The first main part that this can be observed in is the opening scene, where apes are being captured from the wild for scientific experimentation. This can fit in with Hughes’ explanations, in that the apes (the natural) are being taken from their environment, without a sense that they will ever return. The point of natural destruction through technological advancement can also be observed with the company Will works for. Will realizes that the drug he has been working on is not natural and dangerous, in terms of effects on apes, and thus should not be developed further. This ties back into these conventions, as it shows the creation of new technologies that consume that natural world into something else. Furthermore, the company takes over, …show more content…
with the intention of developing the drug (or natural destruction, with this conventional lens) occurring at the cost of profiting, further solidifies this plotline as something evil and irreversible to the environment. Additionally, the idea of modifying the apes’ brain structure, through drug experimentation, fits into this convention, as presents the idea of modifying the natural animal into something unnatural (with a permanent change). Later, this idea is enforced further as the apes begin to become more self-aware and savvy of the world around them, and as they go back into the wild at the end (this also subverts this convention, which will be discussed next). This convention, like the one about technology, is subverted later in the film, when the action in the plot begins.
Subverting the natural dystopia convention leads to a return of nature in the world that the film portrays. This subversion can be seen clearly in this film’s sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014), where the world devolves into human and ape tribal colonies in the wild, and human architecture becomes derelict. However, there are examples in this film, that get at the idea of a return to nature. One idea can be the plot point mentioned with technology, when apes with spears are triumphant over humans with guns/technology. With this example, it diverges from the idea that the human world will always be triumphant, and instead promotes an idea of more natural tools being more effective ultimately. As well, the main virus that develops from the drug testing can fit into this convention, as can be symbolic of the destruction of the human world, and a return to the natural (with death). Another example can be when Caesar and the apes from the shelter escape, and free other apes from other parts of the city (e.g. the zoo), which touches upon a return to nature over a corrupt human society. Finally, the last scene in the film is the most symbolic of this, when the apes escape into the redwood forest, and Caesar says to Will “Caesar is home”. This further establishes the notion of how the animals are reintroduced into the wild, where they belong, and away from the humans which took them away from, and destroyed, their natural
habitat. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a science fiction film that, overall, is quite conventional for that genre, based off the generic conventions it employs throughout. Despite any subversions throughout, which the film uses at times to create a unique plotline, Rise is still quite a conventional science fiction film. Three different generic conventions can provide insight into how it is conventional, yet also subversive at times. Binaries play a large role in this film, in creating a divide between the dominant human and the other ape. While there is not necessarily a stable conventional good versus bad binary throughout the film, switching at various plot points, the binaries set up questions regarding identity. This is particularly noticed with the apes, and whether (or not) to assimilate into human culture, or to embrace their own identity, reflecting conventional questions of racial binaries. Another convention present is about technology, and the role of it in future progress. The film certainly embraces this convention at first, particularly with the main plot point of drug-testing on the apes for future disease cures, thus leading to improvement. However, the film also is subversive in this convention, as the second half of the film has a narrative of technology failing, such as in drugs failing to work or in the apes with primitive tools being triumphant over humans with modern technology. Thirdly, the film deals with the convention of natural destruction, both embracing and challenging it. Throughout, there are numerous examples of destruction to the natural, such as changing the genetic make-up of the apes through drugs, or even simply taking the apes out of nature and into the modern human world for experimentation. However, the convention is subverted throughout the second half of the film, there is a thematic element of the human world failing and a return to a more natural primitive time, exemplified by the apes escaping and returning to the natural forest. Together, all these conventional elements demonstrate how Rise of the Planet of the Apes, while largely conventional, can also challenge the status quo of science fiction at times, and be progressive in using generic conventions.
In Ray Bradbury’s " There Will Come Soft Rains, " he fabricates a story with two themes about the end of the world. The first theme is that humans are so reliant on technology, that it leads the destruction of the world, and the second theme is that a world without humans would be peaceful, however no one would be able to enjoy it. Bradbury uses literary devices, such as narrative structure, personnification, and pathos to effectively address human extinction. One aspect which illustrates how he portrays human extinction can be identified as narrative structure, he structured the story in a way that it slowly abolishes the facade of technological improvements made by people to reveal the devastation that technology can cause. The story started
Quinn made it clear that human behavior and culture are root causes of their increase in unsustainability. He describes that the story in which mankind is enacting is one that makes them the enemy of the world. Ishmael pushes the narrator to provide an explanation of how things came to be this way. How humans were able to cause so much destruction. The explanation given was that The world was created for man, man was made to conquer and rule it and turn the world into paradise under human rule. However, the paradise cannot be achieved because man is flawed (Quinn, 47). Ishmael compares the implication that humans are above any law to an airman who has built a flying contraption that does not obey the law of thermodynamics. He explains that man is on this craft and completely unaware of the law that must be complied to achieve civilizational flight (Quinn, 63). The first craft went well and they felt as if the flight was never going to end. However, they were in freefall because their craft was simply not in compliance with the law that makes flight possible. Their ignorance to the law continuous use of the same unstable craft will accelerate rate that which they are falling. This comparison is a metaphor to how humans live without considering the law of living which is what has brought them to the brink of catastrophe. The culprits for the biodiversity loss include climate change, habitat loss,
Human are the most clever animals in the world. As the society developed, they are more concerned to seek for a harmony relationship with nature. The article “In the Forests of the Gombe” written by Jane Goodall describes the relationship of science and religious and the new understanding of humans through the forest. After Goodall’s husband died, she went through the Gombe jungle and found the new world by observing chimpanzees and staying in the quiet forest. Even though there are no communication between Goodall and chimpanzees in the forest, she still gets inner peace and enlightenment of science and religious.
The setting and environment of the movie had successfully fulfilled the naturalism setting. The characters’ fate also matched the naturalist’s perspective about humanity.
...he development of characters and their response to the events of the plot, Ridley Scott and the actors communicate the way relationship between humanity and nature has evolved (deteriorated) into the world of 2019 LA.
Every few years, Hollywood releases a new Planet of the Ape movie, which is always a blockbuster hit. Moviegoers flock to see these movies of how apes rise together and how they are actually more intelligent than meets the eye. Most people do not know the premise behind these movies of how smart and closely related apes are to humans. This is because people probably have never taken a physical anthropology class and have not done research on apes –our closet kins. Known for his immense studies in the fields of apes and monkeys, his long term research in the behavior of chimpanzees and mountain gorillas, and his experience in the forests with the apes, the co-director of the Jane Goodall Research Center and writer of our textbook, primatologist
The short story by the waters of Babylon and the movie planet of the apes were both futuristic stories. They also both showed the evil sides of today’s man and the chaos and mass destruction that we are capable of accomplishing. They portrayed today’s man as selfish, violent, and full of hate and rage. By the waters of Babylon was written from the point of view of a boy close to becoming a man who knew nothing of his past civilization. Whereas in the movie planet of the apes it was from the point of view of a man that had come nearly directly from that past civilization. The main people in charge keep knowledge from the public so they do not know the evils that they are capable of as to protect them from making the same mistake.
Through the course of the book, White confidently proves that in the end the Columbia River was always in charge and nature will always overcome mankind’s efforts. The book showed that the previous thought of mankind being the boss of the environment and that mankind dictates the terms is shown as untrue. The Organic Machine known as the Columbia River will restore its balance, different societies have tried to govern the river but the river ends up governing them, and human modifications might affect the river but nature and the environment will always see victory.
He applies his findings to examples throughout history and makes the point that we do not learn from our mistakes. Wright claims that “as cultures grow more elaborate, and technologies more powerful, they themselves may become ponderous specializations – vulnerable and, in extreme cases, deadly.” Humanity progresses too fast and ends up doing more damage than good. In the Stone Age humans went from killing 2 mammoths to 200, we went from the arrow to the bullet in a number of decades. These advancements are called “progress traps”, and inevitably threaten our whole species with extinction. Humanity has reached a point where we must slow down our advancements and look at what is really necessary. All of these advancements are bringing up more problems than they are solving. We have to start reversing our current problems, and prepare for the future. We are coming to a point of no return from the consequences to our actions and as Wright says “if we fail – if we blow up or degrade the biosphere so it can no longer sustain us – nature will merely shrug and conclude that letting apes run the laboratory was fun for a while but in the end a bad
"There Will Come Soft Rains" says that, yes, we can build magnificent machines: beautiful houses to cater to our every need, a thousand servants at our beck and call- yet what benefit will they be at the end? When we fry ourselves into radioactive smithereens because we can sooner built houses fit for gods then learn to live in peace with our fellow mortals, what good will our machines be to us then? The loyal family dog searched futilely for his masters, the house tried in vain to save itself from the fires, but their efforts to save their masters were ludicrous, for the master race had exterminated itself and left the servants all alone, impotent. Not one of man's creations could stand at the day of reckoning and save him from extinction- nor would many mourn his passage. This is a humbling thought, that our planet would survive quite well without us were we to rid it of our presence- and that in just a short while, it would almost be as if we had never existed at all.
The film Avatar is a cinematographic representation of a common duality found in modern perspectives of nature: nature as capital and nature as something that should be preserved. For the purpose of this paper, the term nature will refer to the physical world outside of humans and human creation – landscape, plants, animals, and so forth. The distant world of Pandora is the main setting for the film. The Na'vi are the indigenous humanoids of Pandora, whose tribe is geographically located on top of a vast amount of a highly valuable mineral – unobtanium. Humans colonized Pandora in order to mine this precious mineral. The Na'vi have a very spiritual connection with nature; they refuse to move their tribe and allow humans to expand their mining
Important aspects of naturalism are the ideas that people are essentially animals responding to their basic urges without rational thought, and the insignificance of man to others and nature. In The Jungle, Sinclair portrays Jurgis as a man slowly changing into animal as well as a man whose actions are irrelevant to the rest of the corrupt capitalist world of Chicago in order to show the reader the naturalist ideas of the struggles between man and society.
In the “The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us” by Diane Ackerman, a famous author and speaker who is very ambitious and informative in the ways nature has been dramatically changing over periods of time. She even described herself as being a realist and nature lover, which she is more like a foreknowledge and gifted person, sharing her communicated message with society. The Human Age book entirely revealed the truth about nature's coming extinction, and the human race is blindsided by the unawareness. The race of human beings is born with natural senses to the visible things, but they are not born to not see the invisible things. Nature itself has existed over millions of years, and the earth has been the life force of everything that connects
Movies have that theme regularly, and sometimes that is one of many themes. One movie that showcases man versus nature is Alive, from 1993. It shows humans’ will to survive in the arctic tundra, and their determined spirits. In Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, Percy and Annabeth have to fight the island and the killer sheep in order to get the golden fleece and complete the mission. This shows how far man will go to impress someone and complete a task. One last movie is Castaway, where a FedEx executive must survive a plane crash on a deserted island and completely change himself. Movies show man versus nature well,
The film maker employs symbolic conventions to create a world where roles are reversed - apes take on human roles and humans are 'dirty ' animals. The film Planet of the Apes is a very good example of anthropomorphism. In the film the apes act and behave as if they are human beings. Many processes were taken to ensure the realism of the apes, computer generated imagery was used to create very human like facial expressions on the apes as well as the actors who played the apes had to spend months living with and observing the way the apes acted and interacted with each other, and further more the apes were dressed to show their higher place in society where as the humans were dressed in ripped and dirty rags symbolising their lower place in society. The male apes ares well groomed and well dressed and the females apes are well kept with hair and makeup done perfectly. Viewers recognise how the society works by applying real world understanding to the world of the apes and applying stereotypes. For example, we recognise the spoilt young wife of the rich old ape, the indulged daughter of the senator being able to get away with things others wouldn 't be, the selfish, cowardly, ridiculed, weak slave trader, the 'dirty ' slaves, less than human - or in this case, apes. 'Monkeys are very low in the caste system, just above humans. ' It 's very like an ancient human society, like the Ancient Romans; religious traditions and religious