Co-Culture As Depicted In The Film Avatar

2012 Words5 Pages

Avatar is an action fantasy that takes place in the year 2154 on a moon-like planet, named Pandora. Throughout the film, there are a series of conflicts between the Resources Development Administration (RDA) and the planet’s indigenous species. Pandora is inhabited by a highly evolved primitive species, known as the Na’vi. Avatars are the human/Na’vi hybrids created to allow humans to freely explore Pandora. The RDA is interested in Pandora’s resources, specifically unobtanium, for its intrinsic value on Earth. The movie starts with Jake Sully, a paralyzed ex-Marine, and hundreds of others being awoken from a 6-year cryosleep. After being greeted, Jake is informed that he will be taking his late twin brother’s place in the Avatar project, as …show more content…

After deciding to remain Na’vi forever, Jake returns to the Tree of Souls to undergo his transformation from human to Na’vi, passing through the eye of Eywa. Miles Quaritch is very closed minded and shows signs of ethnocentrism due to his military co-culture. There are many scenes demonstrating how his harsh, mission-focused military co-culture causes him to use military strategy instead of finding effective ways to communicate with the Na’vi. During a conversation with Jake he says, “Look, Sully, I want you to learn this savage from the inside, I want you to gain their trust. I need to know how to force their cooperation or hammer them hard if they won't” (Avatar 23:19). The use of his words “savages”, “force”, and “hammer them hard” all show his military training overlooking any empathetic, compromised solutions. Another example is shown near the end of the movie before the final battle, while addressing the marines he says “The hostiles believe that this mountain territory is protected by their... deity. And when we destroy it, we will blast a crater in their racial memory so deep, that they won't come within 1,000 klips of this place ever again” (Avatar

Open Document