Avatar speaks an old truth
The line that really got to me while watching James Cameron’s Avatar was, “They killed their mother.” The hero uses it to describe the state of his home planet – Earth.
Avatar is a story as old as storytelling. It involves man realising that he is not in the world all by himself. He is part of a bigger whole. He, along with everything around him — trees, animals, the air, the seas, the birds in the sky, the tiniest germs, and the most monstrous of natural phenomena – constitutes something bigger. He is merely a part of it.
We human beings though, trap ourselves in a cage of our own creation. We imagine ourselves to be different, to be somehow higher than and sealed off from what we have come to call “nature”. To us, a trip to the zoo is about nature. Tending to a plant is about nature. Walking about on the beach is about nature. We conveniently ignore the fact that we are as much nature as a caterpillar is.
All of the world’s greatest traditions have always spoken of all things being interconnected. Modern science, when it became capable of doing so, did the same.
Avatar speaks that same ancient truth. The miracles of Pandora are not unique to that alien planet. The many beautiful sights of Pandora are right here on Earth, among us. Just because we know what makes our world go around, doesn’t make it any less magical.
nice post..and I agree it’s time to be conscious towards the nature!!!
rahul
20 Dec 09 at 12:01 pm
Although ppl have interpreted this film differently.. I found the ‘nature’ theme the strongest message.
I watched the film last night and your post made very thoughtful reading.
I am city worker in London – and although I have always conveyed a healthy nature… this film was truly inspirational and pushed it to another level. It made me realise the extent to which the human race is locust-like… wiping out anything in our paths.
When Jake says that the sky people ‘kill their own mother’, it was heartbreaking…
I think whatever the critics say about this movie, it will at least have made ppl think about our immediate environment a little bit more and contribute to a better planet.
Hil
14 Jan 10 at 6:19 pm