Naytiri teaches Jake about The People

One scene in Avatar that I thought was very powerful was when Jake is learning the ways of The People from Neytiri. This part of the movie is a sequence of short scenes that show Neytiri teaching Jake about language, climbing, hunting, and the Avatar way of life. These scenes are important because they represent a transition in the way the audience views the Avatar people.

When we first meet Neytiri, she appears very savage. She is able to kill many animals and then she hisses at them as they run away. Also, in our first glimpse of the rest of the Avatar clan, they appear hostile and unwelcoming. However, in the scenes where Neytiri starts to teach Jake the ways of The People, the audience sees the Avatar people in a more favorable light. As Jake and Neytiri get to know each other in these scenes and start to build a connection, the audience also builds a connection with the Avatar people.

Not only do we start to see the Avatar people as friendly, but also we see them as very wise. We learn about the spirituality of The People, and about Eywa and the bond of energy between all living things. We see how The People are connected with the land and all the animals, and they act with kindness.

Toward the end of the teaching scenes, Jake mercifully kills an animal and then recites prayers over it, just like Neytiri did earlier in the movie. However, this prayer scene has subtitles that tell us what Jake is saying. Earlier, when Neytiri was saying the prayers over another dead animal, we only heard the Pandora language, without subtitles. This had the affect of making Neytiri appear savage, and the prayer seems very mysterious. When Jake recites the prayer with subtitles, the audience is able to full understand the prayer and thus connect with it. An act that at first seems strange and savage now appears kind and very spiritual. Also, at this point Neytiri says to Jake that “You are ready.” This marks the point at which Neytiri accepts Jake, and he is able to start proving himself to The People. Directly after this scene, Jake goes to capture his first flying raptor, and becomes a warrior.

The themes in this scene are common to many stories about indigenous people versus foreign settlers. Like the settlers who came to America to colonize and spread Christianity, the humans in the Avatar movie are trying to take control of Pandora, assuming they know best. This is juxtaposed with the wisdom of the Avatar people, which is similar in many ways to the spirituality and wisdom of the Native American peoples. In this scene Neytiri is teaching Jake, rather than Jake teaching Neytiri. The foreigner is able to learn valuable lessons from the native. This is similar to the idea of hegemony, in which the ideas of a powerful group become the ideas of the masses. The movie begins from the point of view of the humans, and since the audience is also human, we identify with this group and share their point of view. However, once we are exposed to the ideas of the Avatars, the audience’s point of view shifts and we associate more with the ideas of the The People. Thus, this scene represents a very interesting shift in perspective, in which the audience starts to associate less with the human characters, and more with the tall, blue Avatar characters.