Theme Of Alienation In Avatar

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The film Avatar, directed by James Cameron is a twenty-first century example of the portrayal of the prevalence of alienation in culturally significant media. One may assume that Avatar, is just a film and the story should be taken for nothing more than entertainment value but the thematic implications in the film hold a greater importance . The narrative framework, presents a telling reflection of the collective cultural views of society, revealing anxieties and fears about economic relations replacing social relations, the growth and dependence on the industrial-corporate complex, the alienation we feel from work, and the loss of one 's identity and formal cultural traditions ( Peterson and Weis 2013,115). The main protagonist of Avatar, …show more content…

This is the first glimpse of Jake 's estrangement from the object from his labour , he is miserable about the job, it holds no joy for him working without out a purpose (Peterson and Weis 2013,117-119) As Jake learns more about the Na 'vi culture he becomes estranged from humanity, he finds no satisfaction in Earth 's culture build off of economic relationships, he has found meaning and purpose in a society based off of nature and meaningful intra-personal relationships.. He also no longer identifies with humanity and becomes more attached to his avatar persona.(Peterson and Weis 2013,123) The solution to alienation in Avatar is to simply stop being human and become something better, which translates quite literally in the film, but in the real world the message is to steer our relationships away from economic ones and really begin to interact with others on a social level, in that way we can finally begin to learn about ourselves (Peterson and Weis …show more content…

The commodification of the human being and their labour leads to rampant inequality and exploitation. Not only is it a force that inhibits the full capabilities of human beings, stripping away their identity and sense of value as humans, over time it has become a force so deeply interwoven into the fabric of social structure and function that it has created transcendental issues affecting cultural, social and psychological aspects of everyday life. In the twenty first century, alienation has become one of the most harmful social institutions that has negatively impacted disenfranchised individuals. In the modern day work place, the power dynamic between the worker and employer leave the worker feeling out of control in decision making and lacking meaning and purpose in their job causing a dissatisfaction within themselves. Capitalism as an economic and societal structure affect the mental well being of individuals, further perpetuates alienation as it fools workers into being satisfied by using media tactics to appeal to their baser instincts to confuse and distract a person from satisfying their emotional needs, in essence dehumanizing the worker and altering their social and psychological habits. The movie Avatar creates a media outlet that addresses the dreary landscape of modern day labour and the disconnection between an individual and their work, but is also

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