Tarzan is a film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs novel Tarzan of the Apes. It is a story of a boy living with gorillas in Africa. His parents escaped from an enflamed ship and landed on the shore of Africa. They were able to build a home in the forest but were unable to survive an attack by a leopard, Sabor, which left the baby Tarzan alone. The story also focuses on a mother gorilla, Kala, and a father gorilla and group leader, Kerchak who lose their baby because of Sabor, as well. Kala, is full of grief because of her loss. As the gorilla clan moves to a new location for safety, she hears a baby cry and follows it towards a treehouse. She brings the hairless baby back to her gorilla clan after barely surviving Sabor’s attack. Kerchak does not approve of the new addition because “it is not our kind” and “will endanger the family”. Nonetheless, Tarzan is allowed to stay because he “was all alone” but is not accepted to be Kerchak’s son.
Kala is willing “to protect (Tarzan) from all around him…and will be here”. During this time of the movie, the nurturing side of Kala is in perspective where she cares for Tarzan despite being apart from the group. Tarzan is shown as a young boy full of vigor and mischief, where he and his gorilla friends, including the female gorilla Terk, play with elephants and continue their adventures around their area. Terk’s gorilla friends call Tarzan a “hairless wonder”. Terk tells Tarzan he is able to play with the group if he can pick a hair from an elephant’s tail, where he later befriends a young male elephant named Tantor. He pursues the task despite the danger so that he can be accepted. Tarzan startles the elephant clan and destroys the feeding grounds of the gorilla group, which gets him into trouble with Kerchak. Kala defends Tarzan, even against her mate and her species, stating that “Tarzan is only a child” and that he “will learn our ways, if (Kerchak) gives him a chance” but Kerchak states that “he will never be one of us”.
Tarzan is upset that he is differentiated by the group, and goes to the water to put mud on his face so that he will be physically similar to them. Kala goes to Tarzan and persuades him that he is no different from the others, that he has two eyes, two ears, a nose, two hands, and a heartbeat. Tarzan is rejuvenated by this internal similarity and is willing to “make Kerchak see it” as well.
Tarzan improves his abilities by doing rigorous and acrobatic activities that will make him become equivalent to the other gorillas. As a young man he fights and kills Sabor and offers the lifeless body to Kerchak. As he awaits Kerchak’s reply, a gunshot is heard from afar. Kerchak tells the group to follow him to a path away from the sound, but Tarzan is curious to see where it came from. He follows the sound and discovers people that look just like him. He meets a young woman named Jane, a scientist named Professor Porter, and a hunter named Clayton. Tarzan is taught the human world, including reading and writing, as well the culture in London. However, Clayton seeks gorillas to capture but is unable to do so because of Tarzan’s reluctance. Kerchak tells the clan to “avoid the strangers” but Tarzan defends them and states that they “are harmless” and that Kerchak is “threatened by anyone different from (him)”. Tarzan hesitantly allows the three outsiders to meet his gorilla family, but Kerchak ia angered by Tarzan’s decisions because it will endanger the family. They offer Tarzan the choice of going to London with them and while Tarzan decides, Kala brings him to where she found him and shares a tearful goodbye. The next day, Tarzan sets off to the ship. During this time, Clayton captures and endangers the gorillas, where Kerchak is the only innocent casualty, but Tarzan heroically saves the clan. As Jane and Professor Porter sail off to London, she realizes she loves Tarzan and stays in Africa with him. Her father does the same.
The loss of Kala and Kerchak’s son to Sabor allowed Kerchak to think in categoric knowing, technique for evaluating how perceptions of similarity attract closer interaction pattern. Kerchak knew that the leopard was in the area and the family needed to abandon it because Sabor will have the intention of attacking them again.
Before Tarzan was included, there was an ingroup in which individuals belong and feel loyal. Therefore, these were gorillas that reside with other gorillas, or their “own kind.
When Tarzan was introduced to the family, he was immediately part of an outgroup, which consists of all people who are not members of one’s ingroup, because of his physical appearance.
When Tarzan was a young boy, he was undergoing social identity theory, where ingroup members think of their group as better than outgroups because enhances their own social status or social identity and raises self-image. This is because Terk and her friends do not allow Tarzan to play because he can’t “keep up” to their games and movement
In order to feel part of the ingroup, Tarzan needed to have a reference group, which serve as an exemplary model. He was able to act and move as a monkey because he improved his abilities and movements equipped for monkey-like activities.
Since the culture from London is moved to Africa, cultural diffusion, cultures inevitably affected by other cultures was evident in the movie. Tarzan was able to understand the human culture that he was unaware and excited to understand.
Jane and Professor Porter are clearly interested in the gorillas in their native state. This shows that the explorers are undergoing abstract typification, strangers take on the native’s perspective and become more concrete with social interaction, especially when they crouch down and create paralinguistic signals, sounds but not words, to enable the gorilla clan to come out from the bushes.
When Jane and Tarzan first meet, they incorporate symbolic interaction, shared symbols and definitions people use when communicating with one another, in order to be better acquainted. The use of hands to promote their name allows for mutual understanding and “proper” introduction.
When Jane tries to escape baboons and was rescued by Tarzan, she experienced culture shock, when people’s assumptions are jolted through contact with an unfamiliar culture that supports different expectations. She expected the man to save her to understand English and be “human” but he talked to the baboon and used vines to move around the jungle, in which she asks if they could walk instead. You can tell she is shocked when she goes back to camp and explains to her father and Clayton about her day in the jungle.
Paternalism, dominant group exercises almost absolute control over the subordinate group and can direct virtually unlimited coercion to maintain societal order, is evident in the movie in that Kerchak is the supreme leader of the pack. He maintains order in order to keep his family alive, whether he has to be against Kala, his mate, or his “son” Tarzan. Paternalism can also be shown on the outsider’s camp, where both Jane and Clayton persuade the Professor to convince Tarzan to see the gorillas. When Jane refuses this, Clayton asks Professor that Jane “is undergoing some girlish fantasy” and they need to take a stand in order to finally see the gorillas.
Kerchak uses a lot of avoidance, minority groups have attempted to solve their problems by leaving them behind, in order to keep his family safe. Despite having Sabor continually attacking them, he moves on to another location. He also does this with Clayton’s gun, where he tells the family to keep moving away from it. If Kerchak had fought against Sabor and fought against the humans, it would be easier for these animals to live in peace rather than “walking on eggshells”. This could also be a form of xenophobia, fear of or contempt for strangers or foreigners. Kerchak does not accept Tarzan because he is not their kind, and will endanger their family. He does not want anyone to interact with the humans nor be part of their camp but the mischievous monkeys pursue it. He does not want Tarzan to bring the humans to the family site because he might hurt them.
The outsiders had manifest functions, obvious and intended results, when they went to Africa. These expected to scientifically studying gorillas. For Clayton, his intention was to betray the others in order to capture these wild animals.
There were also instances of latent functions, hidden and unexpected results, such as Tarzan’s understanding of the world he was supposed to be part of and the possibility that stray animals from London were able to make its way to Africa.
Linguistic relativity, pertains to language that connote both intended and unintended prejudicial meanings (example: black=bad, white=good)is also shown in this movie. Since the outsiders has “proper” attire they were instinctively thought of as “saviors” for Tarzan’s livelihood, since Tarzan could not possibly be living a “correct” life because he “wears a loin cloth” and was unable to read and speak. However, Tarzan becomes the savior because he saves both the innocent outsiders and his gorilla family from harm.
I chose Tarzan because it is an innocent movie meant for children and to teach them the ways of right and wrong but it also shows the results of pioneering into the “new world” in order to collect data – which led to slavery, war, exploitations of natural resources, endangered species, deforestation etc. Instances that happen in Tarzan may not be completely correct, but it has some truth (just like in Avatar) that audiences always expect the “good guys” to win. However, in the real world, the dominant and money-hungry countries or corporations are the winners while the indigenous population always suffers. For example, Nike sweatshops in Thailand pay their employees an equivalent of $1.00-2.00 while the product they sell each cost $80.00.
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