Avatar Essay
The oppression of any peoples from
any time or place is wrong and we should all know it! There is a very close
relation between the movie Avatar and how our pasts played out. The humans in
this movie travelled to the planet Pandora and tried to mine all of the Unobtainium
from this planets core. They believed their race was more important and they
needed it more. In this essay I will be exploring the different aspects that
relate to our past and in the movie Avatar, as in the oppression of native
peoples, ethnocentrism, colonialism cultural contact and marginalization.
The humans in this movie felt that
the needs of their planet and existence outweighed the needs of the Na’vi
peoples. This turned out to be a terribly bad way to think for the humans in
this movie and usually does the same in our lives, for in this movie, and most
times in life, thinking that you, or your ethnic background, is better than
others will not turn out well for you. For example, the Nazis believed that their
so called Aryan race was superior to all others and they tried to eliminate all
“inferior” races, this, as we all know, did not turn out well for them and
never will. In this movie the humans believe that their need for Unobtainium
outweighed the Na’vi’s need for life and religion. This type of thought process
is known as ethnocentrism. One example of ethnocentrism is when the Europeans
first travelled to America and tried to control all of the land and felt that their
need for space was more important than the First Nations way of life and religion.
The humans in Avatar created colonies
on Pandora with no remorse for the areas surrounding them or the cultures they
would be affecting. We can assume that this lead to an unpleasant first
impression between the two cultures, leading to a flawed and harsh relationship.
The humans only cared about themselves and the resources of the planet Pandora.
They disregarded the race of humanoids, the Na’vi and their way of life and religion.
This relates closely to how the Europeans took advantage of the First Nations
of America and used them in their circle of mercantilism. They bought the furs
of beavers and other animals that the First Nations had gathered, and shipped
them back to Europe for a small cost. When in Europe, the furs would be
manufactured into a product, such as hats or fur coats, and then they would be sent
back to America to be sold at a high rate of profit. This lead to the downfall
and poor quality of life for the First Nations people, and forced them into a
state of poverty; this is a form of marginalization.
The simplest way of identifying
marginalization in this movie is in the physical sense. The humans had a home base
set up on Pandora, which as you can see in the movie, is very large and takes
up a lot of the land. They forced the Na’vi away from the area, and therefore pushed
them away from the human society. At a deeper understanding, the humans took
away the religion, culture and quality of life of the Na’vi. This made their
society more harsh and undesirable, marginalizing them in a way. They forced
the Na’vi into schools and tried to make them a part of the human society. The
humans always put their own race first, and their needs before the needs
of the Na’vi, just like the Europeans did to the First Nations of America. The
Europeans forced the First Nations to drop their culture and enrolled them into
residential schools to become lower class Europeans. They forced them to do
slave labour or have no job at all; the First Nations were barely considered a
part of society. The Europeans, as we saw in Social Studies class, endorsed the
residential schools as a “happy” place, and a place where the First Nations
people were civilized from “flea bitten savages” to modern day gentlemen and ladies.
They covered up the whole situation, so the higher class citizens thought it
was okay. Another example of marginalization is when the Americans went to
Africa and kidnapped Africans to sell as slaves. When, if ever, they were freed
from slavery, they were forced into the lower class of society and made to work
for less money, sit in the back of buses, use different washrooms, et cetera.
In this day and age, and from all of
the mistakes we have made in our history, we should know that no person or
persons should be discriminated against! As a species, humans are still very
young and not the best at preserving our planet and resources. I do hope we eventually
find a way to explore planets and find resources to help us prosper, but not if
it turns out like in the movie Avatar, and we end up discriminating another
species for the resources on their planet. I feel that this movie has a great
lesson to teach us about our past, and how to prevent anything like this in the
future. It is a harsh reminder that ethnocentrism, colonialism and
marginalization are wrong and we should all understand that.
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