Final essay

Avatar Essay

Shayla Derr

 

            Our historical globalization is important to how our society and culture is formed and shaped to this day. The movie Avatar, directed by James Cameron, has strong connections to our historical globalization. It represents our past, but the movie is set in the future. The “Sky People” tried to develop cultural contact and colonialism with the Na’vi people of Pandora. Avatar ties to our historical globalization through conflicts of ethnocentrism, marginalization and apathy. It shows the past, repeating itself.

           The“Sky People” (people from Earth, given the name Sky People by the Na’vi), expressed ethnocentrism on a wide scale, throughout Avatar. All the Sky People were after a precious metal, called Unobtainium, which is located under the surface of Pandora and mainly under the Hometree. But the Hometree was basically a home to the Na'vi. And the only way to get to the Unobtainium was to destroy it. Jake Sully, a main character in Avatar, took on the identity of a Na'vi, to gain access to the tree. Also to develop cultural contact with the Na'vi. But no matter what the Sky People offered, the Na'vi were not interested. Soon the Unobtainium was top priority and the rights, beliefs, land and culture of the Na'vi, didn't mean a thing to the Sky People. The Sky People thought their rights over weighed the rights of the Na'vi. "White Man's Burden" ties into ethnocentrism as it is: the duty to take care of people of a different race. It ties into ethnocentrism because the Sky People felt they had to get the Na'vi to like them, so they could dominate and be "the best". The ethnocentrism levels that were distributed by the Sky People put the Na'vi into a lesser place of power.

           “So what? They can move to another tree!” quoted from Avatar’s Parker Selfridge. The Sky People didn’t see the importance of the Hometree or the Na’vi’s relationship with the land and nature. They marginalized the Na’vi’s rights and went ahead and took over the land. They showed little empathy for the Na’vi and how the Na’vi lived off the land. This relates to when the Europeans forced the First Nations onto reserves and set the First Nations below them in class and society. But the Sky People are not the only ones at fault for pushing away a different culture. The Na’vi didn’t want anything to do with the Sky People.“Your fault! You are like a baby; making noise, don't know what to do. You should not come here, all of you! You only come and make problems. Only.”Avatar’s Neytiri snaps at Jake Sully when she has killed the wolves to save him. Neytiri here shows the Na’vi’s hatred for the Sky People and the Sky People’s carelessness for the Na’vi’s land. Although it is not a sign of marginalization because the Na'vi are not putting the Sky People into a position of lesser power.

            The Sky People set up colonies on Pandora, on the Na’vi’s land, caring little about what they were affecting. This made the cultural contact between the two cultures strained and unpleasant. The Sky People thought of the Na’vi as dumb savages, and didn’t care about their connections the nature and land. This outraged the Na'vi, and they took a stand. Jake Sully integration with the Na'vi and discovered how precious everything was and what his own people were destroying. He too rose up and fought for what he now believed.

           The actions that were made in the movie Avatar by the Sky People, relate to the actions of the Europeans when they came to North America. The Europeans thought their rights overpowered the rights of the First Nations, much like the Sky People with the Na’vi. They pushed the First Nations rights, religions and culture aside and marginalized the First Nations, which also relates to Avatar. And lastly, they made little effort at cultural contact with the First Nations to try and learn and empathy their religion and ways of life. Instead, the Europeans set up colonies and forced them onto reserves. Putting them into lower class and society. The movie Avatar has a strong connection to our past. Even though our history is in the past, Avatar is set in the future. It is history repeating itself. And I think it is important that we remember what happened and never let it happen again.