Safar 1

Catherine Safar
Mr.Thompson
English 1301.31
15 November 2016
Power Vs. Beings
Power can tweak the minds of a human being into doing things a person would not
necessarily do. Power is the fundamental stuff of human relationships in the way that energy is
the fundamental concept in physics (Bertrand). Throughout the movie Avatar, which was a
popular choice in theaters in December of 2009, a constant struggle for power is presented in a
way it is not usually comprehended. It is turned into an extreme power that the characters show.
As the movie continues, they will go to any extent to achieve it, even if that means the ultimate
price of death. The pursuit of power at all costs is shown when Jake first encounters a strange
animal, Natire trains Jake to become Navi, and lastly when the humans wanted the unobtainium.
A giant creature pops out of the woods which startled Jake Sully, and his first reaction
was to shoot the animal. After this incident, Natire merely saved him by telling him not to shoot
and to put the gun down. Even though it was a difficult task to overcome the anger that was
being felt by Jake, he managed to stop for a second and think of what he was doing by actually
ending up putting the gun down and not shooting the animal. He wanted to have power over the
animal, and he had the mindset that if he shot the animal, it he would gain that power that he was
anticipating to have in the end. He was even willing to go to the extreme and kill an animal
because knowing he had power over the animal, it would create a confidence in him that was
never experienced personally before. By gaining power over someone, no matter the

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circumstance, it is explained by when you feel powerful, you kind of lose touch with other
people. You stop attending carefully to what other people think (Weingus). Natire scolded him
by saying like a baby making noise not know what to do Ignorant like a child. Those words
spoken to him did not leave his mind, as it created a sense of negative energy to him, which was
not appreciated in the least.
While continuing on with the story, Jake loses his sense to be omniscient in a way, due
to the way Natire had spoken to him. She led him into a place to take his life and ayawah, the
tree to which signified his importance. This immediately took away Jakes feeling of power and
handed it over to Natire. With having this open opportunity right in front of her, she takes full
advantage of this situation and took the power upon herself by teaching Jake to become Navi,
while he was undeniably risking his life in the process. For example, when she threw him and
ended up injuring him in the process. As the story line carries on, it becomes apparent that they
are a greater team when they conjoin their powers together. Just as Jake and Natire join as one
power, then Navi and all of the creatures of Pandora join together as one power against the
humans.
The humans, however, have this mindset that instills the pursuit of power at all costs.
This is shown though the humans willingness to kill the Navi people to get what they wanted,
which in this case was the unobtainium. The Navis ended up taking full power and control of this
tree because it is their form of a god, which they prefer to have as an idol in a way. The struggle
for power starts off in the beginning during the first battle that occurs in the movie. The Navis
were unaware and unprepared of this battle and they lost miserably. Even though it was difficult
for the humans, taking this loss was very beneficial to the Navis, and it caused them to be more
determined to overcome the humans.

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Jakes stance on power starts out immensely strong and ends up slowly decreasing as the
story unfolds and begins to unravel its meaning. This is evident by his form of confidence at the
beginning of the movie, as it ends up fading when Natire takes his power away. How Natire uses
the full potential of his power, he ends up collaborating well with others to succeed, and becomes
extremely successful at it.

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Works cited
"How Power Affects the Brain." How Power Affects the Brain | The Psychologist. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Weingus, Leigh. "Power Has A Scary Effect On The Brain, According To Science." The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.