Christina M. Torres
Wexler
English 495
13 December 2012
Re Established Utopia
Many people would refer to living in
the United States of American an ultimate dream. Every geographic location
struggles with internal oppression, discrimination and biased societies. In the
case of the movie Babel,
the biased of the entire world is oppressive towards class bases. This movie
reflects the beliefs of American through the way each area of the world
secludes all cultures, oppresses those who are less fortunate, as well as
continues to build controversy within the global issue itself.
This chronological story links all
areas in the movie together. The primary issue at hand in the movie “Babel” was
that the barren mountains of Morocco, where the dominant sound is howling wind,
to fluorescent Tokyo, where the natural world has been almost entirely
supplanted by a technological environment, to the anxious border between the
United States and Mexico, were all juxtaposed for the sake of creating conflict
and irony. Like the United
States, the movie initially seems very
diverse; which is something the United States of American has created as an
image of being more of a Utopia. Individual scenes were impactful, as well as
tenacious when it came to the emancipation of the Americans in a country.
Viewers, as well as the American
society, can admire the film for its attempt to raise awareness to repression
that continues to incessant, however this is an unconscious effort to educate
others on how our capitalist society is not very open minded at all to being
the “perfect world” to live in”. That the film possesses undeniable force which
is striking, but the power does not seem to be tethered to any coherent
concept. You can feel the irony that builds throughout each scene. it without
ever quite believing it.
Most parts of the movie are connected
together, for example, the banal lingua franca of television images, as events
in North Africa, making the evening news in Tokyo. It suggests a common idiom of emotion which
is present in certain immediately recognizable expressions and gestures.
Through interpretation, we assume the distress builds loss, fear and pain from
the troubled event before him.
The gunmen and their victim are never
in the frame together, and the consequences of the incident unfold in parallel
crises. Susan and Richard wind up in a small town, waiting for an ambulance,
facing the panic and impatience of their fellow holiday makers and relying on
the kindness of strangers. Abdullah and his sons and neighbors, for their part,
must deal with the harsh attentions of the Moroccan police, who are trying to
defuse what threatens to become an international incident. The film constantly
illustrates how the American culture is a restrictive place to live, but yet
the dream home for many people.
Throughout the film, there were people
in all areas of the World who awaited their chance at being given the chance of
having what they wished for be granted. Fredric Jameson’s “The Politics of
Utopia” elaborates on the idea of a utopian society, “Yet the wanting of the
utopian idea is a fundamental historical difference which characterizes post
modernity is, paradoxically, intertwined with the loss of that place beyond all
history (or after its end) which we call utopia. This is how American relates
so much to the overall concept of the movie; because of our paradisiacal
society, us Americans continue waiting patiently for school fees to be lowered,
for health care to become more beneficial and less profitable for our bourgeoisie
society, and for more job offers to arise without only being offered minimum
wage because that person comes from another country. All of these things
coincide with Randy Martin’s article “Where did the Future Go” saying,
“Needless to say, most of the world’s peoples—still awaiting their moment of
development to come never get to live the dream, or pursued another under the
banner of socialism.” There are a lot of
people who are given the opportunity to live in such a “free” society, however
never are given the full experience of fulfilling their dream.
To be considered a true utopia, the
first things Americans should do are stop competing with each other. One of the
biggest reasons why our economy has not yet lived up to a theological
expectation, by our pledge of allegiance, is because we are all so busy
competing with one another that there is no way to fulfill what we hope is a
“perfect” world. As long as everyone continues to compare their lifestyle with
others, we would be a much more successful community as a whole if we were more
content with ourselves. Third world countries like Tokyo,
as seen in the film, as well as Morocco,
are highly content with their lives and love their families just as much as an
American family would. The only difference is that we as citizens, whom are
given so many privileges, repress other countries because of what we assume are
substantial reasons to not accept them in our country.
If America is becoming extremely
diverse, and continue to create that image for other countries to envy because
we want “change”, then we should question why there is so much discriminatory
action against immigration laws, providing jobs for those who are legal
citizens (but without taking for granted that providing only minimum wage will
suffice as a legit income), as well as giving others a right to pursue
education. We should not hold our heads high as an America until we have fully reached
and fulfilled the needs of all citizens who claim to have fundamental purposes
for change. Change should be immediate, and the longer we wait to embrace
change because we are afraid to corrupt the economy, we should realize that
apparently what we are doing at the moment has not been working, so maybe
listening to citizens will benefit the entire world.
Work Cited
“Babel”. Film.
Jameson, Fredric. “The
Politics of Utopia”. Article.
Martin, Randy. “Where
did the Future Go?” Article.
