Theme Of Alienation In Avatar

1028 Words3 Pages

The film Avatar, directed by James Cameron is a twenty-first century example of the portrayal of the prevalence of alienation in culturally significant media. One may assume that Avatar, is just a film and the story should be taken for nothing more than entertainment value but the thematic implications in the film hold a greater importance . The narrative framework, presents a telling reflection of the collective cultural views of society, revealing anxieties and fears about economic relations replacing social relations, the growth and dependence on the industrial-corporate complex, the alienation we feel from work, and the loss of one 's identity and formal cultural traditions ( Peterson and Weis 2013,115). The main protagonist of Avatar, …show more content…

This is the first glimpse of Jake 's estrangement from the object from his labour , he is miserable about the job, it holds no joy for him working without out a purpose (Peterson and Weis 2013,117-119) As Jake learns more about the Na 'vi culture he becomes estranged from humanity, he finds no satisfaction in Earth 's culture build off of economic relationships, he has found meaning and purpose in a society based off of nature and meaningful intra-personal relationships.. He also no longer identifies with humanity and becomes more attached to his avatar persona.(Peterson and Weis 2013,123) The solution to alienation in Avatar is to simply stop being human and become something better, which translates quite literally in the film, but in the real world the message is to steer our relationships away from economic ones and really begin to interact with others on a social level, in that way we can finally begin to learn about ourselves (Peterson and Weis …show more content…

The commodification of the human being and their labour leads to rampant inequality and exploitation. Not only is it a force that inhibits the full capabilities of human beings, stripping away their identity and sense of value as humans, over time it has become a force so deeply interwoven into the fabric of social structure and function that it has created transcendental issues affecting cultural, social and psychological aspects of everyday life. In the twenty first century, alienation has become one of the most harmful social institutions that has negatively impacted disenfranchised individuals. In the modern day work place, the power dynamic between the worker and employer leave the worker feeling out of control in decision making and lacking meaning and purpose in their job causing a dissatisfaction within themselves. Capitalism as an economic and societal structure affect the mental well being of individuals, further perpetuates alienation as it fools workers into being satisfied by using media tactics to appeal to their baser instincts to confuse and distract a person from satisfying their emotional needs, in essence dehumanizing the worker and altering their social and psychological habits. The movie Avatar creates a media outlet that addresses the dreary landscape of modern day labour and the disconnection between an individual and their work, but is also

Show More
Related

  • Shaun Tan The Rabbits Analysis

    589 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout time, many people feel as if they have lost their connection to their cultural from outside influences and numerous disruptions. Disruptions to one’s cultural can be seen in the Picture book The Rabbits by john Marsden and Shaun tan which is an an allegory of the invasion of Australia. Another example is the film avatar by James Cameron. The creators of these works are expressing the effect of man on nature and disruption it brings upon the cultural of the indigenous people who are the traditional owners of the land.

    Read More

  • Making And Remaking On City Road

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    ‘Society makes and remakes people, but society is also made and remade by the multiple connections and disconnections between people, and between people, places and things’ (Havard, 2014, p.67).

    Read More

  • Is Google Making Us Stupid?, by Nicholas Carr

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    In summary, both the article and the novel critique the public’s reliance on technology. This topic is relevant today because Feed because it may be how frightening the future society may look like.

    Read More

  • Cultural Relativism In 'Avatar'

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    After analyzing cultural relativism over the semester, I have come to the conclusion that cultural relativism under anthropological analysis defines every single culture with some aspect of worth as viewed by an individual within that society. Franz Boas, termed the “Father of American Anthropology”, first introduced the concept of cultural relativism. He wanted people to understand the way certain cultures conditioned people to interact with the world around them, which created a necessity to understand the culture being studied. In my words, cultural relativism is the concept that cultures should be viewed from the people among that culture. When studied by anthropologists, cultural relativism is employed to give all cultures an equal

    Read More

  • Parallels of Imperialism and Opression in Avatar

    1610 Words  | 4 Pages

    Set on the planet Pandora, Avatar is a science-fiction story of a money-hungry corporation’s attempt to conquer and excavate the land of humanoids known as Na’Vi. Jake Sully is a paraplegic, who is sent to space to complete his deceased brother’s mission because they share the same genome, which is necessary to navigate the expensive avatar that had already been cloned. We learn that the avatar is basically a mind-transporter used to be a part of and learn about the Na’Vi community. During his first expedition in the land of the Na’Vi, Jake gets lost and encounters one of the main female members of the tribe who ends up taking him under her wing and teaches him the ways of a Omaticaya. From here, the movie continues to tell the story of Jake’s dilemma between the mission he started with his people and the allegiance he slowly pledged to the Omaticaya clan. After watching Avatar the day it came out in theaters, I easily decided that it was one of the most extraordinary movies I had ever seen. My opinion may seem invalid coming from an uncultured fourteen-year-old, but even after having recently re-watched the film, I feel this movie and its social commentary are remarkable. There were many aspects to this movie, some controversial, that made the movie exceptional: its new-aged cinematography, disputable portrayal of the indigenous peoples, oddly familiar plotline, and mostly its critique on colonization and civilization. After having watched Avatar for the sixth time, I have come to the conclusion that this film much more intricate than its critics and supporters acknowledge. There are multiple parallels between imperialism and...

    Read More

  • The Connection between Methodological Individualism and Alienation: An Opinion Essay

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Karl Marx, alienation is a result of living in a socially stratified society, because the mechanistic parts of a social class alienates a person from his or her humanity and human nature. This is done through the work of the market economy and capitalism in which prior, society was cohesive and worked together to combine and achieve ultimate goals. However, with the onset of capitalism, the market economy placed individuals on metaphoric stations doing one single task to accomplish mass production. Based on specific qualities, education, and abilities, people were placed on a specific role to accomplish a task for the powerful to make more money. Since the ideology of capitalism came before psychology, the field of psychology was inherently influenced by this type of process, which has been ingrained into out socialization of society’s function. Methodological Individualism attempts to identify all human characteristics on an indefinite continuum. Once these characteristics are understood, scientists can then research and control for specific outcomes in order to ultimately control human behaviour; this is how psychology functions today. By reducing human beings, we can understand the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and have them place on a track to fit in with a capitalist economy. Like the market economy, humans are issued on a chain for mass

    Read More

  • Examples Of Pantheism In Avatar

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    Avatar the motion picture throws you into a rich world, with diverse characters who clash over cultural and socio-economic issues. At the heart of the story is a former Marine named Jake Sully, who falls in love while on an alien planet with a woman from a race of people called the Na’vi. The character whom he falls in love with is an alien for which he sacrifices his whole way of life to be with. By way of his experiences with the Na’vi, he begins to adopt a new worldview, which can only be described as Pantheism.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Views on Social Inequality: A Comparative Study

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Commodity fetishism has blinded people into believing that value is a relationship between objects, when in reality, it is a relationship between people. This in turn, prevents people from thinking about the social labor condition workers have to endure; they only care and value about how much objects costs. They think that the source of the value comes from the cost, but it truly comes from labor (FC). Through this objectification stems alienation and estrangement. Marx starts with the assumption that humans have an intrinsic quality. As human beings, individuals like to be create and manipulate his or her environment. Creating is a part of people; therefore, people their being into their creations. However, Marx postulates that capitalism and specialized division of labor separates that working class from their creations in four ways- through alienation from the product, the labor process, one’s species-being, and humanity itself. The working class suffers through this hostility to make create more wealth for owners of factories. They get trapped in a cycle to make products for profit, but as automation advances, machines begins to take over people’s jobs; therefore, there less employment opportunities available, which in turn allows factory owners to decrease wages and exploit and devalue the working class (EL). In the The Poverty

    Read More

  • Isolation in The Metamorphosis by Kafka and Heart of Darkness by Conrad

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... authors conclude that it is through alienation within a small society that ultimately leads to the primary characters’ demise and death. Whether their individual cases are self imposed or externally imposed, the results and the impact are the same, annihilation of the human soul. Their craft make emphatic use of setting to the successful depiction of this theme. Both characters ultimately fall into the abyss of loneliness and despair proving that human existence cut-off and on its own is more destructive than positive . Thus their message seems to suggest that as humans, we need society in order to truly belong and have a connection, purpose and worth in this life, in order to truly live.

    Read More

  • Capitalism And Alienation And The Exploitation Of Labor By Karl Marx

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alienated labor takes away the meaning of life and that “life appears only as a means to life.” Living without creativity and only to subsist reduces humans to an animal-like status; they are alienated from the very things that distinguish them as humans” (Dillon, 2010, pg. 54). This can been vividly seen as the industrial revolution moved forward in society. Factory workers were very much alienated by their job. Below are some examples that correspond with Marx’s

    Read More

  • Themes Of Individuality

    1291 Words  | 3 Pages

    The individuality of a person consists of the qualities that make them different from others, simply stated by the Collins English Dictionary. These qualities are usually noticed on a physical basis because society emphasises on surface appearance. Because of this, individuality is lost. The pursuit of personal happiness can be diminished, just in the hope to meet the ‘norms’ around us. The idea of individuality becoming obsolete has been a common theme in literature, as authors and directors criticise the society around them. The Handmaid's Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer and a Black Mirror Episode, Nosedive, directed by Charlie Brooker are all examples of this.

    Read More

  • Sound and Editing Analysis

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.

    Read More

  • Identity, Work and Labor

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    For so many Another example with people who work in a bank, or in a big or small company, their work is their life, they live to work and without work they feel lost and at times they lose their identity. When I was in Chile I worked in a big corporation. I used to observe people’s behavior and how attached they became to their job; it was their own little world and they were totally identified with it. In my observation I saw that most of the people I was working with had a limited world, out of their ...

    Read More

  • Control Of The Ruling Class

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Gore Vidal once said: “The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return” (Vidal, N/A). In our society, the ruling ideas are easily believed and taken as “true.” Advertisements sell ideas and lifestyles rather than objects; people consent to the ruling ideas which in turn make them less of an individual. Although we may live in a culture industry that controls what people believe is right or wrong, there is always a struggle for power. According to C. Wright Mills and Nina Eliasoph, in order to create a struggle and challenge the ruling ideas, developing a “sociological imagination” is crucial. The ruling ideas work by creating notions of our culture and giving one false needs which in turn help maintain the status quo.

    Read More

  • Marx Theory Of Alienation Essay

    2817 Words  | 6 Pages

    The synopsis of Marx’s Theory of Alienation is the belief that in a contemporary industrial society driven by capitalism, the working class will eventually lose jurisdiction over their lives by relinquishing control over their work. Prior to capitalism, tradesmen would be the proprietors of their own workplace, be able to set and keep their own hours of operation, be the driving force behind developing and producing the product, have the ability to create and maintain their working conditions, as well as have input on how the commodity is bartered or sold, and the associations and rapport with the people whom he worked with and had dealings with had a more intimate character to them.

    Read More

More about Theme Of Alienation In Avatar

Open Document