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Worldviews in Avatar : Spirituality and Cult of Nature
Introduction
Apart from being a form of entertainment, movies provide an opportunity for people to learn about different perspectives and views of the world, expressed creatively through the plot, characters, and visual elements. Avatar is a movie directed by James Cameron and released in 2009. The director offers to look at two distinct approaches to seeing the world the spiritual and the capitalistic. This paper aims to examine the worldviews presented in Avatar through the dialogs between the films characters.
Main body
The plot of the film reveals the central worldview that Cameron aims to depict the entitlement of people in the way they choose to treat nature. The plot of the film shows that people destroyed their planet and came to Pandora to get their natural resources. Considering this lack of reflection regarding their actions, an essential worldview in the Avatar is the focus on the material aspects of life. The plot revolves around a natural resource unobtanium, which is worth $20 million per kilogram (Landau & Cameron, 0:12:18). Hence, the main reason why people from Earth came to Pandore is to gain profits, regardless of the harm they may cause to the indigenous communities or the planet.
Parker Selfridge represents this worldview as he only cares about the profits that can be made from natural resources. In one of the scenes, he states those savages are threatening our whole operation when referring to the indigenous population of Pandora (Landau & Cameron, 0:22:13). He says this regardless of the fact that his team and he came to this planet and want to steal something from Navi to benefit financially, regardless of the consequences. Hence, an important worldview demonstrated in the Avatar is capitalistic, according to which a person cares about money only.
Navi, the indigenous people living on this planet, have a very different worldview to that of people from Earth. They are more focused on the spiritual aspects of their lives, and in the film, they can physically connect to all living things on their planet through special cords. This symbolizes the tight connection between their physical bodies and their spiritual beings or their souls. The following describes the way these creatures perceive the world and people the Navi say that every person is born twice. (Landau & Cameron, 0:54:07). Here, Jake explains that Navi believe that one has to find his or her place in a community, which further emphasizes the importance of spirituality and connection between people and things.
Next, the movie portrays a crisis of spirituality, which is manifested as a worldview where everything can be explained through a scientific lens. Grace Augustine, the scientist who helps Jake transform into an avatar, is an example of such an approach. Notably, she is constantly looking for a way to explain the spiritual focus of the indigenous people, overlooking the spirituality itself. Notably, as Jake becomes more aware of how Navi views the world, he changes his worldview. In the final scene, he states, I see you, Brother, and thank you. Your spirit goes with Eywa. Your body stays behind to become part of The People (Landau & Cameron, 2:28:20). This demonstrates how Jakes worldview changes from capitalistic and scientific to spiritual.
Another group, which is presented in this film and has a distinct worldview, is the military. They view the world from a lens of specific tasks they have to accomplish. The only reason why they choose to pursue a more friendly approach to resettling the Navi is that attacking them would lead to significant losses. A significant characteristic of the military worldview is that people do not usually question the orders they receive. Colonel Miles Quaritch states the following when describing Navi who gather to attack their base everyone on this base, every one of you, is fighting for survival, and thats a fact (Landau & Cameron, 1:40:12). This is despite the fact that the people invaded Navis planet and wanted to resettle the population.
Based on the different worldviews presented in Avatar, one can conclude that the importance of this element is essential. The worldview directs a persons actions and helps him or her determine what is right and what is not. For instance, the approach of the scientist Grace Augustine allows her to participate in using the resources of a planet until there is nothing left and moving on to the next one. For her, this can be seen as a natural thing to do, because her worldview does not account for spirituality. Navi, on the other hand, focuses on spirituality because they aim to see a person or understand him or her.
Conclusion
Overall, in this paper, the different worldviews presented in the Avatar were examined. Mainly, the capitalistic and spiritual approaches are the central themes of this film. On the one hand, scientists such as Grace Augustine aim to explain everything rationally, while on the other, Navi focuses on trying to see a person. Other distinct worldviews depicted in this movie are scientific and military. The worldviews are essential because they shape the way a person perceives the world around them and events that happen, which is demonstrated in the Avatar.
Reference
Landau, J. & Cameron, J. (2009). Avatar [Motion Picture]. The United States: 20th Century Fox.
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