(Solved) Essay About Utopian

UTOPIA
(AVATAR)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of topic....................................................................................................................1
Aim of essay................................................................................................................................1
MAIN ARGUMENT.......................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCE..................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Background of topic
Utopia is an imaginary community or society which is having positive, desirable and
nearly perfect citizens with having all type of quality and is perfectly an ideal place for any
human to live in (Tang, 2011). People who are supposed or imagined to live in this area of
Utopia are referred to as Utopian who ideally symbolise principle of social justice, legal and
economically essential. According to Lyman Tower Sargent who is regarded to as one of the
most influential writers in this field of Utopian studies describe that there is racist, left wing,
right wing, gay, lesbian, democratic, ecologist, feminist, capitalist, free love, ecologist and many
more within the world of utopia.
Aim of essay
This essay is based on a science fiction movie which clearly depicts the theory of
socialism like that of Weber, Durkheim, Giddens and Marx with the context of utopia. Avatar is
a movie which was released in 2009. The movie is based on small imaginary planet of Pandora
where human like creatures are living and communicating through their minds.
MAIN ARGUMENT
Pandora is an imaginary planet which was featured in one of the famous American
science fiction movie released in 2009 named Avatar written and directed by James Cameron.
This is regarded to as one of the most impressive science fiction movie released till date which is
set in 22nd century the time when humans of planet Earth are colonising Pandora which is a
habitable moon filled with gas in Alpha Centauri, which is the star system in search of mineral
unobtanium that is very rare and costly to obtain (Most Famous Utopias in Sci-Fi Movies, 2018).
This colonisation of human in Pandora threatens the already existing local tribe named Na’vi
which is human-like species and indigenous of that planet. In the movie, there was a genetically
engineered body of local people named Na’vi so that humans could easily interact with them
with use of mind (Scott, 2015). Genetically engineered is called to as manipulating organism
genetics of human with the use of biotechnology. This helps in changing and transferring genes
across species in order to produce improve and novel organism.
It was also related that Pandora is one of the most famous utopian science fiction movies
that featured giant blue cat people which made it unique as it is a great place to live in with
healthy society and beautiful planetscape. With the help of this movie, it was very much clear
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how utopia would look like and the qualities of life people living there or habitat would have.
The atmosphere of Pandora is that mixture of oxygen, xenon, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen,
carbon dioxide and methane. Carbon dioxide which has the highest concentration to about 18%
makes the environment of Pandora extremely poisonous for humans (Pandora, 2018). This could
cause unconsciousness within 20 seconds and could even cause death in 4 minutes. But due to a
specialised breathing mask, humans can be safe on this planet. There is also a high concentration
of hydrogen sulphide about 1% that could also cause immediate collapse and loss of breathing.
Relating to the theory of Marxist philosophy is mainly approached and influenced by
Karl Marx who is regarded to as a philosopher and sociologist in the area of society and
community living. One of the major quality of this Marxism philosophy is that of political
practice and its commitment which is the main goal of society and justices as well. Marxism is
the practice or method which is related to socioeconomic analysis that is based on relation of
class and social concepts that is using materialist interpretation of the historical development and
taking social transformation (The “Double Mirror” in James Cameron’s “Avatar” –
Philosophy, Ecology, Ideology and Ontology on Pandora, 2018). This Marxist philosophy is
mainly based on the historical development of human society and species over time which is
having tendencies to change and modify according to time and technological advancements.
As per this philosophy or theory will be mostly based on socioeconomic analysis that is
having or viewing all class relations or conflicts between them with use of materialist
interpretation (Elsaesser, 2011). This work was originated in the 19th century by German
philosopher Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx after whose name the theory is originated. Historical
materialism is the one which is used within Marxism view that helps in criticism and analysing
all development within capitalism or the role of society in their struggle. There is a major
difference between the class and society that of material interest for which they are opposing
each other on larger terms. Like for example the class of society who are the labour workers will
be producing and manufacturing products and goods for which they are been paid. But these
products and services are mostly availed by higher class people of society who are also the
owner of means of production.
Avatar was released in 2009 in 3-D which had to face many challenges throughout the world
especially from a political viewpoint. Just after it’s released globally it was removed from
theatres in China in January 2010 despite its popularity in the country. This decision was taken
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due to its growing popularity and political sensitivity. It was also included that the local people
of China were empathising themselves with the suffering of indigenous people of Pandora. Much
local Chinese government with some greedy real estate developers together evicted many
farmers from their land, vacant their land or homes and then redeveloped land this was mainly
done to satisfy their desire for profits purpose.
This was all according to Marxist view or philosophy one more case was from Jordan
River in 2010 that while protesting against the Israeli occupation many Palestinian activists and
socialist were dressed up like Pandora inhabitants (Faithful, 2016). This movie was one of the
most basic and excellent examples of struggle that is more than that of national borders. As it
was added by Marx that colonialism will be a form of capitalism with use of colonisation as the
best means of achieving land and capital which is regarded to as sin. There were many views in
respect to the movie some of them identified it as a piece of anti-imperialist overtone, another
viewed it as countercultural and some know it as a reflection as an environmentalist on
worldwide bases. It was also noted in one of event that the people or local people of Amazon
River after the release of Avatar asked Cameron to help them. This was based due to the
construction of the largest hydroelectric projects of the world on the river but this construction
was hindering the living and damaging indigenous culture which was same as the humans
invading planet Pandora out of their greed only.
James Cameron who is the director of the movie is very much influenced by the view of
Marxism that was a part of Avatar as well but this is not very much popular within the movie
industry. While in one of the theory of structuration that was given by Anthony Giddens who is
British scholar this is the social theory (A Few Thoughts on “Avatar”, 2018). This theory is
based on agent and structure of reproduction and creation among social system or societies. The
structure would mean that expectations of society according to gender and class of people that
are largely or mainly determine by socialisation. This theory is mainly based on the view that all
social systems are analysing on both agents and structure that too without giving primacy to
either of them. This complete theory of structuration will be examining concepts like that of
hermeneutics and phenomenology with including social practices as well. As there will be no
difference between both agents and structures rather it is adopting balance between them. as
whole movie was centred on themes like that of conflict within nature and human perspective the
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treatment of Avatar was on patriotism, militarism, imperialism, racism, religion, property rights,
spirituality and corporate greed as well.
Under this theory, it is also explained that an individual is mainly influenced by the
structure and its agency and the point at which these both meet will be called to as structuration
(Bainbridge, 2016). As included within the movie many critics explained that treatment of movie
will be against the native of Na’vi and aggression of human in way of supporting the indigenous
people today. From the film it was depicted that human military contractors were identified to as
terrorist which was linked with destruction of World Trade Centre in New York. In Avatar the
felling of Home Tree was straightly connected with felling of World Trade Centre in New York
and thus this seem to be visual similarity between movie and real life incident. While some of the
critics indicated that whether this comparison done is intending or encouraging viewers to think
about current conditions of Muslims under military occupation or not.
Thus this theory will be attempting to understand human social behaviour in way of
resolving this view of structure and agency. This is only possible when the relationship between
the actor and structure is studied in clear terms.
It is very common that capitalism is fundamentally riskier for human society and human
culture while this was opposed in Cameron's Avatar. As in this movie, he laid forward the
ideology of capitalism with criticising the concept of capitalist and industrialism societies which
is according to Marxist perspective.
Apart from this another theory which is that of a Bureaucratic theory of Max Weber
given in late 19th Century in which he stated that it is very essential to set up into company and
management as compared to traditional structure. Within this type of company, all employees
and every manager is treated equally under the division of labour that is defined by employees.
As per this theory of Max Weber, it could be stated that in many large organisations who are
following well-defined structure it is essential that everyone is treated with same and equal
respect. This is also clearly stated that the promotion and selection process within a company of
employees is also majorly based on technical qualification (Dahrendorf, 2017). As in the movie
it was depicted that at the time when human invaded Pandora they sent their own organically and
mind controlled Na'vi-like creatures. While they were acting to be like Na'vi they explored that
all fear, taste and feel of Na'vi were same as human so with this equality between both the races
was something which is very much common. All the creature living on the planet knows very
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well about their nature where they lived into, they were also wise to their environment and
sharing peace with them. So this is somewhat in alignment with Weber theory of bureaucratic of
being equal and same with people who are around you and with the environment under which
they are living.
There was also a religion which was designed by James Cameron that was for the
population of Pandora which is Aboriginal in Original as the native of Pandora is called to as
Na'vi. The view of Pandora that is based on human forest kinship which influences the animism
of the planet. This is also influenced by American Indian rituals and culture within the nature of
philosophy. According to one of the essays of Montaigne "Of Cannibals" it was studied that
aliens are all part of utopia as they are one of the versions of a man living in other planet and this
will only be another expression of humans. At any time when people are been addressed like
other thing or animal, they are referred to as anthropomorphizing so it could be related to the
alien culture of a human. So Pandora is also a kind of human-like planet where creatures are
living without the intervention of mankind this is a good example of utopia as a perfect place for
the imperfect creatures (Vallentyne, 2014).
It was also learnt that Na’vi are all alike human with similar traits and characteristic like
that of human living on earth. Thus Avatar is one out of 7 significant movies directed by James
Cameron including that of Terminator, Aliens, Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, True Lies,
Titanic and Avatar in the year 1984, 1986, 189, 1991, 1994, 1997 and 2009 respectively. All
these films are very much influenced by the theory and philosophy of Marxist which is firmly the
class systems (Dahrendorf, 2017). These films are somewhere showcasing the struggle of middle
and lower class who are generally referred to as a depressed section of society. Titanic which is
one of the most epic movies depicting the love story of lower middle class and high-class couple.
The ship itself was showcasing and delivering the difference as it was divided into parts of lower
or working class with limited facilities, middle with a certain amount of facilities and then high
class with most facilities attached with it.
While in Avatar which is illustrating the struggle of Pandora planet that is placed in the
year 2154 on a fictitious moon that is far away from earth this is shown on the national borders.
It was included within the movie that inhabitants of Pandora are living in nature that is very
much peaceful and they are worshipping their goddess Eywa (Suits, 2014). As it is very much
clear from the history of the USA that they are a complete nation of having a tradition of
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capitalism and anti-radicalism that emerged in the 1790's only. According to his family
upbringing which was very away from the glamorous life that he is living in this current time as
world famous director of movies like that of Avatar 2009 and Titanic 1997. From his early
childhood daysonly, he was very hardworking and is regarded to as a strong working class
mentality that was developed with help of his family thinking and culture.
As per the western philosophical tradition, there are many questions asked with regards to
dealing the difference between the soul, mind and body of humans. As shown in the movie
which is completely based on the concept of utopia is dealing with either body without soul or
soul without a body. While it is also derived that authors and scholars of philosophy will be
treating or regarding human mind as the most effective and important materialist substance
which is supporting that mind will belong to the material world. This was shown in one of the
scenes of Avatar including that time when Jake who was presented in Pandora as send by
humans only falls on the ground. But was shown that Na'vi people are lifeless and they do not
have any connection between their life and soul so in this scene the native of Pandora recognised
Jake as false body and ordered to kill him.
There are many injurious effects of technology and innovation that was laid down in
Marxism view within the period of capitalist societies (Dahrendorf, 2017). It was included that
the technological invasion within any company this will be making muscular power less
important so this will employ women and children on wide terms. This will allow child and
women labour more in those societies which are more capitalist. Machinery is also having the
potential to increase the working hour of people with the involvement of people or human thus
making labour working more intensified. In this movie, Jake was the hero he deliberately joined
the capitalist system with the working class which was the same as Rose (female lead) did in
Titanic. Then in movie Na'vi-like that of Selfridge and Quaritch were representing negative side
of capitalist interest who were full of greed and ruthless (Moylan, 2018). All the people of Na'vi
community were not rich and they care and understand the importance of nature and the
environment in which they were living. All of them were living in harmony which is the most
important feature of utopia and seriously lacking in humans living on earth. The film was also
somewhere criticising the USA policies as for when they attacked Na'vi, with the military attack
they fought with this terror and were mostly shocked.
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CONCLUSION
One of the major tasks of this essay was to unleash the theory and idealism of socialism
as compared with that of capitalist that was depicted in the utopian movie directed by James
Cameron in 2009 Avatar. It was also noted that view of Marxism that was most illustrated within
the movie is not the dominant part in worldview as in China. There were most people who
ignored this message which the movie gave to all audience but rather the indigenous people of
Brazil, netizen of China and people of Palestinian did not ignore this message at all.
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REFERENCE
Books and Journals:
Bainbridge, W.S., 2016. Alienation and Assimilation in a Warcraft World. In Virtual
Sociocultural Convergence (pp. 237-260). Springer, Cham.
Dahrendorf, R., 2017. Out of utopia: toward a reorientation of sociological analysis.
In Utopia (pp. 103-126). Routledge.
Elsaesser, T., 2011. James Cameron's Avatar: access for all. New Review of Film and Television
Studies, 9(3), pp.247-264.
Faithful, G., 2016. Survivor, Warrior, Mother, Savior: The Evolution of the Female Hero In
Apocalyptic Science Fiction Film of the Late Cold War. Implicit Religion, 19(3).
Moylan, T., 2018. Scraps of the untainted sky: Science fiction, utopia, dystopia. Routledge.
Scott, D., 2015. A Critical Review of Two Academic Texts ‘Decolonising James Cameron’s
Pandora: Imperial History and Science Fiction’(Alessio & Meredith, 2012) and ‘Avatar: A
Marxist Saga on the Far Distant Planet’(Tang, 2011), exploring their arguments on Avatar
(Cameron, 2009), the ideological function and its.
Suits, B., 2014. The Grasshopper-: Games, Life and Utopia. Broadview Press.
Tang, Y., 2011. Avatar: A Marxist Saga on the Far Distant Planet. tripleC: Communication,
Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information
Society, 9(2), pp.657-667.
Vallentyne, P., 2014. Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State, and Utopia. In Central Works of
Philosophy v5 (pp. 108-125). Routledge.
Online:
A Few Thoughts on “Avatar”. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://www.jasonstaples.com/sociology/a-few-thoughts-on-avatar/>.
Most Famous Utopias in Sci-Fi Movies. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<futurism.media/most-famous-utopias-in-sci-fi-movies>.
Pandora. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://james-camerons-avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Pandora>.
The “Double Mirror” in James Cameron’s “Avatar” – Philosophy, Ecology, Ideology and
Ontology on Pandora. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<http://www.academia.edu/2155685/THE_DOUBLE_MIRROR_IN_JAMES_CAMERO
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