Sunday 30 September 2012

Finished Avatar Essay


Avatar Position Essay
Brett Rider
In the movie Avatar Director James Cameron represents certain themes very well.  Many of the events in the movie are similar to what happened when the Europeans first came to North America.  For one example the way the Na’vi are pushed aside by the Sky People is a lot like how the First Nations were pushed aside by the Europeans.  In my essay I will talk about how the movie Avatar represented the significance of cultural contact, ethnocentrism, colonialism, and marginalization.

The way the Sky People interact with the Na’vi when they first get to Pandora was similar to the way the Europeans and First Nations people of North America interacted.  The Sky People are only there to get the resources, so they try to push the Na’vi away.  This is also imperialism because the Sky People are trying to gain control over the planet and the unobtanium that is on it.  The Sky People and Na’vi are two very different cultures with very different ways of doing things.  Each group shares a collective identity different from the others.  The reason they fight with each other is because of their different cultures.


The movie Avatar shows a lot of evidence of ethnocentrism.  The Sky People think they are better and are just there to get the resources.  White Man’s Burden is another example of ethnocentrism.  The Europeans thought that they needed to take care of the First Nations.  One way they did this was by having residential schools for natives.  They also did this in Avatar.  The Sky People think they are helping the Na’vi by doing this but really they aren’t. 


The Na’vi have already colonized Pandora but in a different way then we are used to hearing about.  When we think about colonization you think that you have to build houses and try to get any resources possible.  The Na’vi live in a tree and the Sky People think this is weird because they are used to houses and having all your necessities whereas the Na’vi hunt for all their food.  If the Sky People succeed in colonizing Pandora I think the results will involve mercantilism, because the products would be sent back to Earth to be developed and used.  As the Sky People try to get the minerals they marginalize the Na’vi for their own benefit.  This is a lot like what happened in North America when the Europeans came.  They wanted the resources but the natives were in the way.  When the Sky People push the home tree over they are marginalizing the Na’vi and hoping to push them away so they have access to the resources they want.


The movie Avatar represented different aspects of globalization that we have learned about this year.  These aspects include cultural contact, ethnocentrism, colonialism, and marginalization.  This topic is important because it relates too many of the things that have happened in our past.  The way the Europeans treated the First Nations when they first arrived in North America was wrong but it shaped the way our world is today.  If they had treated the First Nations differently North America would be a different place today.

1 comment:

  1. used this for a school essay refrence worked perfect

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