Avatar Symbolism in History Class
 

Watched a video in History class today about the great Sand Creek massacre, in which hundreds of white men on horseback invaded the Native American Tribes stationed on a camp at Sand Creek. The whites had been trying to get the Native Americans to try and civilize for the longest time, trying to offer them education (Grace's school; Avatar symbolism) and other humanly things for the longest time.

Long story short, the whites attacked them. The Native Americans had done absolutely nothing to offend the whites and on the day of the Sand Creek massacre, they tried their best to fend off the whites, that originally were at peace with them. The film showed a lot of Indians fending them off with bows and arrows, (again Avatar symbolism) and devastating music (such as "Shutting Down Grace's Lab") was playing the the background as their huts blew up from cannon shells and all the tribes were driven out of their homeland.

The whites wanted them to re-locate. (What a surprise, Avatar symbolism again). This film basically made me think of Avatar in general because of the music, the Native American symbolism to the Na'vi, and technique that the director used to make the audience feel sorry for the group of people being under attack. What do you think about this symbolism?


Thanks for taking the time to read this, just thought I'd share.
PS -- I got a couple Avatar drawings I'll be putting up on this forum soon.

I think it's pretty darn clear that's 100% of what avatar is about.

Tribes in South America are getting kicked out of their homeland(hometree) so that the government(RDA) can get natural resources like oil and gems(unobtanium).

JC has made visits and talked to these tribes in South America, he even says that their plight has been part of his inspiration for Avatar.

Avatar definitely has inspiration from events here :(

Definitely a correlation, I just find it really sad that most people just pass Avatar off as another "Cowboys and Indians" movie and then forget about it- and along with forgetting about it, all of the problems it helps bring to the forefront of our minds.

Exactly.

Avatar itself may well be a work of fiction, but the issues and questions raised by it are very much real.

Yep, that it does.

Isn't it just sad? <preachy>People need to learn that forgetting problems doesn't make them go away.</preachy>

^ This. QFT

It's not all sad though. The Na'vi culture has a lot of reference and allusion to animism, shamanic trance, spirit animals and plant teachers, there's even a deleted scene where Jake undergoes the Omaticaya vision quest: Aya Avatar | Heart of the Initiate

There should be a special font for that. Maybe BOLD AND ALL CAPS. :P :D

That made me spill a can of coke. :D