REVIEWING THE MOVIE "AVATAR" THROUGH SOCIOLOGICAL LENSES - Eddusaver
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REVIEWING THE MOVIE “AVATAR” THROUGH SOCIOLOGICAL LENSES

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REVIEWING THE MOVIE “AVATAR” THROUGH SOCIOLOGICAL LENSES

Movies are an embodiment of sociology and sociological theories, concepts, and facts. They exhibit major sociological theories such as structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism while at the same time embodying cultural values such as those of gender, class, ethnicity, and nation. Additionally, movies tend to reflect assumptions of more deep-rooted civilization, such as enlightenment values of moral redemption through the human agency towards social progress. This paper will examine the film “Avatar (2009)” through the lenses of sociology.

Avatar is a science fiction film that contains hypothetical fantasy about a distant planet that was released in 2009. The movie revolves around the depletion earth’s natural resources, which lead to a severe energy crisis. The human government, through the Resources Development Administration (RDA), starts exploration and ends up in Pandora, which is a moon that is densely forested but habitable. The native occupants of Pandora are a species called Na’vi who lives harmoniously worshipping their mother goddess called Eywa. Since Pandora’s atmosphere is poisonous, humans use genetically controlled human-Na’vi hybrids called the Avatars. The humans use these bodies to infiltrate and befriend the Na’vi people with the sole aim of learning their secret that will help in furthering the human’s goal of extracting the mineral called unobtanium that is abundant in Pandora. One of the participants in this mission is Jake Sully, a disabled marine who is paralyzed from the waist downwards. The RDA promises him the restoration of his legs if he agrees to go on a mission which supposed to be a continuation of the work of his deceased twin brother..

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Jake’s primary mission is to befriend and convince the Na’vi people to give up their land to humans. These efforts fail, and thus humans decide to take the land by force by destroying Na’vi’s home and killing any of them who stand in their way. Interestingly the daughter of the Na’vi chief has fallen in love with Jake which leads to him changing his allegiance. He instead joins the Na’vis to fight the humans where he, for instance, demobilizes a human’s attack bomber. As the battle continues, the chief dies as well as the rightful heir to chieftaincy, which leads to Jake assuming the role of the chief. In the end, Jake leaves his disabled human body when the goddess transfers his consciousness to his avatar body. The principal characters in the movie include Jake Sully who is a disabled mariner and who becomes part of the Avatar Program after the death of his twin brother, Colonel Mile Quaritch who is the head of the mining operations, Dr. Grace who is the head of Avatar Program and Dr. Max Patel who is a scientist in the Avatar Program and aids Jake’s rebellion. On the Na’vi sides is Neytiri, daughter of Omaticaya, Mo’ at the spiritual leader of Omaticaya and Eytukan who is the leader of the Omaticaya clan.

Avatar embodies several sociological theories, concepts, and facts. Conflict theory is one of the predominant theories occurring throughout the movies. The theory views different societies as competing entities where the individual aspects of one society oppose and compete with those from other societies; and where the superior society gains while the weaker becomes the loser (Bergesen,2013). In Avatar, there two main societies that conflict. The human society has depleted its natural resources and thus cannot sustain its life unless they get these resources from other planets.

On the other hand, the Na’vi is a society that is less concerned with natural resources such as the unobtanium mineral which is abundant in Pandora. Since human feels more superior, they think they have the legitimacy to obtain these mineral resources as they deem the Na’vi society as inferior. The humans do not care about the environment so long as they get the resources they want while the Na’vi have a deep connection to nature and are willing to go to lengths to protect it. The conflicting and competing interests between the two societies lead to the actual battle.

Structural functionalism is also heavily present in this movie. The main views the society as being made up of individual parts which contribute to maintenance or disruption of an existing societal order. The theory recognizes that conflict between the different parts of leads to the eventual destruction of society. In the movie Avatar, these individual parts can be considered to be the participants in the Avatar program since each character is supposed to play a particular role for the program to be successful. To begin with, Jake, the main character in the movie, is supposed to befriend the Na’vi people and learn their secrets, which would make it easier to convince them to vacate the land. However, he fails to perform his role after falling in love, thus jeopardizing the success of the program. Other people such as Dr. Max Patel who are also on the program fail to their part as instead of helping the human society to win the war, he supports Jakes who has already changed his allegiance. Even the combat pilot is sympathetic to the Na’vi. Therefore the individual part of the human society instead of working together to maintain the society by achieving goals, they work on disrupting society. Contrary, the Na’vi society has all the individuals working towards protecting their native land. For instance, during the battle with the humans, the Pandoran wildlife joins the fight, which leads to the humans being overwhelmed. The clans are also united against RDA after Jake calls them to unite which is also a significant reason why the humans are overwhelmed despite their advanced weaponry as the Na’vi achieves their ultimate goal of defending their land against occupation by humans.

Symbolic interactionist theory is also present in these movies. The theory is concerned with people’s way of life, especially the strategies that are devised by humans to adjust to their environment. The theory is concerned with the traditions, norms, beliefs, and value that differentiate one culture from the other. In Avatar, the cultural differences between the human and the Na’vis are very conspicuous. The Na’vis is indigenous who wear bones and skins with deep beliefs in deities such as goddess Eywa. They live by hunting using bows and arrows, which also doubles as their weapons since nearly all of them are warriors. Besides they also believe that nature is the source of livelihood and have hence developed a strong connection with nature evidenced by the mysterious filaments at the end of their braids which connect them to fauna and flora thus creating a bond between them, animals and the planet. On the other hand, humans are advanced technologically, and their lives revolve around science. They do not have beliefs on gods and rely on technology to accomplish most of their task. Unlike the Na’vis who fight using bows and arrows, humans have bombs and combat airplanes. They have no connection with nature, and it is this disregard of nature that is attributed to the depletion of their natural resource.

The concept of self is also present in the movie. Based on Mead’s definition, the “self” does not exist at the beginning but instead arises as a result of social activity and experience as a person relates to the process (Bergesen, 2013). In Avatar, this concept is found between Jake and Neytiri. After Jake is sent to Pandora, he meets Neytiri, and they start interacting and knowing each other. Neytiri describes Jake as a crying baby that does not know what to do. Neytiri’s character relates to self as it has developed from experiences and activities. By calling Jake a baby she implies that he lacks the sense of “me” and thus living and experiencing the world of avatars would help him gain an insight of “me” and ” self.” Nevertheless, Jake is in a new world where and thus is trying to get used to it and in the process has many self- conflicts. He questions himself throughout the whole movies before making any decisions, thus also showing the conflict between “Me” and “I.”

The concept of species jumping is also present in the movie. In the beginning, Jake starts in the human species, and by the end of the film, he reincarnates into another species. The concept revolves around the human need to keep on improving with overall goals of creating an ideal super society (Bergesen, 2013). When Jake joins the Na’vi, he affirms that nature is not only sacred but that if humans were to become united with nature, a paradise would be achieved on earth. His rebirth as an avatar hence become more of Durkheimian bridge between the traditional religious themes of birth and redemption to the new civil religion themes which advocate for moral redemption by making the world a better place now.

In conclusion, movies are meant just as entertainment source but also as a means to address sociological issues facing our societies. While many views fail to look at them from a sociological perspective, a lot of these movies embody many sociological concepts, theories, and facts. The movie Avatar, for instance, has several sociological theories, concepts, and facts. It may as well be viewed as the reincarnation of colonialism. Therefore, views ought to learn not only to get entertained but also to derive the sociological issues facing our societies and addressed in the movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Bergesen, A. (2016). How to Sociologically Read a Movie. The Sociological Quarterly,57(4), 585-596. doi:10.1111/tsq.12151

Cameron, J. (Director). (2010). Avatar[Motion picture]. Beverly Hills, CA.: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

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