Power And Imperialism In The Last Samurai And The Na Vi

Avatar revolves around Jake Sully, an ex-Marine, who is replacing his deceased brother as a hybrid Avatar. A hybrid avatar is a human consciousness inside a Na’vi body. A machine transfers the consciousness of a human to the avatar body. Throughout the movie Jake’s allegiances to the humans fades and he unites with the natives of Pandora, the Na’vi. Jake eventually becomes the leader of a Na’vi clan as well. The natives of Pandora are blue-skinned humanoid creatures around three meters tall. Even though their appearance is frightening to humans, they are peaceful and try to live in harmony with nature and other creatures. As a result of Na’vi’s size they have a very distinct advantage in hand to hand fighting. The central idea is that at the

In The Last Samurai (2003), Nathan Algren helps the Samurai fight the Japanese Army. In Dances with Wolves (1990), John Dunbar helps the Sioux tribe defeat the American Army. In Pocahontas (1995), John Smith saves a Native American tribe from the Virginia Company’s troops. Many imperialistic movies tend to focus on either American or European imperialism. However, The Last Samurai focus on Japanese imperialism, and movies including Mountains of the Moon (1990) and Forbidden Territory: Stanley 's Search for Livingstone (1997) focus on African imperialism ("Imperialism in Africa"). Many characters and scenes in Avatar resemble to seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century European and American imperialism. American imperialism is the military, cultural and the economic influences of the United State internationally. Examples of US imperialism include, the Louisiana Purchase, taking Native American lands and the annexation of Hawaii ("American Imperialism -Boundless"). The Na’vi in Avatar are a metaphor for the Native Americans, and the humans (especially the RDA security force) is a metaphor for the European and the American

The security force’s one and only goal is to mine and obtain unobtanium. Colonel Miles Quaritch is the leader of the security force, and he is the one who instructed Jake to infiltrate a Na’vi clan. The RDA consists of a security group and a group of scientists. The security force is a metaphor for the American and European armies and invaders in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, and the scientist group is the Europeans and Americans that wanted healthy relationships with the Native Americans. The RDA commonly refers to the Na’vi as hostiles or savages, and treats the Na’vi very harshly and brutally. RDA’s mind is set on mining unobtanium, and they do not care about the fates of the Na’vi people or Pandora. At the beginning of European expansions to the Americas Europeans destroyed many Native American tribes and villages. The Europeans only purpose in coming was god, glory and gold; furthermore, they did not show any concern for the well-being of the Native Americans. While the security force does not sympathize the Na’vi, the group of scientists in the mission wants to communicate and build relationships with the Na’vi. Soon after Jake joins the Omaticaya clan, one of the lead scientists, Grace comes to live with the clan and to study clan’s customs. For example, when the security force tries to destroy the Hometree, the Omaticaya clan-gathering place, Grace