The movie American Sniper is based on the true story of the Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. As it tells the story of his time in war and how it affected him, including his experience with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it also describes the vast differences in perspective of those at War and those living without it.

A concept that came to mind when watching the movie was one introduced by scholar Judith Butler. She discusses the term precariousness, which entails as how humans view their lives as precarious; faced with life’s end from the start. She examines that although we are all precarious, some lives are more valuable than others, for instance, our loved ones. Butler argues that we all have recognizability, that we are conditioned to be attracted to those of similar social norms and religion/nationality. Furthermore that through this recognizability we determine whose lives we find grievable. Butler also states that some of us do not experience precarity as much as others, meaning that we do not live in a warzone, or wonder when our next meal is coming from, that we are less likely to consider our lives endangered. This concept came to mind while watching American Sniper because of the characters who played the american soldiers in the warzones. These characters, while aware of the danger surrounding them, also spoke about “the enemy” in a way that meant that they did not grieve for their lives. This was further seen in the characters families and friends back home in America, they only viewed the soldiers lives as precarious, not as much so of the other lives lost or those of civilians. I felt as though the movie has a whole portrayed a certain view of precariousness of American soldiers lives only, rather than the civilians and “enemy”. I believe this was done through characterization of the soldiers and adding sentimental value to their lives, such as giving them families and friends back home. In the scene where Chris Kyle kills a young kid, they demonstrate how he had to do it for his country and protection because the kid was handed a weapon. In this way, the audience view this as reasoned and feel sympathy for Chris Kyle for having to murder him. However the movie does not portray the life of this child, his family or whomever would grief over his death, making it less likely that the audience will.  

Scholar Darda also adds to this recognition ofprecariousness by introducing the “Fantasy of Maskery”. Darda states that by recognizing your life as precarious you comprehend that so are others, thus creating the need to protect yourself by “maskering” through violence. From this, Darda asserts that wars begin, and that there is an endless carnage of wanting to protect yourself and those you relate to by “killing them before they kill you”. This is directly applicable to American Sniper because it is a war movie in which they address scenes where they kill many in order to protect their own. Chris Kyle has an important scene where he kills the sniper who had killed a couple of his fellow soldiers. The soldiers applauded him for his work because they comprehend that if the sniper was not killed, he would keep killing their team. In both of these points I find a problem with American Sniper, although it accurately depicts the lives of the American soldiers, it encourages a lack of precariousness for those on the other side of war. This creates further discrimination for those who are not directly affiliated with “the enemy”, but rather share what Butler calls similarities, particularly nationality or religion. The aftermath of this ethnic discrimination and Islamophobia prevents immigrants from being able to successfully integrate into America’s society, furthering the idea that all our lives are valuable, to only some are.

The art of witnessing and telling a story I find is the topic that I have learned the most about this year because all of the texts we studied connect to it. Everyone has different opinions and grew up with different surroundings. But just as the term precariousness, I find that in the end we are all the same, we seek safety of all manners and love. In this way, I find that the texts that we studied all demonstrate telling war stories of pain and unjust actions in strong ways in order to teach readers to learn from past mistakes. For instance, Persepolis, Safe Area Gorazde, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, all tell war stories from a different point of view than we witness through media or news outlets. These texts introduce us to the lives of people who are living more precariously than ourselves. Persepolis is a graphicnovel from the point of view of a young girl in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war. It describes her difficult upbringing and explains how she became an activist at such a young age. Safe Area Gorazde, although from the point of view of an outsider, with careful detailed drawings, allows us to witness and read of horrors we do not confront everyday. And the Reluctant Fundamentalist gives us insight to how it feels to be a muslim immigrant in the post 9/11 era and the backlash that ethnic discrimination influences. Many more of the texts and essays we read highlight how critical it is to look at history from multiple points of view and the power that literature has on building perspectives. I grew up in countries where I witnessed and interacted with poverty constantly, however my life has never been as precarious as what I witnessed. Yet it was always a reminder that humanity is unfair in thinking that one life is more valuable than another. However we have not learned from our mistakes as we continue to make them again and again. By following these shocking stories of the Iran/Iraq War, the Bosnian Genocide, or the “War on Terror”, we remind people of recognizing that everyone is precarious and through that welcome more peace than we do war.

Works Cited:

“American Sniper.” , directed by Clint Eastwood, et al. , Warner Bros.   Entertainment, 2015.

Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? Verso, New York;London [England];,2009.

Deer, Patrick. “Mapping Contemporary American War Culture.” College Literature, vol. 43, no.  1, 2016, pp. 48.

This week, I visited the Amazonia exhibit in the Museum of Anthropology in the University of British Colombia. The first thing that caught my attention at the Amazonia exhibit was the wording “Pachamama”. Since I was young, whenever we had a toast of celebration, everyone would poor a little of their drink on the floor, particularly the grass because they were giving some to Pachamama. My family is Bolivian and Pachamama is a goddess from the indigenous people of the Andes, the Quechua, who speak the Kwicha language. She represents mother nature (earth mother) as she embodies the mountains and is known as protecting the planting and harvesting. I remember that my relatives in Bolivia used to talk about how the reason that when problems arose from nature was because people were taking too much from Pachamama. I always thought she represented nature in a beautiful way because she was described as a protector and potent goddess. 

I used to live in Brazil from the age of 7 until 14, I went to an international school that required learning the language Portuguese and part of the Brazilian history and geographical location. From a young age I have been interested in environmental conservation and am now hoping to major in environment related field. For that sole reason, I was also greatly amazed by the Amazon forest, from the immensity of biodiversity it contains spreading through nine countries and also by the indigenous people who inhabit and live sustainability within its confines. From a first glance, I found that in the Amazonia exhibit, I recognized a couple of objects and parts of historical context that went with them. I immediately saw the wings of the birds such as the famous orange winged parrot and red and blue macaw, and it took me back to research I had done previously before about the wide range of extinct animals whose habitats are the Amazon.

An object that I recognized as well as that of the Kamensta Headdress. I had seen several like those before in photos of indigenous people wearing them. However before this exhibit, I hadn’t really thought much about them other than the fact that they resemble beautiful craftsmanship. Reading about where they come from and what they represent opened my eyes further to how my Bolivian heritance does in fact have a greater connection to the Amazonian culture.

Kamensta Headdress was made by the indigenous Kamensta people from the Sibundoy Valley of Colombia. The exhibit said that the Kamensta territory fell under the Inca empire when the population of the Ingas (or Kichwa) took over. Later on, they were conquered by the Spanish. It said that the headdress was made for a catholic ceremony called the “Carnaval del Perdon y Reconciliacion” (Carnival of Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Supposedly this carnival served as a time for the locals to “thank Mother Nature for her offerings and praise the family and their communities welfare and unity.” (Ramirez de Jara, Pinzon, s/d.) I’ve heard before about how many of indigenous groups are passionate about admiring and thanking Mother Nature for all that they consumed of her. However I didn’t ever really hear about indigenous people using a religion or different beliefs to embody with theirs, such as the Ingas did with Spanish Catholicism. I found this very touching and interesting because as an environmentalist, I’ve always found that people exploit nature too much and lack respect for its beauty and vitality.

The exhibit taught me more about the Amazonian people and their rich culture, and that I too have a stronger connection than I thought. Growing up in Brazil, I thought Bolivia did not have that much relation with the country, much less the immense forest inside of it. I have been fortunate enough to have been exposed to knowledge I know of the Amazon and yet I did not imagine that I would learn more about it in British Columbia. I think this further shows the importance of sharing different and many times, forgotten, culture to societies that are not directly exposed to them. It reminds me of how essential it is to learn about different cultures than your own because it encourages mindfulness and respect for the prospects of different world views than your own.

Citations:

The Amazonia Exhibit. March 10 2017 – February 18, 2018, Museum of                                     Anthropology, University of British Colombia, Vancouver.

This week in my CAPS program class ASTU writing and literature course, we were assigned to read a scholarly piece by Kate Douglas, “Youth, Trauma and memorialization: The selfie as witnessing”. In this article, she puts forth the modern issue of youth taking a “smiling selfie” at trauma memorial sites, such as that of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. She raises the question as to whether it is ethical, moral, or even just an oversight of the technologically orientated youth of the 21st century.

In class we spoke about the particular genre of a selfie and its specific situational context and the form in which one uses it and when. We thought about how usually taking a selfie and how it’s taken depends on who the audience seeing the selfie is. Personally this article made me think about what taking a selfie means for the common teenager, and how usually we use selfies in our social medias to display who we are, or what we’re doing, and to physically prove we are where we say we are.

The article made me think of some of the trips that my family and I did around Southeast Asia whilst living in Indonesia, particularly to the country of Cambodia. In these trips, we visited many acclaimed tourist sites. I remember roaming through the stunning Angkor Wat, being absolutely impressed by the architecture and the historical context of the site. Throughout the trip, we tasted the regional food and spoke with the locals about their culture. We went to colorful night markets and explored the cities through tuktuk rides.

At the end of our trip, I was nothing, if not, utterly amazed and in love with Cambodia and all that its culture had to offer. I remember feeling so fortunate to have been able to physically have been there and seen everything that I did through my own eyes, as young as I was.

And yet, I too remember, taking a selfie. The context was simple, is was to capture the moment, I meant no harm and no insult, all I wanted to do was remember how I felt when I was there and what was surrounding me. I wanted to be able to share with my friends back in Indonesia, or my family back in Bolivia, how magical it was to be in Cambodia. Despite my good intentions, reading Douglas’s article, made me realize that I have also failed to recognize what Douglas is talking about.

These places, although considered popular tourist sites, were also places of significant memorial historic, and also modern, trauma. Cambodia’s Angkor Wat was only possible because it was built under the rule of a cruel and oppressive tyranny, who forced thousands of lower class citizens to spend their lives building his face and his beliefs with their bare hands. (Fletcher, 2015) Those magnificent temples and shrines were the source of human torture, and yet millions of people only see the beauty but don’t acknowledge the pain. Myself and all the tourists stare in awe of how gorgeous the scenery is, but I realize that we probably never really understood the burden Cambodian people endured just by observation.

In a way, every selfie I took, was or could be considered, an offence to the Cambodian people. But what I can infer from Douglas’s reading the most, is that the context in which I place my selfie and in what regard I share it, is the most important part. There I was, in a country filled with poverty, a young girl with an iPhone, taking selfies with what I thought, were incredible places and people. I’m glad I had the chance to reflect on what it meant to be there, and how crucial it is to be aware of where you are and who the people around you have been through. I’ve been lucky enough to live around the world, particularly in third world countries, where I’ve witnessed first hand, poverty. And take the lesson with me to be humble of material things and money, but perhaps I was more offensive than I thought I was, taking selfies of a country whose suffered a lot of historic trauma. But I also strongly believe that it’s a good thing for people to acknowledge this historic trauma and celebrate those who have persisted through it. Cambodians and their culture are fascinating, and although I won’t necessary applaud a girl smiling in a selfie at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp because it might show her lack of sympathy or ignorance. I think that it’s extremely relevant for youth to interact with historic trauma and recognize its significance. If that means, embracing technology within historical memorial sites, I wouldn’t condone it, but instead insist that more people learn about it, because if they never do, that is true ignorance.

Works Cited:

Fletcher, Roland, et al. “Angkor Wat: an Introduction.” Antiquity, vol. 89, no.                            348, 2015, pp. 1388–1401., doi:10.15184/aqy.2015.178.

Douglas, Kate, “Youth, trauma and memorialisation: The selfie as witnessing”                            Memory Studies, 2017: 1-16

The Editor. “35 Amazing Photos from the Ruins of Angkor Wat Vishnu Temple in Cambodia.” TalkPundit.com, 2 Sept. 2017, www.talkpundit.com/35-amazing-photos-              from-the-ruins-of-angkor-wat-vishnu-temple-in-cambodia/.