Royal University of Phnom Penh Institute of Foreign Languages Department of English

GS 302 Lecturer: SSD Academic Year: 2012-2013

Reflection Writing
Avatar, by Jame Cameron
Avatar, by Jame Cameron, shows about the peaceful life and beautiful nature in Pandora.This movie significantly reflects four main issues in our society: environment, culture, science and technology, and war and violence. To begin with, Avatar, which is science fiction, has been displayed as environmental advocacy. The Navi believed that everything in nature has spirit, and it all connected with one another as well as human. Similar to ecosystem in the environment, once a particular kind of species is affected, it does not mean that it will only influent that kind but will probably cause harm to other species or may destroy the whole biodiversity in that area since they depend upon one another. Also, if the ecosystem in a specific location is being destroyed, that will bring danger to human as well because we are closely connected to the environment where we live. Therefore, we have to help to prevent any actions that will cause hazard to our nature. In addition, our world used to be rich in its natural resources such as unobtanium, valuable trees, various kinds of wildlife, and so on as in Pandora. Furthermore, Avatar also contributes a number of moral messages related to culture in our society. It shows about the misunderstanding of human toward Navis culture. As stated in the movie, Parker and Quaritch both had ethnocentrism. They seemed not to understand about the culture of Navi and they tried to do their jobs based on own interest. They judged Navis culture as inferior to theirs. Moreover, they acted as if they strongly discriminate Navi people whose ways of life differ from their own. Thus, it extremely reflects in our society that we, human being, should practice cultural relativism. Although there tend to be some difficulties, we at least should try to understand and appreciate others culture without having a negative evaluation of their culture Thirdly, Avatar involves a lot in both science and technology. In the story, Mrs. Grace was a scientist who spent her whole life in studying new things in the world. Reflecting to real society, a great number of scientists are conducting research right now in order to get more knowledge about nature and human. Regarding to technology, Avatar showed clearly of the advancement of usable things including aircrafts, helicopters, GPRS system, which allowed Quaritch, Grace, Jake, and a group of soldiers fly into the Pandora.

A3.4 Vanna Kaneka, Mao Monika, Kao Yiyean, Heng Kimchheng

Royal University of Phnom Penh Institute of Foreign Languages Department of English

GS 302 Lecturer: SSD Academic Year: 2012-2013

Last but not least, science and modern technology lead to the occurrence of war and violence. As depicting in the story, Parker and Quaritch tried to show off their weapon in order to express how powerful they are. In addition, they used their power to exploit Navi territory for their own business. This action does not only cause tragedy to Navi people but also destroy themselves, Parker and Quaritch. After having a great fighting, there were Navi people and Quaritch people dead bodies spread all everywhere in Pandora. All in all, Avatar connects to Global Studies 301 and 302 by the four main points above: environment, culture, science and technology, and war and violence.If everything in Pandora is vanished, the culture of Native Navi also disappears. Therefore, being a nation, each country should not attack other countries; they must strengthen their relationship more and more.

A3.4 Vanna Kaneka, Mao Monika, Kao Yiyean, Heng Kimchheng