avatar reaction paper on racism

Bailee Mclachlan

Honor English III

Coach Morrell

9/12/12

Avatar Reaction Paper

            I agree with Annalee Newitz when she says that this movie consists of racism. The first part I would like to point out in the movie where the guy on the ship, the one that’s only there for the unobtainium, calls the Na’vi “the blue monkeys”. I find this racist to the Na’vi because the guy knows what they are called so I don’t understand why he can’t just call them by the names they go by. Today I realized while watching the movie, the part in the article where it says “In addition to Native Americans, I saw some cat people as black people in disguise.” I read this article the night before I read this article so I was looking for this in the movie. I realized when they go to find Jake’s dragon type creature that he will fly, and the guy that’s going to be the next leader after the one dies that’s the guy leader now says that Jake will go first across the ledge, and when he says it, he sounds like the African people that we all heard talk on the Olympics when they got interviewed. I don’t find this super racist, but why cannot they just use the same accent for the people throughout the movie? If they are all from the same tribe, they should mostly have the same type of accents because they all learn from their elders. One thing I find hard to understand is that the white people are always afraid of the “Native American people” in the myths we have read and in this movie, but the Native Americans always end up being super nice to the white people and care for them. In this movie the Na’vi people take Jake in as one of their own after he completes multiple tasks to be able to get into the tribe. They finally accept him as one of them, and then the white people just go in and destroy everything the Na’vi own. In the movie when they first start tearing down everything with the giant machines one guy driving the biggest machine says “there is one standing in front of my blade” and then the guy that just wants the unobtainium says “so, keep going, they will move.” This shows that the white people don’t even care for the Na’vi and they Na’vi don’t even get a say in anything that happens to them in this movie.

my myth

Bailee Mclachlan

H English III

9/3/12

The Seed that Created Life

Once upon a time there were only 4 great rivers among the earth. Where the great rivers met, there was a fairly large island. One day, there was a seed from a tree floating down one of the rivers, the seed eventually landed on the shore of the island where the great rivers all met. It took only but a couple of days for this tree to grow from that tiny seed, and the great rivers had worked their magic. The seed and the rivers created the biggest tree ever, and from it humans were created. Once there were enough humans to where they could populate the island and then they could spread across the earth, animals were made from the tree so that the humans could hunt and live off of the animals. After there were enough animals to produce a large amount of population of each kind, the tree grew fruit. The fruit was very special because it could give the animal’s intelligence and the power to talk, and it also created another food source for the humans. The fruit gave power to the people in a way that they were very good hunters, were strong, were very fast, and were very intelligent just like the animals. One day, there was a massive rain shower that covered the entire earth and all the water caused a huge flood. The flood covered all of the land so quickly and the people thought even quicker. They all started climbing the huge tree on the island where the four rivers met. If the waters rose, so did the humans. They stayed up in the tree for weeks until the flood went down and since the tree grew fruit after the humans and animals were all made, they ate from the tree to stay alive. The waters finally went back down to the normal levels and all of the humans were back on land but something was missing. The land animals had all drowned and somehow, the tree on the island knew this and once again created the animals, enough to create a population of each kind so that the humans could hunt and live off of the animals. Once the animals were all done being created, the tree, forever more, grew that special fruit and all of the new animals got the same powers that the old animals had and communicated with each other and the people.

emergence

Bailee McLachlan

H English III

Coach Morrell

The Emergence

In The Emergence, each world had a creature or being that has a different color to go along with their names which we learned in class to be the North, South, East, and West. In the first world or the Black World “Most of the inhabitants were wingless insects and crawling creatures accustomed to living in holes in the ground, among them red ants, yellow beetles, black beetles, and white locusts” (p. 499). In the second world or the Blue World there were the White Crane, Blue Heron, Yellow Loon, and Black Loon that swooped down upon the insects shortly after they entered the Blue World. In the third world or the Yellow World there were four gods of different colors; “One autumn four gods – White Body, Blue Body, Yellow Body, and Black Body – appeared before First People” (p. 499). And finally they reached the fourth world or the Black and White World, but there were no animals or beings of different colors but the people were given Coyote from the North Wind “who thinks only of being lazy and playing tricks” (p. 501). But they were also given Badger from the South Wind “who has the industry and determination the Coyote lacks” (p. 501). In the story the Coyote challenges the Water Monster to a game of chance and Coyote wins only by cheating, which in return gets the Water Monsters coat and other belongings but the Water Monster didn’t know that its two babies were in the coat and Coyote just didn’t speak about it so when the Water Monster found out about this he wanted to destroy the land and everyone on it because he was so mad that Coyote had his babies so he went to the bottom of the sea and opened up the dams which created a large flood. Once the world started to flood the faster creatures and people climbed to the mountain tops where they all helped each other survive by bringing important things to stay alive like seeds they could plant that would create food and they planted bamboo seed which in five days became a large hollowed out tree that the people carved a door into and they all lived in that tree until they figured out how to get to a fifth world where they discovered why the Water Monster was upset and gave the Water Monster its babies back.

Don’t take what isn’t yours and if you end up with something on accident give it back.

Bailee McLachlan

8/23/12

H English III

Yokut Creation Myth

            This creation myth about the development of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Mountain Range is an Earth-Diver Myth. This myth is and Earth-Diver myth because the duck in the story dives down into the ocean to get mud for the Eagle and Crow to try and create land on what they think is a tree stump, in exchange for fish for the ducks hard work. In this myth, food is important just like in all of the other myths because the birds had to give the duck fish (food), for his work on bringing up the mud to create land. “If we supplied fish for Duck, maybe he will bring up more mud than fish.”(2). This quote deals with anthropomorphism because Crow and Eagle have a conversation with each other like humans do when they talk.

Sedna

            This creation myth is a secretion myth. It’s a secretion myth because when Sedna is holding onto the kayak with her hands her father cuts her fingers three times. Each time he cuts her fingers, some type of sea animal is created and swims away. “Sedna’s father, crazed by his own fears, took his sharp fishing knife and cut off Sedna’s fingers from her nails down to the first joint. As her fingertips fell into the waves, her nails became whalebone, and her flesh became whales. They quickly swam away, very much at home in the tumultuous sea.” (p. 4). “when she grabbed onto the kayak again her father cu her fingers from her first joint to the middle joint. “As her bones and flesh fell into the waves, these pieces of her fingers became ringed seals. Like the whales, they quickly swam away, very much at home in the tumultuous sea. She grabbed onto the kayak again and her dad cut her fingers again. He cut off the last of Sedna’s fingers with one blow and with the next blow took off her thumbs. “As her bones and flesh fell into the waves, these pieces of her fingers became bearded seals, while her thumbs became walruses. Like the whales and the ringed seals, the walruses quickly swam out to sea. However, the bearded seals swam in search of the nearest shore on which to make their home.” (p. 4).

There was a lot of repetition as well as the number four to show direction. The number four has to do with the number of animals created by Sedna’s fingers being cut off and falling to the sea.

lodge boy and thrown away

Bailee McLachlan

H English III

8/27/12

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away

1.      What does this myth explain about the culture who tells it?

This myth shows that people shouldn’t underestimate the power or wise-ness of children.

 

2.      What fantastical elements are shown?

Fantastical parts of this myth are; when Lodge-Boy turns into a young boy, hours after he’s taken out of his mother’s stomach, when Lodge-Boy and his father capture Thrown-away and burn incense under his nose and he turns into a human, when the two boys brought their mother back to life, when the myth states that a man wears fiery moccasins, when a human lives deep in a lake, and when Thunder-Bird talks to the boys.

3.      Are the boys heroes?

I don’t think they are heroes because everything they were told not to do by their father, they went and did the opposite and just ended up killing the bad people. The only time they didn’t do the opposite was when they were asked by the Thunder-Bird to kill a great otter for him.

Bailee McLachlan

H English III

8/26/12

Raven and the Sources of Light

 

This myth was an accretion/conjunction myth. It could also be a division/consummation myth because Raven morphed himself into a seed so that when the chief’s daughter came to get water “no matter how she tried to drink some of the water, the seed was always in her way.”(519). Since it kept getting in her way, she finally ate it. Soon after she became pregnant and had a child. The child was Raven. The chief loved his grandson and gave him anything he wanted and since Raven knew that the people needed the sun to get food and to live, that he would work his way to getting it no matter how long it took. First he got the stars, then the moon, and then he got the sun. it took him a couple weeks before the chief forgot to close the smoke hole so that Raven could fly out and bring light to his people. He finally got the sun and flew away with it and lit up the sky in order for his people to live.

about me

hello, its bailee! Im 16 years old, i love to hangout with friends, go to north dakota and montana, and go tubing!!