Avatar: Human and Extra Credit Essay
I decided to write my extra credit essay on the movie Avatar which is one of my favorite films since it was released in 2009. This movie says a lot about society and different kinds of people in it. It really connects very well to all of the four perspectives that we have been covering as a class this semester, The Conflict Perspective, The Functionalist Perspective, The Symbolic Interaction and lastly, The Feminist Theory.
First, I believe that it relates to the conflict perspective more so than any of the other perspectives. In this film, the human race is trying to show dominance towards the Avatar race by invading their society and destroying their ‘home tree’. The conflict perspective stresses that in order to understand society; we must understand the struggle between groups. The power groups (human race) will always try to maintain their status through manipulation, exploitation and control. In the film, the human race declared war because the Avatars wouldn’t move from their home tree where there was a billion dollar rock that the humans were there for, therefore by starting a war and bombing their base, the humans maintained their status as a power group and failed to understand a different society in multiple different ways.
Next, this movie also relates to the functional perspective. This perspective states that in order to understand society, we must look at it in terms of parts and whole systems. Once again, the human race failed to see that even though these were ‘aliens’ from another planet, they didn’t take into consideration that they were still living creatures with their own lifestyles and families that they have to take care of. They invaded their life and were only worried about themselves and would take down anything in their way in order to get the gold, which is the mineral that they are there for.
This film also relates strongly to the symbolic interaction, just as much as the conflict perspective. The symbolic
First, I believe that it relates to the conflict perspective more so than any of the other perspectives. In this film, the human race is trying to show dominance towards the Avatar race by invading their society and destroying their ‘home tree’. The conflict perspective stresses that in order to understand society; we must understand the struggle between groups. The power groups (human race) will always try to maintain their status through manipulation, exploitation and control. In the film, the human race declared war because the Avatars wouldn’t move from their home tree where there was a billion dollar rock that the humans were there for, therefore by starting a war and bombing their base, the humans maintained their status as a power group and failed to understand a different society in multiple different ways.
Next, this movie also relates to the functional perspective. This perspective states that in order to understand society, we must look at it in terms of parts and whole systems. Once again, the human race failed to see that even though these were ‘aliens’ from another planet, they didn’t take into consideration that they were still living creatures with their own lifestyles and families that they have to take care of. They invaded their life and were only worried about themselves and would take down anything in their way in order to get the gold, which is the mineral that they are there for.
This film also relates strongly to the symbolic interaction, just as much as the conflict perspective. The symbolic