and I think it's like the Che Guevara T-shirts that people wear. They don't know the life of the revolutionary figure, they just think it's a cool T-shirt. That's what happens in our current time: the context and meaning behind these actual things only exists as a surface-level thing".[60]
Some critics note the importance of working-class solidarity as presented in the film. The Kims' problems are a result of lack of class solidarity with the other poor family, Geun-sae and Moon-gwang. At the film's climax, Ki-taek becomes aware of his class identity when Mr Park is disgusted by Geun-sae's smell.[48] Others said Parasite revealed the misfortunes of poor, powerless victims of an indifferent world who are transformed into liberation through the comical effect of mass slaughter.[61]
