Your Proposal is Acceptable 1

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

Walking Again

The post that I would like to talk about is in the beginning when Jake "gets his legs back." This is the first time that Jake is in his avatar body, and this is where he gets up and starts to run out of the hospital. It starts with Jake getting into the machine that transfers him into his avatar body, and when he comes to he is his avatar. As Jake starts to move around in his avatar body, he realizes that he has his legs back, and in realizing this he abruptly gets up and begins to run, with the concern of the caretakers around him.
This piece of the movie tried to make us feel as if Jake was a whole person again. Jake, a paraplegic for multiple years, is free again, and it is as if Jake is becoming one of us. Some of the important signifiers of the scene that are being portrayed are that Jake can actually walk again. This part of the movie takes a large step into putting us into a position for the rest of the film that we can relate to Jake. As Jake has overcome one of his major obstacles, everyone else in the real world has as well.
These message that this scene is portraying is that Jake is becoming both more human and more "Matakya." As he becomes more of both, he is becoming that which we would like to become. It leads us to believe that we can become something else, and that as we become something else, we can lead two lives. This part of the movie set forth beliefs that are followed through between the entire movie. This led many people to believe that they could become much more then they currently are, and when the move ended many people were left with depression. This depression could have been started from this scene.

1 comment:

  1. I found the clip you decided to post about thought provoking and your analyses very interesting. As I read over what you had written, I began to wonder about the body politics that are present in this scene. I found the fact that Jake Sully felt "whole" again only after he regained the use of his legs fascinating. It seems to me that by choosing to have Jake react that way, James Cameron is making the argument that people aren't completely human unless they have completely control of their bodies. I find this interesting because this seems to support the incorrect idea that people with physical disabilities aren't wholly human.

    ReplyDelete