Thursday, January 27, 2011

Shark Attacks revised

Recently I was watching the movie Jaws. It reminded me of the Article By Plumwood called "Surviving a Crocodile Attack"who was attacked by an crocodile and lived to tell her story. In the movie a shark goes on a rampage killing people who are swimming in the ocean. The main character, Chief Martin Brody, comes into action by trying to find and kill the shark because it is killing "innocent people". Later he hunts the shark and kills it for safety of others and in a way revenge. In Plumwood's article the ranger who saved her wanted to go back and kill the crocodile. But she refused to let them kill the "innocent" crocodile. She was intruding on the crocodiles territory and therefore the crocodile should not be held accountable for attacking. How ever in Jaws the "Innocent" people were intruding in the sharks territory and were attacked. Afterward they sought revenge for lost lives. In the movie, there is an Anthropocentrism aspect which is humans regard themselves as the top species. Meaning they are not prey to other animals and our lives are more valuable than any other species. But in reality humans are vulnerable to nature because we can be killed by other animals but don't want to accept that fact. Also there is master narrative in this movies is shown that sharks are evil being that will kill humans but in reality many people in real life aren't attacked or killed by sharks that often. The attacking of the shark portrays some of the paradigms within the story. First there is the shark portrayed as a beast,man,emotional. the people attacked are more portrayed as human,woman,and rational. The shark is the bad guy while man is more worthy to save. But by whose standards? 
Plumwood article
Jaws movie synopsis
(picture from http://www.moviemobsters.com/2009/12/23/throwback-tuesday-jaws-1975/,January 27, 2011)