What Matters?
When thinking about a person, what matters? What truly does the word “civilized” mean? It is mostly to be used when talking about a lifestyle of an average human being; however, that raises the question of what is the definition of an average human being? This idea is very subjective. People nowadays are extrememly diverse. They think, act, and react to things very differently due to external situations. Through James Cameron’s film, Avatar, the idea of colonialist ideology, also known as colonialist discourse, dramatizes the view of “civilized people” shown to mark the correspondence of how superiority was shown between the proper “self” people and “other” native people (Tyson 400-401).
Avatar is based around a love story that tackles a multitude of lessons regarding spiritual and moral value perspectives. Jake Scully, a human paraplegic former marine, was placed in a secret Avatar programme on a distant planet called Pandora in place of his brother who had passed away. The atmosphere of Pandora contains air that is detrimental to humans. In order to explore Pandora the humans are linked to a Na’vi native’s body that is engineered by the Resource Development Administration.
The Resource Development Administration created this operation to get the Na’vi to trust at least one of the humans they sent to drive them away from Hometree, a giant tree that is important to their tribe, in order to mine the area for Unobtanium. Unobtanium is worth $20 million a kilogram. This just brings about the example of how in historical times people show greed over expensive land and they are not afraid to kill innocent people or do extreme things in order to get it. When you really think about it money is just paper that our society has given some sort of worth to.
Colonel Miles Quaritch had a vendetta against the Na’vi since the beginning of the film and blatantly showed that he treated them as “others” when he looks at them as “savages” and not people when trying to colonize their land. “The ‘savage’ was usually considered evil (the demoic other) as well as inferior. But sometimes the ‘savage’ was perceived as possessing a ‘primitive’ beauty or nobility born of a closeness to nature (the exotic other),” (Tyson 401). Hometree was the central, very sacred and important place for the Na’vi. When Neytri, the “savage” Na’vi that possessed great beauty, saves Jake’s life when he first is getting acclimated to their world, it starts the process of introducing him to new perspectives and the Na’vi’s way of living.
In addition to their everyday routines, Jake’s eye are then opened to how destructive and selfish the humans are. “They will change nothing and will serve no one, but will succeed only in finding moral comfort in malaise,” (Memmi 22). This quote resonates with the mindset I had when watching as an outsider pertaining to the humans. While the humans were being selfish, the Na’vi was trying to stay true to their Eywa, their religion and show their connection to all living things on Pandora. Later in the movie when Jake tries to fight alongside the Na’vi because he finds what he really values in life and chose what he thought was worth fighting for Quaritch asked him, “How does it feel to betray your own race?” (Avatar) That quote is something that should be taken in for a minute because race is something our society made up. By definition race is, “each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics,” (Race). Instead of putting a label on someone to limit their worth, people should step back, reduce their stereotyping, and look at the full situation in order to act accordingly. This is one incredibly important lesson Neytri was trying to teach Jake throughout the entire movie. The other connection to race I thought was really nicely addressed in this movie was the color of the Avatar. The blue was something very distinct that tried to address that it does not matter what color someone is. It more showed what was important, what they cared about and who they truly are.
“Code for the state of undecidability in which the culture of colonialism continues to resonate in what was supposed to be its negation,” (Mishra & Hodge 377). This pertains to Avatar because colonialism is about the practice of ruling nations as colonies and the Na’vi is practicing belonging to a tribe that is mainly ruled under the authority of two people in charge. Neytri was trying to teach Jake not only the ways of the Na’vi people, but to appreciate and feel the world around him. The Na’vi was so fascinated by and connected spiritually with the forest because it gave them hope and a sense of love for all living things. Jake becomes mesmerized with the beauty of the flora and fauna in the forest and the majestic ancient Tree of Souls. This large Willow tree is a large part of the spirituality of the Na’vi. It allows the tribe to access to the psychic spirits of their deceased, allowing communication with their ancestors. For example when Jake is trying to ride the horse creature, Neytri tells him to feel the way the creature breathes, feel the heartbeat, feel them. Once he does this he can truly feel the bond that he created.
When Colonel Miles Quaritch sends out gunships to destroy Hometree and puts forth the idea that he could “gas them out first” referring to the Na’vi. This drew similar ideas relating to the Holocaust in order for them to die less painfully. The Jews in the Holocaust were treated as “others” just like the Na’vi in this situation. The fact that someone can feel no remorse about killing innocent people should be a crime. It also begs the question, “When a people has no choice but how it will die; when a people has received from its oppressors only the gift of despair, what does it have to lose? A people’s misfortune will become its courage; it will make, of its endless rejection by colonialism, the absolute rejection of colonization,” (Memmi 25).
“The colonialist system favors population growth to reduce the cost of labor, and it forbids assimilation of the natives, whose numerical superiority, if they had voting rights, would shatter the system. Colonialism denies human rights to human beings whom it has subdued by violence, and keeps them by force in a state of misery and ignorance that Marx would rightly call a subhuman condition,” (Memmi 20). Contrary to what Colonel Miles Quaritch should’ve done, he tried using weapons to fight against the natives just because they would not relocate.
What I take away from all of this is that just because someone is different or has a different belief or perspective than you doesn’t mean they are wrong. What is truly important is finding what is of ultimate value in your opinion and fighting for it if someone tries to harm it. Differences bring good things to the table. People can be taught about different aspects of life such as love, compassion, and understanding of situations to the point where they are willing to accept them. Respecting people’s differences is one of the most important themes throughout all of these points. If you can’t respect other’s differences than how can you expect anyone to respect yours.