A modernist society is defined to be a transition from traditional system of society to present world of twenty first century society. Modernist society is characterized by people living in a developed manner, with more civilized advancements. Avatar is a film by James Cameroon that has been modified to depict the characters of two different worlds, the real human being in the planet and aliens in this case Na’vis. Humans in the planet discovered another plant called Pandora where the aliens reside. RDA corporation decided to relocate the aliens because they wanted to mine unobtanium, but the aliens could not accept to be evacuated because they have a strong bond with the land they live.RDA corporation introduces Jake sully who is disabled and modified him to fit to the Na’vis word so that he could communicate with both the human being and the aliens.
Post modernist community is defined to be a system of community that integrates the characteristics of modernism and traditional system of culture. Post modernism is characterized by creativity and the aim of continuation from modernity whereby, modern developments are taken into higher level of creativity and it goes to an extend of developing imitations of human creatures. In the film of avatar Pandora world of Na’vis is a postmodern society because they live in a world that is full of creativity. First it is depicted by the surrounding nature of Pandora world where there is a strong bond between the living creatures, the nature and the Na’vis community.
The film director portrayed Pandora planet to be a world of fantasy where normal human being could wish to compare themselves with the aliens. The Na’vis are very different from human beings, and it is portrayed by their alignment with the living creatures of Pandora planet. When Jake sully tried to defend himself from attacking wolves, he was condemned by Neytiri the daughter of the Na’vis leader. The Na’vis have an opportunity to fly with the animals with wings and this is something that human beings cannot do unless by the use of planes. The world of Pandora is free of air, they can breath and also they live under trees as portrayed by the gathering of Na’vis community under a large tree. The Na’vis use swords as their weapons and they do not have an idea of how the human world looks like. They have shrines where they worship their gods and they have a direct connection with their gods, this is portrayed by how they come together and link together when seeking intervention with their god.
The world of Pandora has gone beyond science fiction through creativity and therefore a characteristic of postmodern society has been used in this film. The film displays this world as a place where human being would wish to live. It is surrounded by green nature with streams and plants of different types. The community itself is a unified community whereby they are bonded together and they defend each other. They have soldiers who guard their territories and they don’t kill animals for food but they feed on fruits. They sleep in leaves that are modified in a manner that they curl whenever one is inside. They have a means of communication whereby the leader is the decision maker in the community. Whenever they encounter an enemy, they take him to the leader and from there decision on how to deal with the enemy is communicated.
Compare and contrast the modernist technology versus postmodernist technology as depicted in avatar.
The similarities of modernist technology and postmodernist technology are depicted by the examples of the use of technology by colonel Quaritch and also the use of creativity by Jake sully in his Na’vis avatar form. Both forms of technology use creativity whereby colonel uses robots and computerized machines to coordinate soldiers in the process of evacuation. While Jake sully uses animal creatures to attack their enemies and physical features as the hiding places from human attack. At the end of the attacks, it shows how the aliens adopted the use of technology through the help of jack sully.
For the differences between colonel modernist society and Jake sully postmodern society, there are a lot of difference and lies with three aspects which are; individualism, reductivism and aggressive control through instrumental science and technology. Colonel shows some characteristics of individualism whereby he wants to take full control of Pandora planet by evacuating the Na’vis community without being concerned on their shelter. Jake sully on the other hand upon experiencing the world of Na’vis and their hospitality changed his mission to betray them and sought to fight for them.
Reductivism is also portrayed by colonel whereby he does not want to be engaged in rational thinking. His aim is to destroy the planet and continue with mining activity. A rational thinker would first evaluate the consequences of destructing nature and the future impacts. Jake sully upon realization on the importance of being in a world full of natural resources and physical features with an attached bond between aliens and animal creatures, he decides to fight for the maintenance of the planet.
There is a depiction of aggressive control through instrumental science and technology where colonel tries to take control over Pandora with the use of computerized machines like robots and weapons. He tries to command Jake to help him to study the aliens so that it could be easier to conquer them. This is shown when Jake is placed in an incubator like machine that alters his normal human body and senses and modifies him to be an alien. On the other hand the film director uses animal creatures to help the aliens in their struggle against human attack; there is use of creativity and animation in Na’vis world more than the world of colonel where technology takes control. The film portrayed in avatar depicts the capability of human to inject intelligence of a human being into a biologically made body. It shows how technology has been used to emulate God and therefore human beings can create things that they wish through the aid of technology.
