Déjá Vu

Déjá Vu is defined as a feeling of having already experienced the present situation, a tedious familiarity. This was a feeling I had multiple times throughout Spring quarter.

Not many people know this but this is my second year taking Humanities core. From humility, I tried to keep that information to myself but it was really hard because I was only retaking the course because I didn’t take the blog posts seriously. Alas, here I am writing a blog post. I have definitely learned from my mistakes but I have also learned so much about this course in its entirety.

What I have learned from Humanities Core is that this class is a very interesting course but in the grand scheme of things it is very subjective. The course subject is interesting and the professors who lecture on the subjects they studied are very passionate and immerse the students in the topics that are discussed but the students do not care about the information.

On to the Writer’s Handbook… Don’t even get me started with the Writer’s Handbook… When I first took Hum Core, the Writer’s Handbook was online and it was free. I found out this year that the students were required to buy the Handbook from The Hill for about twenty dollars. That is ridiculous and it just shows that the University doesn’t care about education but care more about capital gain.

The most complex portion of the course is the research paper. Don’t get me wrong, learning how to write a research paper is a vital skill that all college students need to survive the next three years of college but the way that the class goes about it is uninteresting and tedious. Demanding the use of scholarly texts is the most trivial part because that requirement hinders students from writing about topics that have very little to no research done on it before. Thus, forcing the students to either change the topic they are writing about or to take the risk and worry about their final grade.

It has been a struggle retaking the course and adapting to the changes that have been made. It has also been super frustrating retaking this class because it is the exact information I learned last year so I haven’t learned new information from this class, except how to be a better writer. Retaking this course has been an obstacle that was my obstacle alone and I learned that if you have the mindset to better yourself and to learn to become a versatile student, use whatever menial information you learn throughout the quarter in every writing you do because it will help you hone your skills as a writer.

Everything I have learned from this course, I will hopefully use in my future writings as I aspire to conquer the journalistic and fashion empire of modern society.

Remember that every aspect of your life is either an empire or a ruin from an empire. Learn to survive and learn from your mistakes because you can only advance from where you are at this exact moment.

Wait ‘Till He Sees You; Fashion Over Warfare

Pocahontas is an epic musical romance film produced by Disney that follows the life of a Native American woman named Pocahontas and her encounters with John Smith and the Jamestown settlers. Pocahontas and John Smith develop a relationship with one another but they are constantly torn apart. While trying to follow her destiny, Pocahontas faces many hardships especially when dealing with English etiquette and apparel as she is seen as uncivilized due to her apparel.

When John Smith returns to England in the 1998 sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, he is tried as an enemy to the throne for preventing the gold hunt in Jamestown and mysteriously dies at the hand of Governor Ratcliffe (the antagonist of the first film). Ratcliff goes to King James of England and tries to convince the throne to go to war with the Powhatan nation. Chief Powhatan refuses to leave his people behind to travel to England for negotiations; Pocahontas goes in her father’s place and is accompanied by the young diplomat John Rolfe and her bodyguard Uttamatomakkin (Uti). In England, Rolfe meets with King James and Queen Anne to convince the throne to meet Pocahontas for negotiations to prevent the war. The King refuses to meet with Pocahontas despite Rolfe’s pleas. Instead, per Ratcliffe’s suggestions, Rolfe is to bring Ratcliffe and Pocahontas to a ball and promises that if Pocahontas impresses him by acting “civilized”, he will prevent the armada from sailing to Jamestown, but if she does not, he will declare war. With knowledge that Ratcliffe can easily manipulate the King, Rolfe and his maid, Mrs. Jenkins, educate Pocahontas in the ways of British etiquette to prepare her for the ball. By doing so, Mrs. Jenkins tries to take away Pocahontas’ necklace that her mother had made and adorns her in a corset and crinoline (a stiffened or structured petticoat designed to hold out a woman’s skirt). She covers Pocahontas’ face in white powder and gives her an updo hairstyle similar to that of Marie Antoinette. When this scene ensues in this film, a song titled “Wait ‘Till He Sees You” begins and the lyrics suggest that Pocahontas is only considered a civilized lady when she is wearing a dress and walking in heels.

Mrs. Jenkins begins the song with the lyrics, “You’ve got me, dear, to see you’re a lady tonight…” This lyric insinuates that Pocahontas is not a lady and she could never be one without the help of Mrs. Jenkins, an English woman. She also sings, “And wait ‘till he sees you after you’re dressed. I think the king will be very impressed. Wait till he sees you walking with ease. He’ll be so pleased you came down from the trees.” This line states that Pocahontas doesn’t know how to walk because she climbs and swings from trees like a monkey. This line in the song is important because it portrays Pocahontas similar to that of an animal. Mrs. Jenkins ends her verse by singing, “After he sees you in your new clothes, A lady of grace from your head to your toe. Pretty and pink as the roses he grows, who knows, who knows…”  Once again, the lyrics state that Pocahontas is only a lady when she is adorned in English style clothing. They try to change her to look like a rose that the King grows, making her a product of the king and of England. This is similar to how Europeans saw Native Americans as entities of themselves and the natives were only Christian or civilized if they wore the proper clothing.

Throughout the film, no matter what Pocahontas is wearing, men and some women are staring at her. Even in this movie made for children, Pocahontas and the other native women and men are sexualized and seen as spectacles. The king will only negotiate with her if she is “civilized” but she does not talk to the king, only impresses him with her dress and her dance moves. When she does voice her opinion, the king shuns her for it which shows themes of sexism and discrimination within this era where women are belittled. Pocahontas as well as her bodyguard, Uti, are objects of ethnographic voyeurism. Women fawn over Uti and are intrigued by his mysteriousness and strength. He and Pocahontas are both sexualized and are forced to change their appearance to meet the need of the English empire. In the end, fashion does play a role in society where it determines you; sex, class and worth.

A Day in the Life of Bri

Coming to UCI as a incoming freshman, I felt like I could tackle anything that was in front of me. After three quarters of overcommitting myself and being taken advantage of, I realized that I couldn’t tackle everything. Fall quarter was my prime quarter. I passed all of my classes, had good time management skills, joined a sorority and managed to have time for a social life. I was thriving!

Winter quarter was another story, I took on more responsibilities within my sorority, took on more credits and applied for multiple jobs. I thought I would remain resilient and continue to have the same motivation I had in Fall quarter. Boy, was I wrong. Working and taking twenty units was not an easy feat that I was able to overcome. I definitely struggled and my GPA dropped but I continued to push myself. Over winter break, I reassured myself that this was just a bad quarter and spring quarter was going to be even better. Well if you weren’t able to guess this, I was wrong this time as well. Spring quarter has been the worst quarter of the year.

There were definitely many positives that came this quarter but all of the positive aspects of my life were clouded by the negative aspects. This quarter, I was juggling an internship, a job, my boyfriend, my sorority, my friends and my classes. I overcommitted myself and had to live everyday by my planner that was filled to the brim with appointments, dates and assignments that all had to be completed. I took on three positions within my sorority and found time to hangout with my long distance boyfriend. Little by little, day by day I began to lose it. I lost all the motivation I had in fall quarter and I felt like an awful person. I broke up with my boyfriend of three years, I lost my best friend and I lost my grandpa to cancer caused by Agent Orange.

I was ecstatic for this quarter of Hum Core because I wasn’t interested in the topics from winter quarter but the topics of this quarter (Vietnam and the Philippines) hit very close to home for me since my grandfather fought in Vietnam and my father is Filipino. Since fall quarter I had planned on writing about my great-grandmother’s experiences in the Japanese Internment camp, Camp Rohwer for the research paper. I had everything planned out but yet again to my own avail, I was met with disappointment. I had no clue what to write about and began to question whether I was in the right major (literary journalism). I began to analyze my writings and realized that the papers I wrote last minute were sub-par at best. I had multiple existential crisis where I questioned what my purpose in life was and what I planned to do if being a journalist would fall through the cracks and just be another American dream.

I tried my best at keeping up with Hum Core, most days I failed but everyday I tried to prove that I was genuinely interested in the material. Although I turned in many of the assignments late, I still did them but I realized that I wasn’t being the best version of myself. Every quarter I have thoroughly enjoyed Hum Core but this quarter was especially difficult since we had to write an oral history report and a research paper at the same time. I do not know who thought that that was a good idea but they were wrong. Writing that research paper was one of the most difficult tasks I have done this year. Although this quarter was the worst quarter of my college career thus far, I am sad that Hum Core is ending because I have made so many friends, learned so many valuable lessons and learned to push boundaries. I am forever grateful that I was able to take Hum Core and to learn from the best instructors. but alas, like all great things, this must come to an end.

 

“Why I Love a Country That Betrayed Me”

George Hosato Takei is an American actor, director, author and activist of Japanese descent. Takei is best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek series. He is a proponent of LGBT rights and is active in state and local politics. He has been awarded and recognized for his work on human rights and Japan-United States relations as well as his work with the Japanese American National Museum.

In June of 2014, George Takei attended and spoke at  a private Ted Talk event in Kyoto, Japan. In his TED Talk, Why I love a country that betrayed me, Takei recalls how shortly after his fifth birthday, his parents woke him and his siblings up early one morning. With his baby sisters in one hand and huge duffle bags in the other, Takei looks to his audience, his voice cracks and he retells the story of his time in the internment camp.

Takei recounts his time at the Anita horse racetracks and at Camp Rohwer in Arkansas (the two same camps my great-grandmother was held in). He states that the abnormality of those times became normality. For him and his siblings, it was normal to line up three times a day to eat in a noisy mess hall and to shower in a large room with a plethora of men next to them. He remembers the barbed-wire fences and how when he would look up he would see a soldier in a tower with a machine gun pointed at him. After three years of being in an internment camp, his family was given a one-way ticket to anywhere in the US. His parents decide to return to their home in sunny Los Angeles, California. Once in Los Angeles, the Takei family is met with discrimination and insults received by people they once considered friends. The Takei family lost everything, they had no one to turn to but themselves. With little to no property, the Takei family resided in Skid Row, the lowest part of the city where their neighbors were drug addicts, and drunkards. He recalls to a time when he and his sister were playing outside and a drunk man pukes in front of them. After witnessing this strange man throw up, his sister turns to their parents and asks,”Mommy, why can’t we go back home?” To George and his sister, home is Camp Rohwer where they were confined by fences but felt the most comfortable.

In the middle of his Ted Talk, Takei digresses from his personal past and talks about his teen years where he questioned what his childhood was like. He looked to school books and found nothing. But once he found the courage to ask his father about their past, Takei was appalled at what he learned. George Takei looks up to his father and quotes his father on Democracy. Young Takei always questioned how his father was able to remain loyal to a country that betrayed them. His father looks to him and says, “Democracy stays strong in those who are good”. Takei then continues to discuss how it bewildered him that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, young Japanese-American men and women ran to drafting stations to join the fight that was to be WWII. These young men and women were turned away and were painted as the enemy based off of their race. In the middle of the war, soldiers went to the camps to draft for the war. These Japanese-American citizens who were rejected and imprisoned were still willing to join the war. He argues that the time of internment was the time when Democracy failed because there was no such thing as due process for those of Japanese descent.

After years of studying his past, George Takei wrote the musical Allegiance alongside composer Jay Kuo and writer Lorenzo Thione, based on his family’s experience of spending four years in an internment camp in Arkansas. With song — and, yes, a little dance — the musical tells the story of two siblings, one desperate to prove his patriotism to the United States and one hostile to the country holding the family in a camp. The musical premiered at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego in late 2012, and its producers are hoping it will make its Broadway debut by 2015.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor a 2001 action film directed by Michael Bay tells the story of two soldiers and their time preparing for World War II. This sweeping drama based on real historical events follows American boyhood friends Rafe Mccawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) as the enter World War II as pilots. Rafe is so eager to join the war, he lies to his family and friends and enlists with England’s Royal Air Force. On the Homefront, his girlfriend (and medic) Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) finds comfort in the arms of Danny when Rafe is assumed dead after bombing into the Pacific Ocean. The three of them reunite in Hawaii just before Imperial Japans attack Pearl Harbor. The film gives interesting perspectives people had on the World War and Japanese people. (Don’t read ahead because of spoilers).

In the beginning of the movie, it shows a young Rafe and a young Danny playing in a field pretending to be pilots and calling the Japanese “the damn japs” and talk about murdering Japanese at the age of twelve. This scene in the movie shows that with Americans there was a stigma that all Japanese people were evil and that young boys were eager to fight. This scene really scared me because it proved the notion that racism is learned by children through society and their familial ties.

Throughout the movie, Imperial Japan is portrayed as evil and cunning. The movie is somewhat biased and it makes the audience feel more for the Americans than the Japanese. The second part of the movie starts after FDR makes an announcement to imprison all Japanese and people of Japanese Descent. This part of the film is about Rafe and Danny being promoted to Captains and planning to bomb Tokyo. When returning to California before leaving for Tokyo, Evelyn tells Rafe that she is going to stay with Danny because she is pregnant with his child. When flying to Japan, Danny and Rafe try to bomb Tokyo but their planes are targeted. Danny’s plane crashes onto the beach and is dying. Rafe looks to Danny and says,”You can’t die, you are going to be a father.” Danny then looks to Rafe and says,”No you are going to be a father,” Then he dies!!!! This part of the movie makes me really mad because it is very dramatic and it makes you feel for the characters but there is never a discussion in the movie about how Japanese families lost family members or any sympathetic moments for the audience to feel for the innocent Japanese civilians.

This movie is so long but so good and I can honestly never make it to the second part but it is a good source because it is mostly historically accurate and gives an interesting perspective on soldiers and medics thoughts on events prior to World War II.

East India Trading Company

The East India Trading Company was a joint-stock company and megacorporation for pursuing and monopolizing trade with the East Indies and the Caribbean. The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium (opium was banned in England). The Company was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600. Shares of the Company were owned by wealthy merchants and aristocrats. The government owned no shares and had only indirect control. The Company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. During the 18th and 19th century the East India Company initially came to India as traders but they realized that more money can be made through land revenue (taxes) than trade alone. Once the company consolidated land, they created alliances or conquested Princely (native) states. The East India Trading Company even created their own local armies called Sepoys.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is a 2006 American fantasy swashbuckler film  and the second installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, following The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). The film starts with the wedding of William Turner and Elizabeth Swann is interrupted by Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company, who has arrest warrants for the couple as well as for Commodore James Norrington , for allowing Captain Jack Sparrow to escape execution. Lord Cutler Beckett manipulated William Turner and Elizabeth Swann to both take Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass to lead the company to what they want most. The company expanded so much and became so powerful that any threat posed to it was a threat to Great Britain itself.

Piracy was one of the biggest problems for the company. The company was first based in London. Through one of its employees, Cutler Beckett , it was known to have condoned the transport of Slaves from Africa to the Caribbean. However, Jack Sparrow, captain of the Wicked Wench, refused to carry out this sinful task, and Beckett had his ship torched and Sparrow himself branded a pirate. A few years later, Cutler Beckett remained a loyal member of the company, attaining the title of Lord  and rising to the position of Governor. He relocated to Port Royal, with great ambitions for the company’s future. He intended not only to eradicate piracy on the Seven Sea, but also to monopolize them completely by assuming control of Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman. He wielded more executive power than Governor Swann (Elizabeth’s father), forcing him to cooperate by sending favorable reports of Beckett’s actions back to London. During this time, the British government was careful to protect the Company’s ships, and supplied marines and vessels of the British Royal Navy as guards and escorts in case of pirate attacks.

Although The East India Trading Company depicted in the Pirates of the Caribbean series is not accurate to the actual company, there are many similarities. In the movies, Lord Beckett is manipulative, has his own political agenda and breaks the laws. I wouldn’t put it past Lord and workers of the actual East India Trading Company to attain the same characteristics. Learning about the East India Trading Company was really exciting for me because I love the whole Pirates of the Caribbean series. It was so interesting to learn that the company controlled India before the British Crown did. I am going to watch the whole series now.

The Tempest

The Tempest is a 2010 film based on the play by William Shakespeare featuring Hellen Mirren in the principal role of Prospera. The film is directed and written by Julie Taymor, who is known for other works such as; Titus, Frida and Across the universe. Interestingly, this adaptation of the play was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

This adaptation did not receive good reviews from critics however, it won an Academy award for Best Costume Design. Which is surprising that Walt Disney Studios put their name on a film that did awful in the box offices and on a film that did not make their $20 million budget back. I watched the film today and I enjoyed it even though it was very dramatic and even quite silly. The Tempest has good story-telling and technical aspects but a lot of the acting was just screaming or trying way too hard to be emotional. Other than that, it brought about a new perspective of Shakespeare’s play from a woman’s perspective.

Some criticize Taymor for making her movies more theatrical like something you will see out of Boradway. She uses an overscaled sense of stage spectacle which can be impressive and effective to display the emotion that Taymor wanted her actors to express but to some viewers, scenes looked like a ’70s-era laser-rock planetarium show or it resembled an 80s MTV music video. Ariel, played by Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas & Skyfall) ,played a very large role within the film and most of the special effects were around his plot of the play. Throughout the film, Ariel is mostly naked and digitally desexualized (he has no private parts) and he takes the form of a fish, a frog and of a crow. In multiple scenes of The Tempest, Whishaw’s character is displayed more than once in one scene and is “cloned” (for lack of a better term) multiple times to torment the shipwrecked and Caliban.

The actors all speak Shakespearean language but with reasonable trims and modifications. All of the actors speak the language beautifully and uses hints of humor, wit and feeling to really emphasis the emotion they wanted to portray in a certain scene of the film. Overall, the language and the acting blends Shakespeare’s themes of romance, comedy and political intrigue into an hour and fifty minutes of a very aesthetically pleasing film.

Although I love aesthetically pleasing films, one of my favorite parts of The Tempest was its notable differences between Helen Mirren’s character, Prospera to that of Shakespeare’s actor, Prospero. In the play, Prospero has patriarchal dominance over his daughter Miranda and the other characters. Prospero has been claimed to be the hero of the story who was justified in mistreating and tormenting those who have betrayed him. On the other hand, Mirren’s character Prospera is depicted to have cruel dignity, a need for affection and stubborn loneliness. Viewers are able to feel for Prospera because she is a woman who shows her love for every character but also unlike Prospero, she was condemned to the mysterious island not just because of her love of knowledge but because she was accused of being a witch and taking part in witch-craft (which was never discussed in the play). Changing the sex of Prospero also brought about a mother-daughter bond filled with envy, protectiveness and identification. It also made the story more relatable to audience and less creepy when discussions of Miranda’s virginity is brought up.

I highly recommend watching this film because it brings a new-found understanding on the play and may even help you write your upcoming essay.

The Road to El Dorado

The Road to El Dorado is a 2000 animated adventure musical and comedy film. The film received mixed reviews from critics and did not do well in the box offices but gained a “Cult Classic” status online over the past couple of years. The Road to El Dorado takes place in Spain in 1519 and follows the story of two con artists, Tulio and Miguel, who win a map to the legendary city of gold El Dorado. The film shares similarities with our lectures and readings through apotheosis, stereotypes and the myths of creatures.

Apotheosis is when Europeans believed that the natives thought that they were gods. Although there is no evidence that food offerings and relations brought by the natives were offerings of a religious nature. Europeans believed that the natives state of awe was an act of divine worship. In the movie, The Road to El Dorado, the native people of El Dorado believed that the two spaniards, Tulio and Miguel were gods because when they were arguing a volcano began to erupt and when they stopped arguing the volcano calmed. From the coincidence of their arguing and the volcano erupting, the native people offered the two men gifts just so that the volcanos would not erupt. Tulio and Miguel took advantage of the natives and asked them to build a ship and prevented them from doing certain rituals such as sacrifices.

Throughout the movie, the native people are  stereotyped as they are half naked, their bodies are painted in bright colors and they sacrifice innocent people for their gods. This is similar to Christopher Columbus’ letters to Queen Isabella when he lied and said he reached land and wrote that some natives were bald, others had tails and some were cannibals.  In the Road to El Dorado, the high priest Tzekel-Kan was portrayed as power-hungry, unfaithful and evil. When he realized that Tulio and Miguel were not gods because they began to bleed, Tzekel-Kan conjures a giant stone behemoth to chase them through the city. During the battle, Tulio and Miguel outsmarts the stone creature and it falls down a waterfall along with Tzekel-Kan, who washes up on the beach shore in front of Hernan Cortes and his army. Tzekel-Kan then leads the spaniards to El Dorado but Tulio and Miguel hide the city by blocking the entrance with boulders.

The movie The Road to El Dorado shares similarities to the white supremacist views that the Europeans believed during the conquest of the Americas. I believe that future movies related to The Road to El Dorado should have accurate representations of  historical events and people because children should be learning the truth about what happened and how advanced people of color truly were. Children are the future and we should use movies to educate them rather than to solely entertain them because history repeats itself.

My Life as Bri

I am currently having an existential crisis. I graduated my high school as Salutatorian with ten Advanced Placement classes, memberships in seven clubs, two office positions in student council, a thriving social life and multiple college acceptance letters under my belt. I love being challenged and I chose UCI because it was the only UC with an undergraduates degree for Journalism. I was on top of the world, I was ready for college and I knew college was for me because it is where I would finally feel like I belonged. I did not see college as a challenge, I saw it as the next chapter in my life that I was meant to take because I knew what I wanted and what I was going to do. As of today, I am questioning my once confident thoughts of myself and what I want. When I came to college, I was met with fear of the unknown, unnecessary boy and friend drama, not such great grades and this crushing feeling that I am not as good a writer as I originally thought I was but I have been holding on.

When I was younger, I was good at everything I did; math,art, science, history, english, music, ballet and soccer. I was characterized as special, advanced, strong, independent, amazing and I was praised for being so goal oriented. I am still “assigned” these characteristics today but with a newfound realization that I am not good at everything I do. I despise math and science but I excel at english and history. Coming into high school, I knew I wanted to major in journalism and become an editor for a fashion magazine like Teen Vogue or Nylon. Majoring in Journalism was my next step to my dreams but after watching Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls fail at being a journalist, I am questioning my future.

As a Journalism major, Humanities Core was required so I had no choice on whether or not I should take the class. After reading the description of the course, I was excited because the topics were very interesting and I love to read, write and analyze literary and historical  works. I came into Hum Core believing that an empire is an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority of an emperor or empress and a ruin is the physical destruction or disintegration of something or the state of disintegrating or being destroyed. Boy, was I wrong about everything. As a hardcore procrastinator, I did not read at the pace I should have and I suck at writing and analyzing because I just can’t express myself through a written word anymore. I loved all of the readings but I could not read Rousseau’s Discourses because his writings gave me anxiety and were to existential for me. However, I learned that an empire is a notional geographic entity with flexible boarders, infusion of cultures and a proclivity for expansion that place an extensive groups f peoples and/or territories under a single supreme authority. An example of an empire are the Romans, the Greeks and White imperialists. I also learned that a ruin is not only destruction but also social, political, environmental, cultural and economic changes from the introduction of a new group of people. Ruins have had a huge impact on humans especially writers of the Enlightenment as they were all obsessed with ancient ruins and the cyclical history of the fall and rise of empires. History seems to repeat itself.

As I was walking back from class to my dorm room, with another bad grade on a test, a song named You’re Not Good Enough played through my earphones. After listening to the song, I felt crushed and I felt like I wasn’t good enough to be here. However, I worked hard to get to where I am and I am just going to have to work harder to remain here. I am excited for the next two quarters of Humanities Core and to improve my writing. The only person telling me that I am not good enough is myself even though I know that there is definitely room for improvement. The best advice I can give myself and to others who feel the same way, focus on progress rather than perfection and on how far you’ve come rather than on how far you have left to go.

The Revenant

Alejandro González Iñárritu is a Mexican film director, producer, screenwriter, and former composer. Iñárritu is best known for his Best Picture Film, The Revenant (2015). The Revenant follows the story of a frontiersman named Hugh Glass who guides Americans through uncharted wilderness in 1823. Glass loses his wife, his son and his own life but finds the strength and skills he needs to plot vengeance against a member of the hunting team, Fitzgerald. At the same time frame as the movie, Manifest Destiny is occurring throughout America as well. Manifest Destiny is the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable. Themes of the Revenant and the themes of Manifest Destiny share similarities through religious beliefs and a superiority complex.

A common theme between The Revenant and Manifest Destiny is the role of religion portrayed through the ideologies and actions of the Natives and White settlers. In the movie, God is mentioned during vital scenes of the plot. For example, when Glass has the opportunity to kill Fitzgerald, he doesn’t but he mutters, “Revenge is in God’s hands, not mine.” After saying these words, he pushes Fitzgerald into the stream and the Chief of the Arikara tribe kills Fitzgerald. Indicating that it is not a man’s will to choose whether another person lives or dies but God has a plan. In another instance, before Fitzgerald and Bridger abandon Glass, Fitzgerald gives a God monologue also stating that God’s will planned for all of the events to occur and the Arikara allegedly killing Hawk, due to his disappearance, was a sign from “God” to tell Fitzgerald and Bridger to leave and to let Glass fulfill God’s plans. In the Revenant, God plays a vital role in the plot which ties to the Manifest Destiny as many settlers believed that God approved the mass migration of the West Americas. Many settlers and filibusters believe that expanding their land throughout America was God’s will and it was inevitable as it comes naturally with human instinct. All in all, in the Revenant and Manifest Destiny God plays a vital role in human decision making.

A superiority complex is depicted throughout the film, The Revenant and in the writings of Manifest Destiny. In The Revenant when the Chief of the Arikara was trading with the French settlers, he argued with the men and said that although the horses were not originally a part of their trading deal, his demands should be respected as the many settlers have taken everything from the natives such as land, food, and women. Similarly, Fitzgerald is racist towards the natives as he was tortured by a tribe a long time ago. However, he does not hide his racism as he calls every native a savage and stabs Glass’s son, Hawk, to death. During the Manifest Destiny, many white men and settlers believed that they were superior to the natives and to other people of color. They argued that God wanted them to travel the Americas. They even measured skulls to illustrate that people of color were descendants from animals such as apes and that white people are superior and smarter since they have smaller skulls. Overall, white people think they are superior because of pervasive privileging of white supremacy.

In conclusion, The Revenant and Manifest Destiny share common themes of religious beliefs, superiority complex and greed through the actions of men. God plays a vital role in the decision made by humans, especially men. White men believe they are superior to all other races and it is inevitable for their success even though they are just greedy. Many argue that the Manifest Destiny was inevitable especially since God pushed the settlers to move so it was inevitable for Fitzgerald to die in the Revenant because he was an awful person and God always has a plan. You need not to be afraid of where you are going when you know God is going with you, unless you are Fitzgerald and you have everything to lose.