Avatar and Plumwood Comparison

The film Avatar can best be described as a movie illustrating the conflict between different cultures, beliefs, and their roles in nature. The story line is that of an indigenous group of people, the Na'vi, who live harmoniously with nature. The master narrative for them is to co-exist with nature in a way that both can benefit and neither one harms the other. They are not anthropocentric in the way that they see themselves as being equal to nature, and they do not view themselves as being higher in importance. The conflict is between that of the Na'vi people and a capitalistic group of soldiers and scientist who are out to harvest unobtainium, an extremely valuable mineral that exists in great abundance in the land that the indigenous inhabit.

The relationships and characters in Avatar can easily be compared to Plumwood and her experience with the Crocodile that nearly took her life. In "Surviving a Crocodile Attack" Plumwood is trespassing in the home of the crocodile, and subsequently is putting herself in danger. Plumwood had always had an anthropocentric view of the world, and believed that as a human she was at the top of the food chain. Jake Sully in Avatar also recognized himself as being above other cultures, because he associated himself with being human. That is until he interacted with the Na'vi people and falls in love with a particular one named Neytiri. Suddenly Jake is transformed by the Na'vi people and sees things in a while new light. In this aspect of the story Jake symbolizes Plumwood because both are characters being antagonized in the story. The antagonist in Avatar is the Colonel, his minions and Parker. They are all working toward a common goal of gathering unobtainium for their own personal gain, and in the process are in no way concerned with the well-being of anybody but themselves. Jake believes that the Colonel and Parker are on his side, until they suddenly turn on him, just as the crocodile turned on Plumwood. The linking postulates between these two stories connect the master narratives in a way that they viewers and readers are able to relate them to one another. In "Surviving a Crocodile Attack" as Plumwood is being viciously attacked she is thinking to herself "This desperate delusion split apart as I hit the water. In that flash, I glimpsed the world for the first time, "from the outside," as a world no longer my own, and unrecognizable bleak landscape composed of raw necessity, indifferent to my life or death." This is th emoment that Plumwood realizes how small she is compared to the big picture. Up until now she thought there was some sort of dualism between her and nature, when she wasprivileged above the crocodile, and had certain rights that were exclusively for her. She was blinded by her view of her narrative self and egocentric point of view. She is quickly awoken from this bleak misinterpretation when she sees her own life flashing before her eyes.

The irony involved in Avatar involves Jake Sully, and ho whe is initially working for Parker, the Colonel, and Grace, a scientist who sides with the Na'vi people, but by the end of the film Jake turns on "his people" and starts to identify himself with the Na'vi. In the beginning his goal was to get the Na'vi to trust him so that he could convince them that it was in their best interest to relocate themselves away from "Hometree" which is the Na'vi peoples direct line to Eywa, the Na'vi people's "God". Hometree is a feministic part of the film, because she is viewed by the Na'vi people as being fragile in existence, and nurturing. Much like a mother would be to her own children, the Na'vi people believes that Eywa takes care of them. Jake begins to work his way into the hearts of the Na'vi people by first gaining the trust of the elite male, the father of Neytiri. The Na'vi soon follow in the footsteps of the leader, because the Na'vi tribe is ran much like a patriarchy where the oldest male is looked up to and emulated. In the Na'vi tribe the leader is seen to be one with extreme masculinity who can protect and make decisions for the group as a whole. After Jake gains teh trust of the Na'vi, he begins to try to connect with Eywa. The Tree of Souls represents "mother nature" as a whole and shows the femininity by looking dainty and fragile. You can see this in the scene where Jake connects with the Tree of Souls and warns her about the "sky people" coming to attack her people. Ironically Jake ends up trying to protect the same people that in the beginning he was out to get.

Avatar has many hidden metaphors, including the one where Jake says, "I was a warrior who dreamed he could bring peace. Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up." The hidden metaphor is that Jake is trying to say that when he is in the Avatar body he is trying to bring peace, and make a change. Being in his Avatar body was like being in a dream that you don't want to wake up from. A dream that in some ways is better than your reality. This is how Jake perceived the Na'vi world. A dream from which he hoped he could be a part of forever. This can be compared to Plumwood's thought as she was initially being attacked by the crocodile and was thinking, "This is not really happening. This is a nightmare from which I will soon awake." In this scenario Plumwood hopes that her reality is a dream, because what is happening to her is unimaginable. Plumwood's reaction is an example of a paradigm of inheritance. Plumwood was more than likely taught that from past generations that she was not vulnerable because she is a human, so she inherited the same thinking, thus explaining her reasoning for being so shocked by being victimized by the crocodile. A repeating metaphor in Avatar is howthe Na'vi says "I see you". These three words are a way of communicating and connecting with another individual on a deeper level. When the Na'vi "sees" someone it is a metaphor for loving or acknowledging the other person. When a Na'vi says, "I see you" it is the ultimate compliment and form of respect by the Na'vi. It is their way of finally accepting Jake as one of their own.

The theme seen in Avatar is a common one within many films. The white male protagonist goes into a foreign culture, which is orignially the enemy, but then realizes his wrong ways and is reborn as a new person and finds solidarity with the indigenous people and he ends up leading those people to stop the group of people that he uses to belong to. The entire conflict is in some ways culturally contained, in which someone from a culture can change and turn on their own culture and change it, and ultimately save other cultures in the process. The success of Avatar and films like Avatar can be contributed to people's desire to route for the underdog. In Avatar, the Na'vi are originally the underdog, who ends up coming out on top. Viewers can't help but want for the Na'vi to succeed becasue the Na'vi seem innocent and worthy of triumph.