This is the scene where Jake Sully touches the tree of life; this is a very significant part of the movie. He hears the ancestors and the stories of the people who used to live there. The tree signifies life and past life; Jake touches the tree with his “hair” in which Avatars use to connect to things. The tree of life is signified as a “tree” but it is a signifier for religion which links everyone (past and present life). The tree of life has many similarities to different religions and for me it was hard to specifically pinpoint what religion (although maybe James Cameron was trying to make it more spiritual then religious and not have a specific religion targeted) from class and from a deeper analysis of the movie I found the tree of life to kind of be similar to Hindu beliefs because it seems like Avatars’ similar to people with Hindu beliefs, believe in teaching for the betterment of the whole person and whole world. (Also I looked into James Cameron and if there was any information or links between this underlying tone of Hinduism and the Tree of life, he said it was a subconscious one and it made sense but it wasn’t made to offend people; The Times of India, March 20,2010.) This scene was trying to make the audience feel empathetic for Jake because that moment was the BIG moment where he understood the way of life for the Na’vi. It was a tender spiritual moment when he really began to understand these Avatar were also like people, they had a similar belief system, feelings, and ideas. The tree could also signifies nature and the idea that if people need to be kind to their surroundings because the tree of life or nature gives back to the people or in this case Avatar that are good to it. The effect of this is more personal, psychologically humans have an inner drive to be with or in nature; this makes the audience feel for the Avatars and really empathize and believe they are people just like us. (Anyone notice that we make ancestry trees? This is like the same exact thing except not on a computer it is the Avatars’ real life)
The message that this part specifically conveys is that beings are one with nature. It shows in many ways that nature provokes spirituality. This message is provoked because JC wanted the audience to feel like even though this was a fantasy world it was somehow possible or similar to ours. It was fantasy in the way that all of the colors are opposite the colors that we see on a daily basis in nature. Obviously the Avatar are fantasy they are a mixture of elves, aliens, and sci-fi creatures. Since it is such a fantasy JC wants the audience to get the message that or the feeling that Avatar are similar to humans, he wants empathy. The character Jake finally empathizes with the Avatar at this point and he was supposed to go there and report back to the military to help strategize a plan to get the “material” that was special under the tree.
I think it's very interesting how with just a single scene you can expand the meaning of it, and not necessarliy how it was made to be percieved but how, the scene fits ideas and notions in our head and then when we see the scene we are able to connect the two, giving the scene more meaning than it previously had. And I think this is exactly the case with this scene with the "tree of life" this can be seen in many different parts of our culture giving the whole scene much more meaning.
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