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A forum for Blog Community #5 of CSCL 1001 (Introduction to Cultural Studies: Rhetoric, Power, Desire; University of Minnesota, Fall 2011) -- and interested guests.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

New Legs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QEFrI-D_3c

The scene that I decided to analyze from Avatar is a part early in the movie where Jake is first “transferred” into his avatar body. Jake lies in the machine and is told to just relax and close his eyes and the next thing he knows he is in this giant blue body and, most amazingly, he has working legs. Although Jake is supposed to just stay relaxed, he is far too excited. He stands up, works his way outside, and begins to run.

Throughout high school I was in both cross country and track. Being able to walk or run was definitely something I just took for granted. In the movie, Jake is a paraplegic, which we assume to have happened during his prior career in the military, and is confined to a wheelchair. During this scene in the movie, we see how much Jake loves being able to walk and run again. I am hardly even able understand how amazing it would be to walk and run again after becoming disabled. At this point in time, there are few people at all that could probably understand this feeling. However, in the futuristic time that this movie is set at, they have a procedure capable of giving Jake his legs back and the only thing preventing this is that it seems the operation is too expensive for him to afford. This draws even more pity to Jake’s situation as he actually could be healed, but is just financially unable to make it happen.

Being able to walk or run is something I believe most people take for granted in our society. It is also something I believe will continue to be taken for granted as the reverse is very hard to wrap your mind around unless something extremely tragic happens. This is truly a very touching scene where, if I could relate more to it, would probably leave me in tears.

1 comment:

  1. I also thought this was interesting – and almost did my blog post on it – everyone expected Jake to be just like his brother – responsible, understanding, and careful with his avatar. But for Jake, not having been through all the training his brother had been through, he was so excited for his new legs and freedom, he just wanted to take advantage of it in every way possible. This is just another example of how people think that twins are the same, they can just take each other’s place. But that’s not true. Obviously.

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