Avatar, Modern day Transcendentalist

Avatar: The Ultimate Transcendentalists 

                                     

Thesis: Transcendentalism in the movie Avatar, is a perfect example of "modern day" transcendentalism, as it relates to the ideals of self- reliance. 

In the 2009 film Avatar, a planet called Pandora, contains a precious mineral which is very useful to humans, the dilemma is the Na'vi (native people) live on top of the most of that mineral. Jake Sully is sent in to get the Navi to trust him. In one of the first scenes where Jake Sully interacts with one of the Navi, she rejects him first off, but Eywa: their deity sends her seeds to Jake Sully.

Jake is not appreciative of this, for he does not understand what the seeds are, and what they represent. " The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried" ( Emerson, 184). This quote relates to what Jake Sully is doing because he will not understand what this world can bring him without experience, all that he is experiencing is new to him, but eventually it will make sense to him.

When Jake Sully rebels against his own race he is listening to what his heart tells him is right. He and Naytri were in the Tree of Souls together, when they awoke to destruction, he gets a large rock and beats the cameras of the plows off, so those who are destroying cannot continue. When Jake Sully chooses to do this he picks the Na'vi people over his own, because he knows its the right thing to do. " Trust thyself:every heart vibrates to that iron string" (Emerson, 184). In this quote it explains how Jake Sully is listening to what his intuition says, and everyone has that within them, most of the humans in the movie are corrupted by societies ways so they cannot hear that vibration. 

. As the Na'vi people send the humans back to their own world those whom have been selected to stay, and those who have fought for their world feel relieved. They know they can be safe for the time being because of the work they have put in to get there." A man is relieved and gay when he has put his work and done his best" (Emerson, 183). In this quote it relates to Avatar because the people have put in their all, and they have gotten results, that they wanted.