Planet of the Apes: a Lesson in Manners and Humanity - Essay Example

?KarissaSjawaldy RELS1260 Winborne February 19 Midterm Research Paper Planet of the Apes–A Lesson in Manners and Humanity Planet of the Apes is a classic movie of 1968, based on the concept of a planet ruled by the Apes and humans serve as their servants. The movie is based on the ruling class, which is further divided into sub-classes and it presents a sketch of a wee-knit society, where humans are hunted for sport, used for manual labor, scientific experimentation or executed out-rightly. The sociological and physiological interpretations used in the movie reflect various incidents through which the West was going; and these facts were stated in a specific state of mind as is proved by the movies found in The Apes series. Racial discrimination is still present and prevalent in the American society, and the movie Planet of the Apes is a depiction of racial segregation that is predominant in the American society through the representation of class differences, absence of rights for servant class, and fear of power domination. Racism or racial discrimination is a debatable subject in terms of what constitutes racist behavior, but the general idea is that racism is a concept of human beings. As such, human beings are divided into different biological groups, and that makes certain races inferior, superior, more intelligent or less intelligent than as compared others. That which comprises racism and that which accounts for discrimination remains as a vast topic for discussion. However, for the analysis of this paper, we shall stick to the most common understanding of racism; the discrimination based on the color of one’s skin, where usually the blacks are considered the lower race as compared to whites. Although ethnic discrimination and racial discrimination are terms often used interchangeably, the aspect of someone’s skin color is the focus for this paper, where white people have dominance over black people. The color of the skin should not be confused as being repulsive; giving the black people a bad name. The reason whites have (and in many cases still are) hated blacks is not complicated in any manner as this phrase explains, “statements in which comparisons are made between blacks and other groups, without a reason why being given, seem to be relatively simple; presumably the comparison is in terms of status, treatment or appearance (Pieterse, 1992, p. 212). The storyline adopted in movie The Planet of the Apes presents the shadow of some historic events going on in the sixties and seventies. These include Civil Rights Movement, racial and ethical unrest in the West, and the psychological effects of Cold and Vietnam wars. The class difference presented in the movie actually depicts the norms and culture of that era, in which there were racial riots, racially discriminating laws, inequitable distribution of wealth and income. The movie depicts what the US and the whole world did to ‘inferior’ races, such as comparing monkeys with ‘inferior’ people, which has a direct relation with Europeans calling the Africans apes and monkeys. When these lower races started intermingling with other people in the US, a threat arose that a ‘new breed’ will start forming that would destroy the dominance of the whites. To take care of this, a book was written in 1945 that suggested sterilization laws for lower races. “The threat from these misfits supposedly arose in part from their ‘reckless breeding’, which threatened to turn the United States into a ‘monkey house” (Greene, 2011, p. 6). In a very subtle style, the movie discusses the end of times and the Day of Judgment for the primitives and a complete supremacy of the superior class. There are also various myths involved and evolved as the plot moves forward, which represent American psychology; this research focuses to answer the questions raised by this American myth. 1) Class Difference Presented in the Movie: As discussed in the introductory paragraph, The planet of apes is divided into various sub-classes. Chimpanzees are considered suitable for research due to their intelligence, orangutans could take part in the administrative and religious affairs of the planet and gorillas were presented as the defenders. This segregation of class and roles is strictly observed by the inhabitants of the planet. This situation refers to the first segment of the movie where the astronauts were caught by the apes and treated brutally, in which case a doctor used the captain of the flying shuttle for experimental purposes. This segment defines the difference of class presented in the movie, as apes were dived into sub-classes and were allocated tasks according to their capabilities while, on the other hand, humans were treated as sword fodders or lab rats. This could be referred the situations of turmoil of the early twentieth century, when a law relating to racial discrimination had been passed: referred to as Jim Crow’s law, by the virtue of which the white population of the country was segregated from the Afro-Americans of the country. It prohibited the black people to enter any type of transaction with the white population, or use taps for drinking water, toilets, hotels, restaurants, passenger seats and anything that could demean white superiority over the black. The black population was considered untouchable and as the most down trodden part of the society; the only jobs available for them were in the form of manual labor, as was the case with the humans in the movie. Law enforcement agencies treated convicts of different races and castes discriminately; there was favoritism, nepotism, violence and hate by the supreme part of the society for the under-class, as the apes used to treat the humans in the movie (Van, 2001, pp. 6). 2) Absence of any Rights for the Servants/Slaves Class In the second segment of the movie, when the captain of the shuttle, Taylor, is encaged along with other human captives, he tries to communicate with the doctor who is performing research on him. He does so by writing something on the sand with his finger, which was erased by a cleric from the planet. Later on when Taylor is presented in front of the court, he comes to know that humans have no right to speak in front of the court. When he realizes he cannot do anything, he tries to write a note to the doctor, which too is considered illegal; as anything of human writings is considered inferior as compared to the knowledge of the apes. This represents the repression and oppression of the conqueror’s society, as the apes are now in control of the humans despite the fact that humans are more intelligent as compared to the apes, where humans are not even allowed to speak in their own defense. The courts, which are expected to provide in-discriminatory justice, are totally discriminating against the race that is not of their origin. In fact, the law of the land can be made, bent or even revoked in order to provide and save the superior class of the society. American history bears various cases where people of color specifically the black people were being persecuted and pinned down by law enforcement agencies just on the basis of their color. The rights granted to any white citizen of the country were not available to the black minority. Although slavery had been officially abolished, the black minority remained servants and slaves of the white aristocracy. The resentment, rebellion, hate and helplessness felt by the black minority was nothing but natural for them. These injustices gave rise to riots, which were named Watts’s riots, took place in the southern Los Angeles in the year 1965, during the six days of riots, many innocent people were killed, injured and arrested. Property worth millions of dollars was destroyed and the black minority, which already was scratching the meat of their gums to survive, was destroyed economically in the respective neighborhood. There were various reasons for the riot such as inequitable income allocation, improper social standing and marginalized living standards. However, the main incident due to which the whole neighborhood rebelled against the state was the improper behavior of an officer towards a21-year-old young man. The officer, under prejudice, while passing through the neighborhood stopped the boy and radioed that his vehicle should be impounded. It was complete injustice as the officer not only impounded the vehicle, but also arrested the boy under the guise of driving while intoxicated. This incident infuriated the residents of the neighborhood and riots broke out; the state had to impose curfew to bring the situation back to peace (Dawsey, 1990). It was the time when the protagonists of the civil rights movement were on the streets and demanding their rights. Demanding their constitutional rights, for which there were sit-ins, processions, mobilization and protests to get the minorities of America the rights of an equal citizenship. During the mid-sixties, the minorities of America were about to burst and the country feared the chances that another civil war might break. As the racial discrimination increased, undeserving white students were given priority over able and deserving students of the minorities. Percentages of minorities in general, especially black people, in white-collar job were minimal, as the aristocracy did not want them to get themselves educated and to sit beside them because of their god-gifted talents. This is the case, in the movie, where the judge refuses Taylor to present and plead his case in front of the court. This is in spite of learning from Doctor Zira that he was an intelligent human and she nick named him “Bright Eyes”. The minorities of America were disenfranchised from the mainstream politics, they were exploited and law enforcement agencies were violent with them (Perman, 2001, pp.1-30). 3) Fear of the Unknown After Taylor’s interrogation, the judge Zaius calls him to his private chambers and asks about the whereabouts of his route and the means that enabled Taylor to the travel to the Apes planet, and threatens him of the dire consequences if Taylor did not cooperate with the ape city ministry. Taylor tells him the truth that he came to the plant named earth that is at a distance of 320 light years from Planet of Apes. Zaius tells him that he knows it that his “tribe” has inhabited the other side of the forbidden zone (desert), by doing lobotomy of Landan (another Human in the Ape city). The only thing about which Zaius is curious is that, he wants Taylor to admit that he comes from a tribe of intelligent humans. However, Taylor keeps to his point that he comes from planet earth and was in space for 2,000 years and the reason why he and his crew did not age is that they had crossed the hyperspace wormhole. That was also evident from the growth of their hair and beards. Zaius realizes that Taylor will not break, so he sends him back to the laboratory. Here there is curiosity in interrogation of the judge; he is afraid of the fact some tribe mightier than his own still exists, and that their knowledge and intelligence is stronger than his own is. There is fear simulated in this interrogation, fear to lose the superiority, fear to be a slave again and fear to be primitives once again. The desert, which they used to denote as the forbidden land, was actually a desert, which they had never exploited. Knowledge is power and Zaius knows it better than anyone does, he snubs Taylor and his theory because he can, as he knows that the oppressed can regain the humanity and overcome their condition to be treated as inferiors to the apes. That is why the balance of power hangs with the Apes, who now control the humans, though there was a kind of coerciveness in their status, which is normal with the conqueror. As he who conquers makes others respect only his policies. The apes not only use power to control the humans, but also to keep balance and status quo in their sub-dived society. The courts presided by the orangutans (rules of the Ape city) orders that Doctor Zira and Cornelius (her fiance) be tried for heresy for their traitorous act of supporting the theory purposed by the human (Taylor). Though later, in the movie, the audience comes to know that Zaius knows that planet with the name of earth exists across the forbidden land, he is reluctant to accept, as it would be a constant and permanent threat to their sacred temple of superiority. This part of the movie too has similarity with American racial segregation, as the doors of higher education were closed to the black people of the society. There were two main reasons, one was the high cost of education, which these poor people could not afford and second was the discrimination through which these students had to pass during the course of their education. As the white population of the country had the major share of the resources, they got good jobs, better bank balance, and inheritance and social security benefits. They could afford to send their children to expensive colleges, where white students could not bear the presence of any person of color, especially the black people (Pieterse, 1992, pp. 14-18). The Jim Crow law proved to more disastrous for these black people as most of southern America, where majority of black population resided, had to divide their schools between white and black students. The distribution of resources here too was injudicious and the schools where the blacks used to study were overpopulated and understaffed. It is because of this that the minority decided to take the majority to the courts of law, and five cases in total were filed against the state’s board of education. This was because segregation of the school on racial terms was unconstitutional which the Supreme Court in its 1954 decision of the case Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansasin ruled in favor of the black minority (Klarman, 2007, pp. 55). All these obstacles were made just to stop the entrance of these minorities into educational institutions designed to train the superior class of the country, meaning the white part of the population. It was intolerable that a subordinate could come and sit next to the superior. After generations of slavery, the white elite had become used to of provoking and insulting the black minority. The cultural stereotype that a black person was a barbarian, who was fit for labor and thus could not be intelligent enough to sit and study with these elite students of white race those were the archetype of intelligence was common. The oppressor always fears the future as it is uncertain, and this uncertainty could affect its hegemony. It was a similar case for the white class, who created such a social status for the minorities, especially the blacks, so that they could not afford to grow up until a certain level. They ensured that blacks must remain illiterate and keep doing what they ordered them to do. However, there are always some exceptions as seen with Du Bois, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. They created such an environment that the elite had feared, through their non-violent acts of protest that the government had to focus and consider the miserable situation of the black people as an actual problem for the state. 4) Representation of Apocalypticism In the last two segments of the movie, where the court verdicts to kill Taylor and the Doctor along with her fiance, they all run away from the ape city with help of doctor Zira’s cousin. Meanwhile, Cornelius (Zira’s fiance) is sent to bring some horses and supplies. They had planned to move to the remnants of the shuttle in which Taylor arrived in the planet of Apes. They encounter a gorilla, and along with the judge Zaius, take the judge captive and tell the gorillas that they will only release the judge when they receive horses and supplies. As guards set off to bring the supplies, they negotiate with the judge that if Cornelius can prove his theory, there is a planet across the forbidden area, where the judge would set all of them free. Zaius agrees and, as a result, Cornelius proves the point and all of them are free. During the conversation, Zaius confesses that he knew about the planet earth, that he knew humans are more intelligent than the apes and that he hates and fears the human race. Taylor says farewell to Zaius as he was sets off to cross the forbidden zone, which Zaius warned him to not to do as it is worth nothing. Later, at the end, the audience realize that what Zaius said was true, as humans had destroyed their own land because of their un-fulfilling need of war. At the end of the movie Apocalypticism is discussed, and described in a format that describes the Apes as the saviors of the universe, as Zaius opines that the forbidden land was once a paradise that humans destroyed. The symbolism used here, though is fictional, has a very powerful effect on the minds of the audience, as here apes are presented as the alternate of humans supporting the social Darwinism. This final part of movie has a very strong affiliation with the concept of social Darwinism that prevails in the West, in which Darwin predicts that there would be a time when the black race would become extinct, and the world would evolve into a more civilized and progressive society. It depicts the racial extremism of Darwin; he further stares that white race would successful against the black in racial war because strongest lives and the weakest die (Darwin, pp. 63-70). It was due the research of such extremist intellectuals that led the world to World War 2, in which millions of people were killed in the madness of superiority of one race over the other. The consequences were so drastic that it took decades for the countries involved in the war to revive their economies. Over again, during the Vietnam War, this racial extremism came into use, when Vietnamese were depicted a pale, weak and cowardly. How could they defend themselves against the all open attack of the American army? This led to the mass killing of the Vietnamese by the American soldiers. This racial segregation had reached its limit during the cold war, when the Cuban missile crisis emerged, and the world was the verge of an atomic war. The Day of Judgment seemed to be at hand and people were so afraid that they viewed the American space mission as a waste of time and money, because after the atomic war everything would be over. There was another fear that the elite, after putting the lives of common Americans in danger, were planning to leave planet earth to settle on another planet. Lack of trust, harmony, solidarity and peace in the society leads to such thought where one could not think of anybody else but of its own self, its own interest, that provides stepping stone for the ultimate destruction as the humans had destroyed the paradise in the movies and turned it into a desert (Eric, 1998, pp.163-168). Conclusion Racial segregation can be removed by proper education about humanity. The basic knowledge that we are all humans and the color of skin can never be a qualification or disqualification for anything. Although racism is prevalent throughout the world but the way black community has been treated in the past in the United States has gotten more media exposure. In the US, many schools are filled with Hispanics, and then there are schools that have over ninety percent of African Americans. These “arrangements” of school systems puts a seed of hatred and different complexities at a very early stage in the heart of the child. Making laws that would help alleviate the saturation of one race can be a step forward toward reducing racial segregation. The more the people communicate study, play and hang out together, the better friends they become, and start understanding each other, there are many voices already being raised over this issue. Hollywood itself is full of movie producers and directors that give stereotypical roles to specific races and that only magnifies their negative image in the public. Solid enforceable laws can be made to make things better before they get any worse. This problem can be eradicated as “it has often been observed that ‘race’ is not a reality but a social construct” (Pieterse, 1992, p. 9). Keeping in view the above discussion, I would conclude that there is a strong correlation between the segments of the movie and American cultural norms. Planet of the Apes presents the problem of racial hatred through a story on the cinema screen played with different characters. It is a reminder that the people of color and minorities are still being persecuted, there is still injustice carried out in the distribution of resources, jobs, education and means of living with the minorities; moreover, people still suffer because of their skin color. Its impact might have been temporarily reduced by the election of first black president of American history, but the roots of this segregation are yet to disappear completely. The world needs to do a lot more to rid the world of the evil of racism; concrete anti-racism laws need to be made if we want to live in a world free of racial discrimination. Bibliography Green, Eric. Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture. N.p.: Wesleyan UP., 1998. Print. (Pp. 163-168). Perman, Michael. "Introduction." Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888–1908.2001.: n.p., n.d. 1-30. University of North Carolina Press. Http://books.google.ch/books/about/Struggle_for_Mastery.html?hl=de&id=y3VF4yxrEAkC. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. Van, C. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. N.p.: n.p., 2001. 6. Http://books.google.com.pk/books/about/The_Strange_Career_of_Jim_Crow.html?id=u6Eirru04cgC&redir_esc=y. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. Darwin, Charles. On the Races of Man: Sub-species. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 63-70. On the Races of Man: Sub-species. Http://www.nazi.org.uk/darwin-race.htm. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. Klarman, Michael. J.,Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. 55. Jim Crow to Civil Rights : The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. Dawsey, Darrell. "To CHP Officer Who Sparked Riots, It Was Just Another Arrest." Los Angeles Times. Http://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-19/local/me-2790_1_chp-officer, 19 Aug. 1990. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture. N.p.: Yale UP, 1992. Http://books.google.com.pk/books/about/White_on_Black.html?id=XWL8QVcSlO4C&redir_esc=y. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. Read More