Reaction to Washington Post

Reaction to Washington Post

            I agree and disagree with many on the statements said in this article. Yes, Avatar is a very political movie based on Native American culture and the white man being the ultimate hero, but I believe that many people are looking too hard into the movie and trying to find something to react about. My reactions to this paper are looked at in many ways and with an open mind to understand why the people quoted who were quoted in this article where so closed minded. In many Native American myths the white man invades the Native Americans land and in the end takes it over, but a lot of the time the Native Americans didn’t even fight for their land.

Within article a the following was said, “Annalee Newitz, writing last week on her science blog io9, criticized "Avatar" for depicting yet another white man as a hero in the liberation struggles of oppressed people of color” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203276.html). I agree that the white man was a hero in this movie but I disagree that colored people specifically have to be black. Most people want to automatically assume that the oppressed people in a movie resemble black people, when in actuality there are many other races that are oppressed than just the blacks.

Newitz stated, "Speaking as a white person . . . I'd like to watch some movies about people of color . . . from the perspective of that group, without injecting a random white . . . character to explain everything to me"(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203276.html), this quote is a very biased opinion and Newitz is not looking at both sides of the white man and colored people. I disagree with Newitz statement because I believe that it is important to see a movie with both a white man and colored man’s point of view, which Avatar did. Jake Sully played a very important role in Avatar and is not a, “random white…character” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203276.html), which explains everything according to Newitz. Jake is a white man who was secretly trying to make his way to the top of the chain in Pandora and on his way to do so he realized that he liked being a colored man and knew that the army was wrong with wanting to destroy their land for unuptanium that’s worth a kilo on earth.

Avatar was very political in many ways. It brought up many topics such as the white man versus the colored man and it is used to compare how other countries forced the Native Americans out of their homes just to gain more land and resources. Although many people in this article only looked at the bad point of view of the white man there are many other sides to be looked at.

Sedna

Sedna

            Sedna is a secretion myth becase later in the story she loses her fingers and they become creatures of the sea. Sedna was a daughter of an Inuit man, who was very beautiful, and her father wanted her to be married. Sedna said not to every man her father offered her tough. Bird-man did not like the birds where he lived so he decided he wanted a human wife and set course to Sedna’s homeland. Sedna couldn’t resist Bird-man and the song and promises he gave her. They soon married and Senda found out that all the promises weren’t real and it was a way to win her over. Sedna’s father wanted to visit the newlyweds and see how they were doing. When he arrived he saw that none of the promise were fulfilled as Bird-man had sang in his song, and as soon has Bird-man came home, Sedna’s father killed him for being untruthful and not satisfying his daughter’s needs. The seabirds soon noticed that their friend was killed and they set out to find Sedna and return the favor. Since the birds only wanted Sedna, her father threw her out of the kayak hoping that they wouldn’t kill him too. When Sedna grabbed on to the boat, with dear life, her father cut off her fingers from the first joint and to the middle joint. Her fingernails became whalebones and her flesh became whales as they hit the water. On her next hand grabbing onto the kayak her father cut off her first joint to the middle finger. Once again her bones and flesh changed as it hit the water, but this time they became ringed seals. Her father continued to cut off the rest of her fingers and as they hit the water her fingers became ground-seals and her thumb became walruses. The birds knew Senda wouldn’t live through that and so they left. Sedna got revenge on her father in the night by letting her huskies eat upon the hands and feet of her father. The earth rumbled so bad that they all fell to the bottom of the sea where Sedna is in charge of the living and dead.

Chelan Creation Story

Chelan Creation Story

           

 

            The Chelan Creation Story is a deus faber myth. There is only one God/creator in this story. First the Creator created the animals and the birds and gave them all names. After he had to leave but would return to create humans to be in charge of the animals and the birds. When the Creator returned some animals and birds did not like their names and demanded they’d be changed, but the Creator said, “No” and did not make the humans because they disobeyed him. In the place of human beings the creator made water and snow to wash away the soil the animals and the birds brought to him. The great chief made a beaver so that it will someday be made into a human by the creatures as long as they are good. The great chief put coyote in charge of the creatures since someday they all will become bad and eat each other. The Creator still had all the power but he gave only a little to Coyote. Coyote was not good and didn’t follow the rules so he was not the first to make a human being. Out of the four wolf brothers, the Creator put the youngest wolf brother in charge and the power to take beaver from the water. The oldest wolf brother and the youngest wolf brother went out one night to kill the beaver that the Creator had made and to turn it into human. Youngest brother had killed the big beaver and could only cut it into eleven pieces, when it was to be split into twelve pieces. Each eleven pieces became a new tribe. The last tribe was made from the blood of the beaver.

The Emergence

The Emergence

“The Emergence” used grouping of four a lot, which represent north, south, east, and west.  There were four worlds in the myth, the first, second, third, and fourth world. The bugs first started without wings but when they need to get into the second world they tied wings to their backs and fly threw a crack into the second world (499). Each world got better, with more food, sunshine, people, and land (499-501). Four colors, black, yellow, blue, and white, were also repeated throughout the story but stood for something different each time. For example, the first world was the black world, the second world was the blue world, the third world was the yellow world, and lastly the fourth world was white (499-500). Each world improved because the growth of the insects increased as they stayed in each world for a period of time. Black, blue, yellow, and white also stood for birds and bodies (499).

Yokut

Yokut

            The myth Yokut is an earth-diver myth. Yokut is an earth-diver myth because Eagle and Crow were unable to dive to the sea and get mud but the Duck was able to. In exchange for getting mud for Eagle and Crow to make more land, they gave Duck fish to eat. The more fish they paid Duck in the more mud he brought up from the sea. Their new land was growing very fast and they built two-halves of the new world with just the three of them. Since Eagle’s half was very much taller than Crows half, many say that Eagle’s land became Sierra Nevada Mountains. Crows half was known as the Coast Mountain Range.

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away

            Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away isn’t a specific myth but it does have a lot of qualities that other myths do too. The parents often told Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away not to do something and they disobeyed. In most cases the kids learn a lesson from it but Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away never listened and always came out on top defeating the monster there dad told them not to go to. Thrown-Away was turned into a human by Lodge-Boy and his father after Lodge-Boy told his father he had a new friend. In this myth Lodge-Boy got his way and never got in trouble, whereas in other myths something terrible happens when you disobey your father. Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away were the heroes in this myth, killing every creature that threatened to hurt someone.

Caught by a Hair-String

Caught by a Hair-String

            Caught by a Hair-string is very repetitive and tells the same story over and over but for a different person or thing each time. The old lady gave the lazy and unattractive-looking young man a beaded hair-string to put around the woman he wants to marry as she also did with the chief’s son later on in the story. The lazy and unattractive-looking young man stayed true to his new brother, the chief’s son, and helped him find a way to marry the eldest of the two beautiful shy daughters. The lazy and unattractive-looking young man also stayed true to his wife and did what he could for her whether it is becoming the fastest runner, to escape danger, or the best hunter, to bring home more food to feed their family.