englishi

PoliticalEssayroughdraft.pdf

Daniel Caldera

Professor Godoy

101-25880

1/16/21

Entertainment as Political Essay: Avatar (Rough Draft)

Throughout American history, entertainment has been utilized as a form to express

political ideals and is used as a tool to inform the audiences with events and scenarios that are

closely tied with real world events. None is more apparent that holds true to this then the hit film

Avatar. The film takes place on a distant moon named Pandora, a beautiful planet that is

inhabited with mercenaries who have little to no regard for the planet's inhabitants and their

ecosystem as they mine for the planet’s natural resources. James Cameron, the director of the

film, has gone on record to confirm the film as being “political” and a direct representation of

human greed and imperialism that results in the destruction of Earth’s environment and

ecosystem.

This film allows the audience to see through a unique perspective utilizing this fictional

world and their struggles to establish the realization of what is actively taking place in our own

world today. This film emphasizes and brings to light our very real issue of deforestation which

is being conducted at an astonishing rate which can prove to negatively impact the way future

generations will live. According to the World Wildlife organization, “over 17% of the Amazon

rainforest alone has been lost within the last 50 years”. This has been a growing concern due in

large part that many individuals continue excavating and mining these lands for its natural

resources such as gold, oil and mahogany.

These actions proved to be detrimental to our planetary environment as many of the

wildlife, over 80% of the world’s land-based animals inhabit and rely on forest environments.

This also impacts climate change as the forest acts as a sponge absorbing vast amounts of

carbon-dioxide that would otherwise contribute to the rapid change in our climate patterns.

Another fascinating statistic that becomes apparent is the fact that these forests are responsible

for creating over 13.2 million jobs that range from conserving and purifying water as well as

purifying the air quality and constantly searching for abnormalities that may negatively impact

human way of living on a global scale. This also creates an additional 41 million jobs that are

closely tied in with conservation and wildlife sector/career.

The conservation of our forest and wildlife is vital and although emphasized to great

lengths, many individuals continue to contribute to deforestation lands undergo conversions from

forest to agriculture as these continue to expand deeper and deeper destroying many of the

wildlife in the process. Tying in with the film's symbolic political messages in raising awareness

in our own real-world actions, director James Cameron successfully illustrates this by showing

the negative impacts of human greed and imperialism that ravage this fictional planet’s

inhabitants and ecosystem thus creating hardship and dismay for the natives within the film.

Through this perspective of “looking from the outside in” utilizing this fictional world, audiences

become sympathetic towards the protagonist and establishes the realization that we, as a society

and as humans must do our part and change our way of living for the betterment of our future.

Works Cited Page

Galey, Patrick. “Forest Loss 'Hotspots' Bigger than Germany: WWF.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 13

Jan. 2021, phys.org/news/2021-01-forest-loss-hotspots-bigger-germany.html.

Carmichael, Michael. “Avatar Pulls the Political Trigger.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 25 May 2011,