Avatar: seen through five sociological perspectives - Essay Example

?Jennifer Slusser GK Lutz Sociology March 26, Avatar: Seen Through Five Sociological Perspectives Avatar, a movie by James Cameron, isa good metaphor about social issues of today. The story is about Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine. He was sent to a planet called Pandora, a planet rich with a mineral called unobtanium, five light years away from Earth. He was sent to continue the experiment his dead twin brother was supposed to undertake. To do that, he must use his brother’s avatar to win the hearts of the natives of Pandora, the Na’vi. Also, the avatar is important so that the humans could explore Pandora without having to wear life support gear, as the atmosphere of the planet is hostile. The avatar is a humanoid shell made of a combination of human DNA and Na’vi DNA. To use one, a person must have a compatible DNA with that of the avatar, in order for it to sync the human body’s nervous system with the avatar’s. It’s like remote controlling something with one’s brain (while asleep; that’s why the label dreamwalker). He met Dr. Grace Augustine, the primary scientist in the project, in Pandora. The major goal of the project was to convince the Na’vi to relocate themselves as the humans would mine their hometown of unobtanium, which was abundantly found in their place. One night, Jake Sully was chased by predators and a Na’vi woman by the name Neytiri saved him because, according to her, their goddess Eywa chose him. Because of this, the whole Na’vi tribe accepted him and taught him their ways and culture. As he became adept and familiar to their customs, he was reporting to the marines, telling them the weaknesses of the native culture, telling them how to infiltrate them, so that they will have an easier task when the time came to forcefully remove them from that place. But then Jake Sully fell for Neytiri, and he was officially named “one of them”. When that happened, the humans also attacked the natives. War ensued, and Sully, along with other humans like Dr. Augustine, decided to support the Na’vi and became renegade humans. But because the Na’vi did not trust Sully because he’s human, he had to prove himself by taming the greatest monster in the planet. He did that and impressed the natives, convinced that he was indeed the chosen one. He led the war against humans. Needless to say, the humans lost and were sent back to Earth, letting the Pandorans keep their planet. At the end of the movie we see the elders performing rituals on Sully, transferring his consciousness to the avatar, thereby making him one of them permanently. Sociological Approaches Sociology is the study of human behavior and human groups. It focuses on social relationships and its influences on people’s attitudes and behavior, and how societies are formed and changed. It has many approaches, five of which will be used in analyzing the movie Avatar. The five approaches are: Structural (functionalist), Social, Gender, Race and Symbolic. Social, Gender, Race and Symbolic. Social, Gender, Race and Symbolic. Structural Functionalism Structural functionalism, or the functionalist perspective interprets the society as a structure made up of several, interrelated parts. Each part is interdependent on each other, and adds to society’s functioning as a whole. Because of this structural interdependency and hierarchy, social order, stability and productivity is ensued. In the movie Avatar, structural functionalism is demonstrated by the societies in Pandora, both the humans and the natives. In the human side, structural functionalism is represented by the company that runs the search for unobtonium. They hired the marines for protection against the violent natives. The other “part” of the structure is the scientists. They were there to explore the alien world, to know what riches may still hide in that planet, as it is the new frontier. They were also there to brainwash the natives into giving what the humans want without conflict. The biggest part of that structure is the corporate office. It provides the funding for the research of the scientists and also for the military. Without them, there wouldn’t be humans in Pandora. These groups depend on each other to maintain their society. Without the scientists, there would not be technological advances that could help them adapt well in that planet; scientists also infiltrated the native’s world by researching about their culture and language. They depended on the military for protection too, but all of them depended on the businessman (the capitalist) to give them financial support. In the Pandoran setting, the structural functionalism is demonstrated by their society’s hierarchy too. It may not be told explicitly but the societal structure of the Na’vi are like that of a Native American’s. Similar features like having a warrior king and a spiritual leader-wife imply that they may have similar positions too. They have warriors and seers. They must also have farmers, craftsmen and the like, but the most evident element in their structural society were the warriors. Their warriors, as a special group in their society, are composed of men and women and they protect their society from danger, as the society provides them with homes, food and spiritual security. Social Conflict In sociology, conflict is known to arise when there is inequality. And when there is inequality, a chance for change is always impending, as they think that social tension is the source for more discussion and debates regarding ways to improve the current status. In the movie, we see this in the hierarchy of the organization of the humans. There are three groups: the corporate group, headed by Parker Selfridge, military group, run by the marine, and the science group, run by Dr. Grace Augustine. In the movie, it was always repeatedly demonstrated that the most powerful group was the group run by Selfridge. He is the boss. He tells the military what to do, what to kill and what to destroy in order for him to get what he needs. The military is second in line in the power economy in this movie. This is because they are the keepers of security, of social order. The last group, or the weakest in terms of power hierarchy, is the scientists. They are always looked down upon by these two groups, even called “limp dick scientists” at one point in the movie. They are considered geeks and they are seen more as liabilities by the other two groups. However, they needed the scientists to justify their presence in the planet, because they can’t just say, “mining”. They have to say, “space exploration” and “diplomacy”. Gender Conflict As far as I’m concerned, Avatar is one of the more gender-sensitive films. They have shown a very powerful female figure in the characters of Trudie Chacon, Dr. Augustine and Neytiri. But the latent messages tell that it is still a man’s world. Take Trudie Chacon, who was a helicopter pilot in the movie. She was a noble warrior and she was decent enough not to follow orders from her superiors to annihilate the Na’vi. But then she has to die, of suicide, no less, to be successful. Dr. Grace Augustine was also a victim of sexual politics. At the start of the movie, she has this immense swag, we see her be the boss and as an audience seeing things through the eyes of Jake Sully, we get a bit intimidated. We think that she was The Woman. But all this does not matter because at the end of the day, she still gets permission to do things from a man, Selfridge. Her subordinate, Jake Sully, whom she looked down because he was a marine, was the one who made all the efforts to save her when she was shot. It was as if her life depended on these men. Neytiri is one of the bigger characters in the movie. She is Jake Sully’s partner. The native Pandoran who made Jake Sully “See” what the planet and their race really is. As far as the female characters go, she is the strongest. Physically, we see her jump, shoot, kill, run with competence. She is even stronger than Sully at some point! But the native here is not the savior of her race: it was Sully, the foreigner. Also, points for her because she did not abide the tradition of arranged marriage in their culture, she still falls for the romantic trap because she made herself too vulnerable for Sully, making it easy for the man to know the “secrets” of their race and thus make it easy for his plan to “be one of them”. Also in this movie, we see that the Na’vi chief is always a male, and the spiritual leader is always female. It is implied that a woman, even if he is the chief’s daughter, could never be a chief. The highest position a woman can have is the spiritual leader only, which is a lot less of a position than that of a chief. What’s more resounding is the fact that even a foreigner like Jake Sully can be a chief of the whole Na’vi race, but not a native female like Neytiri. But then again, the moviemakers can argue that Jake Sully was the chosen one. Race Conflict The first observation when you see this movie is the fact that the natives would always remind the audience of the Native Americans. Or any race that the Westerners colonized anyway, but let us make the Native Americans our focus in this paper. At one point in the movie, Selfridge rants, “we build roads, but they want mud.” This statement is derogatory of their race, stating that they are uncivilized. It is interesting to note that James Cameron used people of color to play the Na’vi. There is indeed a latent message there, plus the fact that it is historically true, that the coloreds are the ones to be colonized. The biggest racial thing of this movie is probably the fact that the savior is not one of the natives, but a foreigner. It means that they can’t save themselves as a race and they need the race of the colonizer to save them. It implies that the colonizers (or, in the Native American parallelism, the Westerners or Whites) are always the superior people, in terms of destroying and creating, all the other races inferior and helpless. Why, they could not even save themselves, but the Whites can save them! Symbolic Interactionist There are a lot of symbols in this movie. Take the bows and arrows. They symbolize primitive culture, as compared to the high powered guns the humans use. When we see them stuck on a wheel in the first scene when Sully lands the planet, we conclude that the natives are just easy creatures that can be nuked or something because they don’t have guns. The Na’vi have this tassel-like body part that comes out of their braids. They use it to connect with animals they ride on, to make their minds one. It may be something like a control device but it just may symbolize the bond that is formed between a rider and an animal. Like the Native Americans, the Na’vi have utmost respect for animals. And they always put focus on the fact that they should be one with them, move as a unit. It is also used in mating. Sex sometimes is a branding tool, as in “I have had sex with you, thus you are mine”, that’s why many people treat it specially. This movie reiterates that fact, through the tassel-like organ, but it’s not a sex organ. It is a bond-forming organ that can be used for animals and such. It symbolizes that bonds are very important in keeping relations and social order, even maintaining balance of the world. Color is also a symbol in this movie. The Na’vi are blue, and since blue means peace, it could mean that the Na’vi are peaceful people. It could also mean color, as in they are a race of color. Have you noticed that the humans do not have blacks as major characters? They have shown a Latina (Chacon) and an Indian but there are no blacks. It is historically known that blacks were once slaves by whites and they have the most identifiable color, racially. Maybe this similar to that, plus the fact that they really are different races, species even. The fact that the planet is called Pandora is also a symbol. Looking back at the Greek story, we learn that the box should not have been opened, right? In this movie, the lesson is that the planet should be left alone, because like in the Greek story, it is a losing proposition. Because of human weakness, greed in this case, we see the downfall of humanity. Works Cited: Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, and Giovanni Ribisi. 20th Century Fox, 2009. Film. Read More