The question of whether Avatar uses the white savior trope recently came up in an online discussion. As often happens in an online conversation, we were talking past one another, and I hope to get together and have a zoom/meet convo, but needed to jot down some personal thoughts about it here in the meantime.
Full disclosure: we rented Avatar from Netflix on May 19, 2010, and apparently promptly watched it because it was marked as returned on May 25, 2010**, so I am relying upon internet sources to help fill in gaps in my memory; apologies in advance if I get facts wrong.
- Jake Sully is a white man***
- He is the POV character, and the action and resolution of the movie is dependent upon his choices. The only significant choice the Na'vi get to make is: do we trust him?
- The success of the Na'vi is dependent upon Jake's prayer to Eywa being answered, in the form of
the EaglesPandoran fauna coming to the rescue
This seems like a clear-cut case of a white person depicted as rescuing non-white people who are denied agency in needing and accepting his benevolence.
The Na'vi are not completely passive, but are entirely dependent upon a white man's choices, and they ultimately follow his lead as he "comes to know their ways" and surpasses their ability to commune with the mother goddess. Even the title of the movie centers on the technology that allows Jake to masquerade as a Na'vi.
Could Avatar have avoided this trope? I think so, by re-centering the POV character on Neytiri. If we follow her, we see more of the Na'vi and what they are like before Jake arrives. We see their day-to-day lives and relationships, their concerns about the invaders, and what they plan to do about the humans. We see they have agency in determining their fate, even if they have little hope of overcoming the weaponry the humans can bring to bear. When she first encounters Jake in the forest, we are focused upon the choices *she* makes to rescue him and bring him to her clan. If she is the POV character, then we begin to consider what she's doing when Jake's not around; perhaps she discovers for herself that Jake is a human, rather than making it something Jake reveals to her. The Na'vi could then choose to try to use this knowledge to get him to reveal more about the human's strategy. Simply shifting our point of view opens countless possibilities, and this is a technique applicable to any script.
None of this means that you can't enjoy Avatar as-is or must boycott the sequels. All it means is that you should go in aware and with eyes open.
** Why, yes, I have my entire Netflix DVD rental history; doesn't everyone?
*** One might argue that Jake Sully is no longer a white man, because the avatar technology allows him to "become" a Na'vi. For the first film, I reject this argument completely and unequivocally. Jake is wearing a costume, and under that costume is someone whose entire upbringing is not Na'vi. Jake can absolutely come to sympathize with the Na'vi and be accepted as an ally. In a sequel that takes place years later, you could explore whether Jake has become Na'vi. For the first film, if the argument that Avatar does not use the white savior trope is dependent upon Jake not being a white man, then we'll just have to agree to disagree
Did you go see the sequel, Alex? I really loved it -- I feared I'd have to pee in the middle (3h12m!), and at the 2 hour mark, I absolutely had to go...but then an hour passed and I forgot. That's how good that last hour was! :)
ReplyDeleteRegarding the white savior issue -- is it because Jake is a man? If it had been Janice Sully (and Janice were white), would it still be in an issue? Because Cameron has been a pretty amazing female supporter for his whole career. Ripley in Aliens, Sarah in Terminator, Rose in Titanic, even Strange Days has Ralph Fiennes as the lead but the muscle is Angela Bassett. And if you consider Avatar not alone but as a series of films, which from what I can tell has always been Cameron's intention, then I tend to give even more of a pass. We didn't have to see things from a newbie's point of view, but it helped? Because the world was so out there. If it was from Neytiri's POV from the getgo, my fear is that it would've been harder to get into the story. Of course I'm sure it could've worked that way, but it would've doubtless be a very different film.
Considering where the story is going -- I'm guessing Kiri will become an even bigger character, maybe even central -- then Sully was nothing more than a trojan horse to get us involved. We'll see what happens -- there are 3 more on the way! Goodness. Let's hope my bladder can handle it.
"White savior" would still be an issue if it had been Janice Sully, but that would at least distinguish it from Dances with Wolves, Dune, etc. etc. The core problem is really the "savior" trope, regardless of whether the savior is white or male. If the only choices that matter are those of our "savior" POV character, this is a problem in the story. If it's necessary to keep Jake as the POV character because we need a newbie's perspective (which I disagree with), we can still fix the "savior" problem by giving the Na'vi real choices. By doing the thought experiment of shifting the POV to Neytiri, we are forced to think about what those choices could be, and then translate that into a story from the newbie POV.
ReplyDeleteI went in wanting to like the first movie, but it didn't do anything for me. I'm glad that people whose opinion I trust seem to really like the second one, so I will probably see it at some point, but maybe not until the series is complete.