Jojo Deep - Capstone Presentation

4/10/2019 7:00 PM to 4/10/2019 8:00 PM

The Illusion of Disconnectedness: A Post-Colonial Literary Analysis of Avatar: The Last Airbender

Within a shared nation, language, or history, ethnic groups are a strong force for togetherness and societal empowerment. Throughout history, differences among ethnicities and notions of superiority have led to the creation of imperialistic mindsets, and much of the justification for those imperialisms has been based on misguided notions of race. Race is the single biological factor which contributes to the development of ethnic groups; however, it can be shown that race is a meaningless way to distinguish people as it tells nothing of the person apart from skin and hair. In the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, race plays no role. Instead, the inherent attribute which defines ethnicities is the ability for some individuals to bend, that is controlling an element, either earth, air, fire, or water, using simply their mind and body. Four nations and, hence, four main ethnic groups developed around the cultures, histories, and abilities of the benders within them. Analysis of the familiar imperialistic dynamic is applied to Avatar. We find that, in the end, despite the very real differences between individuals and ethnicities within the show, violent imperialist prejudices are both unnecessary and avoidable. If our definitions of ethnicity in the real world are weaker than those in Avatar: The Last Airbender, then surely our quibbles, too, are unnecessary and avoidable.

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