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PRESERVING AMERICAN DOMINANCE THROUGH

GLOBAL CULTURE CONSTRUCTION IN

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

THESIS

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for the SarjanaSastra Degree of the English Department

Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts

SebelasMaret University

by:

ARWAN WISNU PRADANA

C0306001

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS

SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY

SURAKARTA commit to user 2012 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id

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PRONOUNCEMENT

Name : ArwanWisnuPradana

NIM : C0306001

Hereby, it is stated that this thesis entitled “Preserving American Dominance through Global Culture Construction in Avatar: The Last Airbender” is made and completed by the researcher. It is not plagiarism nor made by others. Everything related to other people’s works are written in quotation and mentioned within the bibliography. If it is then proved that this pronouncement is incorrect, the researcher will be ready to take the responsibility.

Surakarta, 13 September 2012

The researcher

ArwanWisnu Pradana

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MOTTO

“Ora et labora”

“Where there's a will, there's a way”

“Today is always the most enjoyable day” (YotsubaKoiwai)

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DEDICATION

The thesis is dedicated to:

Myself,

My beloved family,

andAmerican Studies scholars

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I want to thank Allah SWT, for the blessing so that I can finish

this thesis. Thank you for giving me strength and showing me the right direction

in making a decision. So many support and helps are given to me so that this

thesis can be finished well. Therefore, I would like to say my deepest gratitude for

themall in this acknowledgement.

I want to thank Drs. RiyadiSantosa, M.Ed., Ph.D, the Dean of Faculty of

Letters and Fine Arts, and Drs. AgusHariWibowo, M.A., Ph.D, the Head of

English Department, for giving me permission to write the thesis. I want to

thank all English Department’s lectures, especially the American Studies’

lecturers, for giving me a lot of knowledge and understanding of American

Studies.

I give my deepest gratitude to FitriaAkhmertiPrimasita, S.S., M.A, as my

thesis advisor who gives her full support and time helping me in writing this

thesis. Thank you for being a patient advisor. Thank you for all knowledge and

advices have been given.

I thank the board of examiners: Dra. S.K. Habsari, M.Hum, Ph.D., Taufiq

Al Makmun, S.S., M.Si., and KaruniaPurna K, S.S., M.Si.for sharing their

precious criticism that contribute to this thesis.

Thanks for my beloved family. My Mom and Dad, my “Mr. and Mrs

Smith”, thank for always praying and caring for your silly boy. I also want to

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thank my little sister, you can always cheer me up with your absurd and silly acts.

After all, I am meaningless without them.

I specially thank Chindy and Wulan. This thesis is finished for you, Lan.

For Chindy, it has been finished then it is time to finish the other things. Both of

you are extraordinary for me. Thanks for the support, care, time and everything

have been given to me.

I gratefully thank all of my friends in English Department 06. It was an

amazing years with all of you guys. I want thank Kiki for the sharing knowledge,

the discussion, and your sharp-tongue.It will need agreat effort to finish this

thesiswithout your help. To Iyum, let get your thesisfinished. For Lala and Bimo,

Vadila and Vendra, be a happy couple. To Vika, Dila, Hamid, Susi, Pondra, Rena,

Herman,Fajar, and all my friends in ED 06 who I can not mention one by one,

thank for the friendship. It is wonderful to know you all.

I also want to say thank you to my friends in Cattleyaboarding house. For

Hanif, Singgih, Fiqi, Naja, Fikri, and Arnaz, it is nice to be part of you all.

Last but not least, I want to say thanks to everyone who has given

contribution inthe writing of the thesis whose name can not be mentioned here one

by one. Thank you very much.

Surakarta, 13 September 2012

ArwanWisnuPradana

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE ...... i

APPROVAL OF THE ADVISOR ...... ii

APPROVAL OF THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS ...... iii

PRONOUNCEMENT ...... iv MOTTO ...... v DEDICATION ...... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... ix ABSTRACT ...... xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ...... 1 B. Scope of Study ...... 6 C. Research Questions ...... 7 D. Objectives of the Study ...... 7 E. Benefits of the Study ...... 7 F. Research Methodology ...... 7

G. Theoretical Approach ...... 9

H. Thesis Organization ...... 14

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Globalization and Global Culture ...... 16

B. Asian culture…………...………...... 20

C. Animation...... 24

D. Semiotic Theory ...... 31

CHAPTER III: DISCUSSION

A. The Construction of Global Culture in Avatar: the Last Airbender ...... 35

1. The Construction of Global Culture in the Setting of Place of 37

Avatar: the Last Airbender...... commit to user

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2. The Construction of Global Culture in the Main Characters of

Avatar: the Last Airbender ...... 42

3. The Construction of Global Culture in the Narration of Avatar: the

Last Airbender ...... 61

B. The Domination of American culture in the Global Culture

Construction in Avatar: the Last Airbender…..…………………...... 65

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION A. Conclusion ...... 77 B. Recommendation ...... 80 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 82

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ABSTRACT

ArwanWisnuPradana. C0306001. 2012. Preserving American Dominance through Global Culture Construction in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Undergraduate Thesis.English Department of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts SebelasMaret University.

This research is purposed to explain how the global culture is constructed in the animation series and how the global culture construction preserves Americandominance, whether the creators respond to the changing course of global culture in construction of Avatar: the Last Airbenderortheypreserve the American culture in the construction of the global culture. This research is a descriptive qualitative research which uses several episodes of Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation seriesas its source of data. The primary data consists of dialogues, characters and characterization, and setting of place. It is supported with secondary data taken from of journals, internet articles and another animation series. The research is conducted under the framework of American Studieswhich is an interdisciplinary study. Therefore, it involves some disciplines in the forms of theory and approach in analysing the animation series.In answering the research question, the researcher uses global culture theory, semiotic theory, and socio-cultural approach. After conducting the research, it is found that Avatar: the Last Airbenderis constructed with global culture value that combines American and Asian culture. The construction of the main characters, setting of place, and the story showtheglobal cultureasa combination of American andAsian culture influence.

However,the animation series still preservesAmerican culture dominancedespite its rich Asian culture influence.It can be said as American value in Asian package.

This is an Americans’ response ofthe emergence of Asian rising power thatmakes a changing course of global culture.They try to find a way to welcome Asia as the new global culture and at the same time preserve their domination in the world's

cultural contestation.

Keywords: global culture, popular culture, Asian culture, American dominance, animation.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Research Background

Globalization has changed the world condition today. It influences many

aspects of life and relations of society in the world. Globalization has given a

strong impact to every part of human life. It changes the way people

communicate, changes cultures and even it can change the taste of food.

Globalization hasled to aprocess in making global culture of the world.

Globalization isnot only seen as a process but also a project, not only a realitybut

also belief. It is believed that global culture will emerge with the rise of

globalization (Wang and Yeh, 2005, p.176). Everything, especially products of

culture, nowadays seem to have the same taste. This phenomenon can be called as

global culture.

Global culture refers to the way globalization has undermined national

and local cultures, with cultural products and ways of life in different countries of the world becoming more alike. It is a synergetic effect of

market forces, technology, and freedoms of movement, a contemporary variant on the well-known theme of cultural diffusion, which for centuries has been a subject of study (Krzysztofek,2002, p. 4).

The society of the world has been entering the global economy where

people can have economic transaction andexchange technology and information

easily and globally. It also createswide marketplace for marketing any cultural and

consumer product.Global culture is often believed as American popular culture

(Barber, 1998, p. 1). The similar cultural and consumer products are now sold commit to user

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across the world and people seem to have one world culture.It is believed that the

world citizen will lose their cultural diversity and one culture will be experienced

by all people.

Global culture is believed as American culture (Barber, 1998, p. 1),

especially American popular culture. There are many American popular culture

products, for example music, fashion, fast food, and movie. Companies like

McDonald‟s, Coca Cola, Starbucks, and Nike are now symbols that are

recognized across the world, along with the consumer lifestyles and culture

associated with them.Another American popular cultures that widely spread all

over the world are American media empires with the movies and TV series.They

sell their television programs and program formats like Who Wants to be a

Millionaire?andAmerica’s Got Talent globally.

However these American popular culture products have no longer

dominated the world market.Another power emergesand erodes the American

domination. It is the rising of Asian power.China, Japan, India and South Korea

have arisen as the new economic power of the world.Now, their economic power

can be equalized with the United States‟ (Campbell, 2002, p. 61).This rising Asian

power has successfully penetrates global market with its commodities, especially

United States‟ market itself.The Asian cultures also spread along with these Asian

exported commodities. The Asian cultures, such as Asian food, fashion, or anime,

successfully take the people‟s interest. The rising Asian cultureseizes the

American culture position as the global culture (Tay, n.d.). Certainly, it changes

the course of the global culture. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id3

The changing course of the global culture also changes the course of

American popular culture.This phenomenon brings a new development in

American popular culture, especially in the media industry. The American media

empires have noticed this phenomenon and tried to respond it. They try to

compromise with the changing course of global culture by modifying their

globalized products in order to preserve their existence and domination. One of

the compromises is employing and combining the rising culture, which is Asian

culture, into their product.As a globalized product, it requires adaptation to local

parameters of tastes and styles and may involve a level of coproduction between

corporations to share risk and attempt to maximize profit (Pagliassotti, 2009, p. 1).

The result ofthe changing course of American popular culture can be

seen in Avatar: the Last Airbender animation series. It can be regarded as one of

American TV series produced as a response to the emergence of global

culture.This animation is createddifferently from the other American famous

cartoon series and movies such as Disney‟s Micky Mouse, Warner Bros‟ Looney

Tunes, Scooby Doo or the other American cartoons. This animation series is

created with the combination of American and Asian culture influence.

The Asian cultures can be seen clearly in Avatar: the Last Airbender,

even it can be said that Asian culture plays a dominant role in the series(London

&Hamesley, n.d.). The character designs are heavily influenced by anime

(Japanese animation). This cannot be found inAmerican‟s animation movies and

series that have been mentioned before. There is another interesting aspect of

Avatar, that both creators are Americans but they have produced an animation commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id4

series with Asian setting and culture influences. This animation series was also

produced by many crews coming from different background of culture

(www.avatarspirit.net). There are American, Chinese, Korean, Latin, and

Japanese. The production staff also employs an Asian cultural consultant.

Avatar: the Last Airbendertells a story about a 12-year-old boy named

Aang who was chosen to be an avatar, the world savior. Aang had to save the

world by defeating Fire Lord and his Fire Nation who wanted to dominate the

world. In the journey to save the world Aang met some friends who helped him in

his struggle to save the world, they were Katara, Soka, Toph, and Zuko. All of his

friends came from different background and culture, for instance Katara and Soka

were from Water Tribe, Toph came from EarthKingdom and Zuko came from Fire

Nation. Meanwhile Aang was an air nomad, he is the last and the only air nomad

in the world. In order to save the world, Aang must master the four elements

bending: air, water, earth, and fire bending. This story was ended with a happy

ending, Aang could master the four elements and finally he could defeat the Fire

Lord to save the world.

Avatar: the Last Airbenderis broadcastedfrom 2005 to 2008 by

Nickelodeon, an American cable television channel that specifically broadcasts

programs for children and tenageer. Avatar was set in Asian influenced

world.This animation series was co-created and produced by Michael Dante

DiMartino and Brian Konietzko. Michael Dante DiMartino is the executive

producer, co-creator, and story editor of Avatar series. He is an American

animation director who was born in Point Place, Wisconsin (London &Hamesley, commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id5

n.d.). Brian Konietzko is an American executive producer and co-creator and for

Avatar: the Last Airbender, Brian is a storyboard artist and art director for the

Nickelodeon (ibid). This shows that both of Avatar: the Last Airbendercreators

are Americans. However, they could create a unique cartoon series with Asian

culture influence whichcan be regarded as a successful and popular animation

series (Tony, n.d.)

Avatar: the Last Airbenderis a successful animation series both in US

and outside US.Avatar is popular with both audiences and critics, gathering 5.6

million viewers on its best-rated showing and receiving high ratings in the

Nicktoons program lineup. This series has won many awards such as Pulcinella

Awards 2005 for the Best Action/Adventure TV Series and the Best TV Series,

Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards 2008: Favorite Cartoon, 2008 Peabody

Awards: "Unusually complex characters and healthy respect for theconsequences

of warfare", and many more (www.avatarspiritmedia.net).

Theuniqueness and successfulness of Avatar: the Last Airbendermake

this animation series interesting to be analyzed. Moreover, cartoon or animation

can reflect the anxiety within American culture.A study of animation also offers

insight into mytho-political, and indeed mytho-poetic zeitgeist of a nation (Wells,

1998, p. 6). For that reason, this research choseAvatar: the Last Airbenderas the

object of study. This research tried to find out how American, through Avatar: the

Last Airbenderanimation series, respond to the emergence of global culture. Do

the creators preserve the construction of global culture with the American culture

influence or they respond to the changing course of the global culture or not? commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id6

Thus, it needs to find outhow global culture is constructed in Avatar: the Last

Airbender. The answer of this question leads to the next problem. It is about the

way global culture construction in Avatar: the Last AirbenderpreservesAmerica

dominance, as it is believed that American always maintain their dominance

especially in cultural contestation.

B. Scope of Study

This research focuses on the global culture that emerges recently and how

theAvatar: the Last Airbenderanimation series respondsto the emergence of global

culture. This research tries to analyze theconstruction of global culture in the main

characters, setting, and narration of Avatar: the Last Airbender. This research only

focuses onthe discussion of the three elements of the animation series.It does not

bring the discussion into further analysis of animation because this

researchonlyanalyzes the global culture that emerges in elements ofAvatar: the

Last Airbenderanimation series.

C. Research Questions

Based on the background above, this research formulates research

questions as follows:

1. How isglobal cultureconstructedin Avatar: the Last

Airbenderanimation series?

2. How does the global cultureconstruction in Avatar: the Last

Airbenderpreserve Americandominance? commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id7

D. Objectives of the Study

Based on the research questions, the objectives of the thesis are:

1. To explain how global cultureis constructedin Avatar: the Last

Airbenderanimation series.

2. To explain how the global culture construction in Avatar: the Last

Airbenderpreserves American dominance.

E. Benefits of the Study

This research is conducted in the substances of:

1. Providing data and analysis about global culture especially that

emerges in Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation series.

2. Giving knowledge about the American popular culture especially in

the scope of cartoon and animation series.

F. Research Methodology

1. Type of Research

The method of research employed in the study is descriptive qualitative.

Descriptive qualitative research is a research that collects descriptive data and the

written results of the research contain quotations from the data to illustrate and

give description of the report (Bogdan&Biklen, 1982, p. 27). The collected data

arein the form of words and pictureswhich is taken from the sources of data. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id8

2. Data and Source of Data

This research uses two kinds of data. They areprimary data and supporting

data. The primary data refer to the firsthand observation and study by a researcher

(Berger, 2000, p. 23). The primary data consistsof dialogues, characters and

characterization, and setting of placecollected from the source of data.The source

of data of this research isall of the episodes of the animation series entitled Avatar:

the Last Airbender produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Brian Konietzko.It

comprises all of the season of the series which totally consists of 61 episodes.

The supporting data arein the form of information related to the topic of

the research. The supporting data includes information of the socio-cultural

condition of American society, information related to Avatar: The Last

Airbenderanimation series,other animation series, journals,and internet articles

whichare obtained by browsing the internet and doing library studies.

3. Technique of Collecting Data

The research is started by watching the serial Avatar: the Last

Airbenderrepeatedly in order to understand the story well and collect the data. The

data are collected by watching the series repeatedly and cutting the scenes from

Avatar animation series. The scenes are cut into several still pictures to make the

analysis easier. Then, the scenes are selected to collect the scenes that contain the

issue of global culture. Purposive sampling technique is used to collect the data

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which areappropriated with the research objectives and contained important

information related to the research.

4. Technique of Analyzing Data

The main data are first selected and classified in order to make this

research stay focus on the research questions. After having classified, the data are

analyzed by using some theories. Interdisciplinary approaches are used in

conducting the analysis. The supporting data are also used in the analysis to give a

further information and understanding about the main data.The last step is making

the conclusion to complete the research.

G. Theoretical Approach

Thisresearchis conducted under the framework of American

Studies.American studies isthe study of American culture and it is a branch of

modern literate culture studies that requires knowledge of many discipline (Sykes,

1963, p.255). American Studies is an interdisciplinary study, it allows to enclose

multidisciplinary approaches in analyzing data. It means that several approaches

can be applied to analyze the data. It needs to employ several kinds of approaches

in order to conduct the analysis and answer the problem statement, especially in

analyzing text into context. Neil Campbell and Alasdair Kean state that the center

of an interdisciplinary enterprise is the relationship between text to be studied and

context from which they come (Campbell and Kean, 1997,p. 4). The text which is

analyzed in this research is the Avatar: The Legend of Aang animation series and commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id10

the respond of the emergence of global culture in the series is the context that is

tried to be exposed in the analysis.

One of the American studies‟ focus is on popular culture. Popular culture

can be defined as mass commercial culture that is produced in mass by profit

conscious creators (“Pop Culture”, n.d.). Nachbar and Lause state that popular

culture is a product of culture that has been accepted or approved of by large

numbers of people. Popular culture comes from the society and it reflects the

condition of the society in the form of beliefs and values (Nachbar and Lause,

1992, p. 12). Animation series or cartoon are popular culture products, they are

created by producer in order to gain profit and also enjoyed by large number of

people.

Avatar: the Last Airbender, the source of data in this research, is an

animation series and it is considered a product of American popular culture.

Therefore, popular culture theory can be used to analyze Avatar: the Last

Airbenderto reveal the context existingin it. From this background, hence studying

American‟s response to the emergence of global culture can be conducted through

studying animation series as American popular culture.

Since the object of study is animation, it needs to employ animation

theory to know the basic understanding of animation. The animation theory

studies the creation of animation. It studies how the creation of movement in

paper, manipulating clay, adjusting model and putting into the frames of film

(Wells, 1998, p. 10).However, animation is not just a giving motion to a drawing

or manipulating inanimate things. There is a process of applying idea that make commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id11

animation can carry important meaning and engage with social issues. This

research employs the theory developed by Paul Wells. He argued that studying

animation is about analyzing how meaning is generated by unique vocabulary

available to the animator which is not provided by live-action film-maker(ibid:

11). This is what makes animation different from movie.Movie presents the

construction of the narrative and visual environment by copying the real world, it

is tried to have a construction as similar as the real world.Meanwhile, animation

tends to transform the reality into the construction of its narrative and visual

environment (Holloway in Wells, 1998, p. 10).Therefore, analyzing animation is

different from analyzing movie.

Animation is created with the process of giving movement to an object

through process of drawing, manipulating and adjusting object, and many more.

However,animation is not only an art of movement drawing (Solomon in Wells,

1998, p. 10) but it also a drawing that represents human ideas (Bendazzi in Wells,

1998, p. 7). The creation process also involves the style and idea of the creator.

Therefore, it will produce a distinct feature that only possesses by animation. The

animation theory is used to identify the distinct feature of animation,so that it can

be conducted analysis through this distinct feature.

The research deals with animation series which isproduced through a

construction process. Therefore, it needs a semiotics supported with understanding

of animation theory in conducting the analysis.Semiotics is used as the main tool

to analyze the object of research and to explore how animation as a popular

culture product reflect beliefs and values of American society commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id12

Semiotics has become the main instrument in cultural studies research.

Semiotics can be used for analyzing any product of human culture from pictures,

clothes, body language, including animation film and series. Semiotic is the

science of sign (Berger, 2000, p. 35). It is important to apply the semiotic because

the main data is an animation series that contains many signs.The theory of

prominent figure in semiotics, Roland Barthes, is applied in the analysis.Roland

Barthes‟ theory is based on semiology of Ferdinand de Saussure.Saussure divides

sign into signifiers and signified. The signifiers are the sounds and images, and

the signified are the concept brought by the sounds and images into our mind.

Both of them have an arbitrary relation (ibid:37).According to Barthez, there are

two level of signification; denotation stage andconnotation stage. The signifier

and signified are the first level of signification called as denotation.Behind the

first level of signification, there is secondary significationthat is called as

connotation.Barthezuses the concept of connotative semiotics to reveal the myth

behind a text (Noth, 1990, p. 312).

The animation scenes which are produced through construction process

will deliver denotative and connotative meaning. Therefore the animation scene

must not be interpreted as it is, since it contains connotative meaning. The

connotative meaning in series animation isconstructed in the elements such as

characters, setting, and narration.To understand the connotative behind the

construction, it needs the use of semiotics. However,discovering the connotative

meaning must consider the construction of the animation series element. It is

because different construction produces different meaning.For example in the commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id13

construction of the character, it is found that an American animation character

constructed with Asian appearance and costume. Here, semiotics takes its role as a

tool to read the text.It is used to discover what is happened behind the employing

of Asian culture influence in American animation.

Besides the understanding of the signs in the animation and its

signification,it needs to understand social and cultural background of a society

where the animation series come from. Therefore, this researchemployssosio-

cultural approach.The socio-cultural approach is used to know how human social

and activity are organized through culturally constructed artifact (Lantolf, 2000:

1). The culturally constructed artifact here can be any product of human culture,

Moving picture, such as film and animation, can be categorized as artifact, or

product of culture, that is culturally constructed (ibid). In this research, the socio-

cultural approach is used to analyze the global culture phenomenon existing in the

animation series. It is used to know the influence of the social and cultural

condition toward the construction of global culture in Avatar: the Last Airbender,

especially in its relation to the globalization. The socio-cultural approach can be

applied in analyzing global culture since global cultureemerges from social

intercourse of different people and different cultures (Tomlison, n.d.)

Global culture as a part of globalization process is often believed as the

way of Americanization (Barber, 1998, p. 1). It is parallel with theory developed

by Benjamin R. Barber. It is believed to the ideathat lifestyles, cultures and

consumer behavior will be similar all around the world, which is

Americanization(Capcioglu, 2008, p. 11). American always wants to dominate the commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id14

world in the globalization. One of American‟s tools to achieve this is popular

culture. America adopted and „Americanized‟ local cultures and construct them

into their popular culture product containing American ideology. Then it is

exported to other parts of the world through free-market ideologies (Capcioglu,

2008, p. 11). This research argues that thisis what happens in the construction of

Avatar: the Last Airbender.Using global culture theory, this research tries to

analyze how America preserves the dominance through the construction of global

culture in Avatar: the Last Airbender.

H. Thesis Organization

This thesis is divided into four chapters and each chapter is divided into

some subchapters. Those chapters are Chapter I Introduction, Chapter II Literature

Review, Chapter III Discussion, and Chapter IV Conclusion and

Recommendation.

The first chapter, Introduction is divided into eight subchapters. These are

Research Background, Scope of Study, Research Questions, Objectives of the

Study, Benefits of the Study, Research Methodology, Theoretical Approach, and

Thesis Organization.

The second chapter, Literature Review, contains contextual and theoretical

review. It explains about globalization and global culture, Asian culture,

Animation which comprise American and Japanese animation, and Semiotic

theory.

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The third chapter, Discussion, contains the analysis of the research. It is

divided into two subchapters. The first subchapter discusses about the

construction of global culture in the main characters, setting and narration

ofAvatar: the Last Airbender animation series. The second subchapter describes

how the global culture representation in the series preserves America‟s attempt to

still dominate in the world cultural contestation.

The last chapter, Conclusion and Recommendation, provides explanation

about the result and recommendation of the research.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Globalization and Global Culture

The world is now experiencing a process called globalization, where

everything in the world becomes universal. Globalization refers to the process

which includes activities beyond a nation‟s border, and consolidation of group

within new time and space combination (Capcioglu, 2008, p.10). Globalization is

the result of the development in communication, transportation, and information

technologies. The growing of economy, politic, technology, and culture makesit

easier for the individuals, society, businesses, and governments around the world

to interact. It can be seen as a worldwide socio-cultural phenomenon that affects

every aspects of human culture in everyday life. It seems that the world has no

distanceanymore.

Globalization is mostly attributed to the improvement in

communications, information technologies, and transportations.The development

of communication device, such as cell phone and Internet, has made it much

easier for people togive and to accessinformation. The communications satellites

also allow global television channels to broadcasttheir programs and news all

around the world.Improvements in transportations are also part of globalization.

The advances of transportation vehicle make the world smaller because it only

needs a little time totravel to another place in the world.The advances of

transportations also provide low transportationcommit to user costs ,so it enablesthe companiesto

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ship their products around the world.All of the improvements have influenced

social and cultural activity of the society all around the world.

For a long time, America has a bigcontribution in promoting

globalization.

US culture is now penetrating every continent through the dramatic growth of mass communications such as music, television, films and the Internet, as well as through the penetration of American corporations into foreign countries. From China to France to the Middle East, foreign leaders and activists have expressed fear that global culture may become too Americanized, destroying their own cultural, economic, and religious traditions.(Jaja, 2010, p. 117)

The worldwide spread and dominance of American culture becomes the most

controversial aspects of globalization. Many people fear that the spread of

American culture throughout the world will replace their cultural diversity and

globalization has been seen as Americanization.As stated by Wolfe, some

academics, journalists, and political activists see this as cultural uniformity and

consider it as an enemy (as cited in Heumann, n.d.). In fact, it can be seen that

many people in the world try to adopt and adjust toward American mores and

culture. Thus, this helps the spreading of American brands and commodity across

the world.

A debate about cultural globalization has emergedin social science.There

is always a debate between scholars whether globalization will bring uniformity

and homogenized culture or it will enrich the cultural differentiation by the

interaction between global and local culture. Featherstone states that research in

cultural globalization includes two rival hypotheses (as cited in Capcioglu, 2008,

p. 11). The first theory believesthat cultural globalization brings uniformity of the commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id18

world. The most known theory is developed by Benjamin R. Barbercalled

“McWorld” theory.Barber argues that global culture is American.It is believed

that we live in “McWorld”, a world which is trapped within American culture.

McWorldrepresents anAmerican push into the future animated by

onrushing economic, technological, and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerize peopleeverywhere with fast music, fast computers, and fast food,MTV, Macintosh, and McDonald's -pressing nations into one homogeneous global culture, one McWorld tied together by communications, information, entertainment, and commerce.(Barber, 1998, p. 29).

Barber‟s theory emphasizes on how American culture exported to another place in

the world throughtheir popular culture product.US media and entertainment

industries, such as Disney and Hollywood, play a big role in exporting this

product of culture.

Nowadays, the popular culture industries believe on cultural integration of

the world. They also believe that cultures, lifestyle, and consumer behavior will

become similar all around the world.The process of globalization tends to

homogenize and make some parts of the modern social life universal. People have

accepted the globalization and they have experienced similar culture.

However, at the same time, they try to resist the globalization by

preserving and rebirthing their local and traditional culture. This leads to the

second theory that believes on complex interaction between global and local

culture. This theory emphasizes on how globalization process and local/national

culture become interrelated. Furthermore, thisinteraction can produce cultural

hybridization and cultural differentiation (Capcioglu, 2008, p. 12).Hybridization

always involvesa mixture between two cultures. It often happens when a local commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id19

culture interacts with the global culture. Even, sometimes a mixture of culture

creates a new culture that can not be classified into a certain culture.

This research believed on the theory arguing that globalization has

produced one world culture or called as global culture.This is an impact of three

globalization basic dimensions which consists of economic globalization, political

globalization, and cultural globalization (Smith in Capcioglu, 2008, p. 11).

Theglobal culture is produced by cultural diffusion brought by cultural

globalization.Krzysztofek has defined global culture as the synergetic effect of

market forces, technology, and freedoms of movement; a contemporary variant on

the well-known theme of cultural diffusion, which for centuries has been a subject

of study (Krzysztofek, 2002, p. 4).

Cultural diffusion is the distinct character of global culture than can

spread cultural values and ideas across the universe.Moreover, it also promotes

eclectic forms and borrowings which lead to the development of a new species of

cultures (Canclini in Krzysztofek, 2002, p. 4).For example, it is possible that the

American popular culture compromises with local culture, such as McDonald‟s

burger served with French wine in Paris, Mickey speaking French at Euro-Disney,

or pop music accented with Reggae and Latino rhythms in the Los Angeles barrio

(Barber, 1998, p. 29). As can be seen in the example of the culture

compromise,American culture does not swallow local culture up, instead it keeps

the color and the distinction of local culture.However in the end, the products of

the compromise are still seen as American cultural icons. This is the way

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Americanization happens.It seems like“an innocent Trojan-American horses

nosing their way into other nations' cultures” (Barber, 1998, p. 29).

United States,as a country which has a long time experience in promoting

their popular culture as a commodity, has seen the global culture phenomenon as a

promising trend to maintain their dominance. However, this condition has been

changing by the awakening of Asia.This can be called as a new era of

globalization.The new globalization is coming back to America in hybrid forms

that may include more influences from many sources, especially from the rising

Asia (Tay, n.d.).

Based on Simon Tay‟s argument, the new globalization is not as such

Americanization but is something that could be called "Global-as-Asian" (ibid)

Asia will more easily and increasinglyenter the global commerce and influence. It

can be seen by the increasing number of Asian immigrants in America and the

number of Asians studying in American universities.Popular cultures from Asia,

through Chinese food, Japanese anime, or Korean drama, areprogressively

spreading not only in America but also in some part of the world.However, this

does not mean that Asian influence and culture will fully replace the American‟s

that have spread globally.Asia will only take their place alongside the

Americanized global influences.

B. Asian Culture

Asia is the largest continent on earth. It is also considered as the most

populous continent. Asia encompasses almost 60% of the world population. This commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id21

makes Asia rich in culture diversifications. Asia has many different and unique

cultures. Therefore, Asia can be divided into five areas based on its region and

culture. They are Central Asia, Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and

East Asia.

Central Asia consists of formerly part of the Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics (USSR) such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Southwest

Asia, or known as Middle East, consists of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey,and

Saudi Arabia.However, the cultures existing in Southwest Asian and Central

Asian countries cannot be considered Asian since they are influenced by Arabic

and Russian culture respectively.

While Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia are considered as

regions that are predominantly Asia in culture. Some of Southeast Asia countries

are Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia. South Asia includes India,

Bangladesh, and Pakistan. East Asia includes China, South Korea, and Japan.

Therefore, the term Asian culture in this research only refers to the culture that

comes from the regions that are predominantly Asian in culture, especially East

Asian and South Asian culture.

One of the regions that is predominantly Asian in culture is East Asia. East

Asia cultures mainly consist of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean culture. However,

Chinese culture is very dominant in this region, as the root of the culture in this

region came from Chinese civilization. China was East Asia‟s dominant

civilization in the ancient times. Koreans and Japanese could not avoid the strong

influences of Chinese culture. They adopted features of Chinese art, food, material commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id22

culture, philosophy, government, technology, and written language (“China”,

Microsoft Encarta 2005). For example, Chinese culture influence can be seen in

most East Asian vocabulary and written languages that are often acquired from

Chinese language. There is a similarity that can be found among Chinese,

Japanese, and Korean letters.

Chinese culture has become the root of culture in East Asia region.

Chinese culture had influenced Korea since it was conquered by the Han dynasty

in 3rd century B.C (“China”, Microsoft Encarta 2005). Different from Korea,

Japan which is never conquered by China acknowledged the supremacy of

Chinese culture and adopted it to their culture. However, after a long regeneration

process, both Korea and Japan form their own culture without eliminating the

influence of Chinese culture.

The development of East Asian culture can not be separated from the

major religions that dominate this region. The major religions are Buddhism,

Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Shamanism. Buddhism, Taoism, and

Confucianism are the traditional religions of China. Buddhism is a world major

religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. The most

dedicated followers of Buddhism were organized into the monastery. They are

usually called as Buddhism monks or bhikkus. They live simple ascetic lives of

religious contemplation in monasteries. They can be easily identified by their

shaved heads and their clothes made of unsewn orange fabric. Buddhism is split

up into several sects, one of the sects is Tibetan Buddhism developed in Tibet and

Mongolia. Tibetan Buddhism, also called Lamaism, is led by Dalai Lama. He is commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id23

the spiritual leader and the ruler of Tibet. The Dalai Lama is believed to be a

reincarnation of the Buddha. When he dies, his soul is thought to enter the body of

a newborn boy, who, after being identified by traditional tests, becomes the new

Dalai Lama. (“Dalai Lama”, Microsoft Encarta 2005).

Confucianism is a Chinese traditional philosophy founded by Confucius

which emphasizes on the moral duty of people to another. Basically,

Confucianism is a teaching that combines many elements of philosophy, religion,

and social interaction. Confucianism has influenced the Chinese attitude toward

life, set the patterns of living and standards of social value, and provided the

background for Chinese political theories and institutions. (“Confucianism”,

Microsoft Encarta 2005).Most of Chinese has adopted Confucianism philosophy

into their everyday life, it is like a religion for them. Although Confucianism is

not considered as religion, it has deeply influenced spiritual and political life in

China.

East Asian is also famous for its cuisine, especially Chinese food which is

famous all around the world. Chinese food has many variations, but rice and

noodles are still the staple food. People usually use chopsticks to eat the food. For

the beverage, tea is the most famous and favorite drink in East Asian.

East Asia is also known as the origin of most martial art. There is karate

and judo from Japan; tae kwon do form Korea; and kung fu form China. China is

one of the main birth places of Eastern martial arts and it is famous for the martial

arts called Kung fu. Kung fu does not employ weapons, it punches, strikes, kicks,

and some throws. Kung fu has two main divisions, northern Chinese and southern commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id24

Chinese. The northern styles employ soft movements that emphasize on the use of

the lower body. Baguazhang, Bajiquan, Chāquán and Eagle Claw are some

fighting steps from northern styles. On the other hand, southern style uses strength

movement from the upper body. Some fighting steps from southern styles are Chu

Gar, Hung Gar, Southern Praying Mantis, and so on (Miller, n.d).

C. Animation

The term “animation” is used to describe the process of giving the

illusion of film and computer graphics industries to describe the „animated‟ virtual

characters, avatars and cartoons (Foth, 2006, p. 641). The word “animation”

comes from the Greek/Latin “anima” which means “life” or “soul”. Literally, it is

used for describing the act of giving life or spirit to someone or something, or the

state of being alive. The EncyclopediaAmericana specifically defines “animation”

as follows:

Animated, a motion picture consisting of series of individual hand-drawn

sketches, in which the position of gestures of the figures are varied slightly from one sketch to another. Generally, the series is film and,

when projected on screen, suggest that figures are moving. (EncyclopediaAmericana, vol. 5)

The term animation can be widely used; it does not only apply to creations of

motion pictures but also creations on film, video, computer software and even to

motion toys. Actually, animation is the same as movie. Both of them work based

on the principle of frames per second (the number of images needed to produce

one second of film).

commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id25

A movie usually runs at 24 frames per second, it means producing an

action in movie needs 18-24 frames in a second. In the animation, the animator

must make 24 images for each second of animation that he or she wishes to

create(Wells, 1998, p. 10). Basically, movie and animation consist of many

pictures that are placed on celluloid film and then played frame by frame in

sequences to get the motion picture. However, movie and animation are still

different. The difference is that movie is made from moving object that is

transformed into some still image in each frame of celluloid film. Whereas

animation is made from some pictures recorded frame by frame into celluloid film

to make motion picture.

Animation can be classified into three types according to the creating

technique. There are traditional animation, computer graphic animation and stop

motion animation (Animation, n.d.). The traditional animation is the most

common animation. It can be found in most Walt Disney‟s and Warner Bros‟

animation movies, such as Lion King, Aladdin, Looney Tunes, etc. The traditional

animation is created using hand drawn techniques, all of the pictures of the

character and the background are drawn manually. Avatar: the Last Airbender

animation series is one of animation series using this production technique. The

development of technology also has developed a new kind of animation which is

created using computer or known as computer graphic animation. This kind of

animation is created using computer software, and by using computer, the

animation character looks alive and more realistic. Toy story, Cars, Monster Inc,

and Finding Nemo are some examples of computer graphic animation. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id26

The other kind of animation is stop motion animation. It is created by

physically manipulating real‐world objects and photographing them into one

frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. It uses any media as the

animating object such as puppet, paper cutout and clay. This kind of animation is

also called as claymation, because the clay is often used in the creation. The

Nightmare Before Christmas and Chicken Run are two examples of the stop

motion animation.

There are some countries in the world which are known as good

animation producers. Two of them are Japan with its anime and America with its

Disney. America has developed animation since long time ago. The American

animation production began in the middle of 1850s, as the invention of optical

devices for producing the illusion of animation. Stop-action photography enabled

the production of cartoon films. Then, a famous American animator, Walt Disney,

developed innovative design and assembly techniques of animation industry. He

has produced many series of classic animated films, beginning with Snow White

and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Beside Disney, there were also another animation

producers, such as the Fleischer brothers who produce Betty, Popeye the Sailor

and Superman (1941–1942) and Warner Brothers with Rin Tin Tin and Looney

Tunes (1930).

The animation industry had a good progress and it was well accepted by

the American society. The early of 1930s until 1940s was known as the Golden

Age of American animation (Animation, n.d.). America has produced many

famous and big animation production companies such as Disney, Warner Bros, commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id27

Carton Network, Nickelodeon, Pixar and many other animation companies.

However, Disney was the one that could achieve a big success in the animation

industry. Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Snow White, Pocahontas are several

American animation movies and characters created by Walt Disney which are

very famous in whole part of the world. American animation and Walt Disney

were two things that can not be separated. Disney had very big influence in the

development of American animation.

In the late 20th century, the animation development increased rapidly

along with the implementation of computer animation, as seen in the first fully

computer-generated animated feature, Toy Story (1995). It had moved the

animation to a new level. Previously, the producers of motion-picture and

television animation rejected the using of computer in producing animation for

many years. They argue that using computer system was more expensive than

paying artists to draw the animation. However, today, computers are used

extensively throughout all aspects of the animation industry because the computer

software can help the animators to create their animation figure more

economically and effectively with a more realistic sense of movement.

American animation has developed a lot and it can be easily recognized

by people all around the world. American people regard and accept animation as

one of their precious cultures. It has become one of American popular culture that

widely spreads all over the world and it has special place in the American society.

American animation became an escape from realism (Gillespie, 1998, p. 2).

Animation movies and series are enjoyed by the audience as short escapes from commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id28

the harsh world and depression. From here on, animation becomes a commodity

of popular culture.

The animation industry not only sells theatre seats and commercial spots,

but sells merchandise as well. The capitalist culture has transformed animation to

become a product of culture to gain profit (Artz, 2002, p. 40) and also media for

spreading American hegemony and ideology (Wells, 2002, p. 16). America almost

dominates the market share of animation in the world with its icon of animation.

However, after dominating the world market share for a long time,

American animation is facing cultural forces and economic pressures nowadays.

As stated by Jason Mittell in his book Genre and Television that “Cultural forces

and economic pressures transformed the generic discourse around American

animation throughout the middle of the 20th century” (as cited in Leonard, 2005,

p. 283). It is a big challenge for American animation industry, especially for the

producer and animation production house to keep the market share. Therefore

America animation has to respond to such condition to keep its existence.

Nowadays, it can be seen that there are a lot of animations and films

which are highly influenced by globalization. There can be found a lot of

animations and films that employ global culture as one of the course of

globalization. Some example of the global culture influence can be seen in the

American popular film and animation such as Disney‟sanimationMulan, Cartoon

Network‟s Samurai Jack and Nickelodeon animation series that become the main

object of this research, Avatar the Last Airbender.

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American animation industry recently is also challenged by the rising of

Japanese animation which is known as anime. There are a lot Japanese animations

entering American and global market. The anime industry has shown an

exponential growth in the United States (Leonard, 2005, p. 282). Japanese anime

such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, PokemonandNaruto could gain large number

of fans in United States. Indirectly, it had given a quite serious threat to American

animation industry.

Anime is Japanese animation created initially for the Japanese market.

Anime is closely related to comic books called manga in Japan. Anime began to

blossom after World War II. In 1960‟s, the modern anime began as the creation of

Tetsuwan Atom or Astro Boy, the first animated television series in Japan. The

story of anime is very broad, the story ranges from light and humorous story to

serious content that involves deeper thematic and philosophical concerns

(Gillespie, 1998, p. 3). Most of anime are created for children entertainment but

there are also many anime containing adult theme such as sex and violence. This

characteristic makes Japanese anime different from American animation.

American animation usually employs simple story that is easy for kids to follow.

The character design of anime is also different from American cartoons.

Most of anime characters are realistic and based on the proportion of human body

(Gillespie, 1998, p. 3). It can be seen in Sailor Moon and Naruto, most of the

characters in both anime are human and they are designed as similar as possible to

real human. Meanwhile, the characters of American animation look more

imaginative and ignore the human body proportion (ibid). Even, American commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id30

animation often uses animals or robots forthe characters,Mickey Mouse is one of

the characters in animal form. It is often found that the characters of American

animation do not have proportion of human body, for example, it can be seen in

Arnold (the main character of Nickelodeon‟s Hey Arnold) which has a head like a

rugby ball, or The Simpsons family which are bizarre yellow human.

However, the differences do not make any of both animations inferior to

one another. They are only distinctive features that distinguish one from another

and also guidance for the research analysis. Every cartoon and animation has its

own glory and also represents its era. Paul Wells, in his book Animation and

America, stated that cartoon and computer animated film can reflect the anxieties

within American culture, and offered insight into mytho-political, and indeed

mytho-poetic zeitgeist of a nation (Wells, 2002, p. 1).By studying and analyzing

American animation, it can be seen the spirit of the age experienced by American

society. By analyzing American animation, it can show the condition of the

society inside the nation. It has made animation as another research object to

study American culture.

However, the zeitgeist and the ideology embedded in the animation

sometimes can not be seen directly and clearly.The animation is a representation

of the creator‟s idea (Bendazzi in Wells, 1998, p. 7). This idea is expressed

through a drawing and the construction of animation.The drawing and the

construction of animation may contain a connotative meaning, thus it can be

regarded as a sign.Therefore study animation also can be conducted through

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semiotics, as the tool to see the zeitgeist and ideology existingbehind the

animation since it constructed in the form of sign.

D. Semiotics Theory

Semiotics is the study of signs, it is a science to interpret the sign.

Semiotics is also referred to semiology and it is often confused between the term

semiotic and semiology. Semiotics is used to refer to the philosophical tradition of

the theory developed by Charles S. Pierce, while semiology refers to of the

linguistic tradition of theory of signs developed by Ferdinand de Saussure

(Sebeok in Noth 1990, p. 14). Today, semiotics is generally accepted as a more

general term which includes semiology as one of its branches (Noth 1990, p. 13)

The use of semiotics to the interpretation of culture was introduced by

Roland Barthes. He analyzes cultural product, especially popular culture products,

from professional wrestling to striptease, from toys to plastics, and many more.

His influential works were published in 1973 in a book entitled Mythologies.

Barthes bases his theory on Saussure‟s. For Saussure, semiology is „a science

which studies the role of signs as part of social life‟ (as cited in Chandler, n.d.).

Saussure‟ theory states that a sign is composed by sounds and images, which is

called as signifiers, and the concepts that bring to mind, which is called as

signified (Berger, 2000, p. 37).

Signifiers, composed by sounds and images, are something that can be

seen, touched, heard, smelt or tested and they can be easily found in everyday life.

Therefore, anything can be taken as a sign in semiotics (Eco in Chandler, n.d.). commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id32

According to Saussure, the relation between signifiers and signifieds is arbitrary

and based on the convention (as cited in Berger, 2000, p. 38). For example, the

word „book‟ which means a set of written, printed, or blank sheets bound together

into a volume. The word „book‟ can be imagined as a notebook, a story book, or a

novel by people when they hear the word. The society has a convention about the

word „book‟, so it will not be imagined as lamp, chair or other things.

Barthes considers Saussure‟s model of sign as the first level of

signification, so he develops a second level of signification to Saussure‟s model of

sign. Sign is not only composed by signifier and signified, but there is also

inferred meaning behind the sign (Barthes, 1999, p. 115). Barthes' theory provides

two stages of signification; the first stage is denotation stage and the second is

connotation stage (Noth, 1990, p. 311). The stages of signification can be

illustrated like the scheme below:

1. Signifier 2. Signified Language

3. Sign

Myth I SIGNIFIER II SIGNIFIED

III SIGN

The first stage is denotation stage, it shows the relation between the signifier and

the signified which delivers denotative sign. The denotative sign signifies a literal

meaning, which can be drawn directly from the image and the concept. For

example, a picture of a man means the man itself or literally means as adult male commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id33

human. Saussure‟s model of signification just analyzes the sign in this stage, it is

only in the level of language or linguistic system.

According to Barthes, there is another level of signification, called as

connotation stage. In the second stage, the sign of the first stage becomes the

signifier. Then, the new signifier has the new signified and produces a new

sign.Barthes defines the secondary signification as „myth‟ which is described as a

dominant ideology of our time (Chandler, n.d). Myth is not defined as a form of

narrative, but as a phenomenon of everyday life. Myths can appear in advertising,

films, life, or the daily food of a given culture (Noth 1990, p. 376). The most

famous example of the workings from his essay is taken from the cover of the

French magazine Paris Match (1955).

I am at the barber‟s, and a copy of Paris Match is offered to me. On the cover, a young Negro in a French uniform is saluting, with his eyes uplifted, probably fixed on the fold of the tricolour. All this is the meaning of the picture. But, whether naively or not, I see very well what it signifies to me: that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by

this Negro in serving his so called oppressors. I am therefore faced with a greater semiological system: there is a signifier, itself already formed with

a previous system (a black soldier is giving the French salute); there is a signified (it is a purposeful mixture of Frenchness and militariness); finally there is a presence of the signified through the signifier (Barthes in Storey,

2009, p. 119).

Barthes begins the analysis in the primary level of signification that signifies a

portrait a young Negro in a French uniform saluting the French flag. Then the

primary sign, the black soldier saluting the French flag, becomes the signifier and

produces secondary signification that signifies a positive image of French

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imperialism Finnaly, it can be concluded that Paris Matchmagazine tries to

represent a positive image of French imperialism (Storey, 2009, p. 119).

Barthes uses the concept of connotative semiotics to reveal the myth

behind the texts. And as Barthes suggests, „myth has a double function: it points

out and it notifies, it makes us understand something and it imposes it on us‟ (as

cited in Storey, 2009, p. 121). Therefore, by analyzing a sign and revealing the

myth, it can inform us what really happens and also what ideology that the sign

wants to be delivered.

Barthes argues that the orders of signification, denotation and connotation

stages combine to produce ideology. The ideology is transmitted into sign,

therefore by revealing on sign system it is possible to reveal the message existed

behind the sign (Chandler, n.d). The ideology comes from dominant groups in

society, as Barthes states that it is “a body of ideas and practices, which by

actively promoting the values and interests of dominant groups in society,

defending the prevailing structures of power” (Storey, 2009, p. 119). And, the

myth is used to hide the ideological function of signs and codes. Moreover signs

also have the potential to signify multiple meanings as each society has different

convention for the meaning of the sign (ibid). To understand the ideology behind

the sign, it needs an understanding about the society where the myth comes from

since every society has different ideology and culture.

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CHAPTER III

DISCUSSION

This chapter contains the analysis of Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation

series which answers the research questions: how global cultureis constructedin

Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation seriesand how the global cultureconstruction

in the series preserves American domination in the realm of popular culture.

This chapter consists of two subchapters. The first analyzes how the

notion of global culture isconstructed in Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation

series. This chapter is then divided into three points with each point analyzing the

main element of the animation series which is thecharacters, the setting and the

plot. The second subchapter analyzes how the global culture construction in the

animation series preserves American domination.

A. THE CONSTRUCTION OF GLOBAL CULTUREIN AVATAR: THE

LAST AIRBENDER

Avatar: the Last Airbender is an animation series created by two American

animators. However, it differs from common American animation since it is rich

with influences of Asian culture. The influence, for instance, can be found in its

drawing: the animation series has more characteristics of anime or Japanese

animation. Hidayat and Zpalanzani (n.d) argues that American animators usually

draw their human characters as animal or unatural to be perceived as human.

They also argue that American animationscommit to userusually have contrast color and thick

35 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id36

drawing. Characters of Disneys or superheroes meet the chriteria of American

animation style as proposed by Hidayat and Zpalanzani.

However, such characteristics are not presented in the Avatar series. The

anomators of the series decided to deviate the common drawing of the American

animation and imbue Japanese animation style in their work. Therefore, the

characterization, the drawing, and the coloring of Avatar: the Last Airbender is

similar to anime. Unlike typical American animation series, the Avatar series has

soft drawing, natural color and human character.

It has been stated earlier that the Avatar: the Last Airbender is very rich

with influences of Asian culture. They can be seen in the construction of the

characters, the setting and the plot. For example, Asian culture nuance can be

seen in the representations of architecture, fashion, and decoration.

The adaptation of Asian culture into an American animation, therefore,

suggests that Avatar: the Last Airbenderis created as American response to the

raising of Asia power. As explained in the previous chapter, the world is now

experiencing a new form of globalization,called "Global-as-Asian" (Tay, n.d.).

With the new form, Asian culture may become the new global culture to replace

the long time domination of American culture. This phenomenon may suggest

that American society feel anxious that their global domination will soon be

taken over by Asian power.

The creation of Avatar: the Last Airbendercan be said as a response of

how Americans try to deal with their anxiety of the rising Asian power. Its

creators have chosen a bold move to modify the style of American animation by commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id37

imbuing it with values of Asian culture. They maybe do so to maintain their

profit and domination in the market.

The creators bring Asian culture into the animation series and construct it

with their point of view. They try to combine American and Asian culture in the

Avatar: the Last Airbenderthrough the elements of the series, such as the setting,

plot and characters. The combination presented by the creators can be regarded as

a global culture since there is a compromise between American culture and

another culture (Barber, 1998, p. 29). The American culture influence is

integrated with Asian culture and brought into the animation series as a new

global culture.

1. The Construction of Global Culture in the Setting of Place of Avatar: the

Last Airbender

The global culture construction in Avatar: the Last Airbendercan be seen

clearly in the construction of the nations in the world of Avatar.There are three

nations which are constructed with combination of American and Asian culture

influence. They are the Air Nomads, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation.

The first nation is the Air Nomads. The Air Nomads, the nation where

Aang comes from, is the nation of airbenders.The Air Nomads society consists of

groups of monks who have strong spiritual belief. They live nomadically and

conduct a lot of journey around the world. The Air Nomads are led by the senior

monks of the air temples.

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Figure 1. The comparison of Air Temple and Tibetan monastery

The Air Nomads is constructed with Asian influence, especially Tibetan

influences. The influence can be clearly seen on the construction of the setting of

place. There are a lot of Air Nomad buildings that have similarity with Tibetan

architecture, as seen in the figure 1. The building of the Air temples, like the

Tibetan monastery,is usually very large and has several tall and large towers.

Both of them are also located on a highland. Thus, the Air Nomad, just like the

Tibetan,is isolated.This clearly shows that the Air Nomad is created based on

Tibetan culture.

The other nation in the world of Avatar is the Earth Kingdom. It is the

largest and the most populous nation in the Avatar world. It is a monarchy nation,

led by the Earth King. If one sees the Earth Kingdom, he will easily spot the

influence of Asian culture in it. He may easily deduce that the series‟ creators are

inspired by Chinese culture when making the Earth Kingdom. Chinese culture

influences can be seen clearly from the setting of the nation that shows many

building inspired by Chinese architecture.

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Figure 2. The buildings in the Earth Kingdom inspired by Chinese architecture

The most notable similarity of China and the Earth Kingdom can probably

be found in their acrhitectures. As can be seen in the figure 2, there are two

pictures of the Earth Nation building. The first picture is the wall of Earth Nation

capital, Ba Sing Se, similar to the Chinese‟s Great Wall. Just like the Great Wall,

the“Ba Sing Se Wall” is built surrounding the city to protect it from any attacks.

The other picture from the series is the Earth Kingdom palace which is clearly

inspired by Chinese‟s Forbidden City. The palace where the Earth King lives has

some similar structureswith Chinese‟s Forbidden City, such as the roof and the

wall. Thus far, it can be argued that all settings of place in Avatar: the Last

Airbenderare constructed to situate main characters in the series under the nuance

of Asian culture.

The other nation playing dominant role in the world of Avatar is the Fire

Nation, the nation of firebenders. It is the strongest nation in the world of

Avatar.It has powerful army and sophisticated technology.In the story, it tells that commit to user the Fire Nation attacks the other nation and tries to dominate the world of Avatar. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id40

In some ways, the construction of the Fire Nation has similarity to United States

character and stereotypes.Therefore, it can be argued that the Fire Nation is

constructed to represent America in the animation series.

The Fire nation is portrayed as a wealthy industrial nation in the story.

The nation industry is advanced in shaping metal and manufacturing weapons. It

makes the Fire Nation have more advanced technology than the other nations in

the world of Avatar, especially in weaponry and military.

Figure 3. The Fire nation„s battleship and tank

The series narrate the Fire Nation as a country which has a largearmy and

developed military technology, just like the United States.Therefore, Fire

Nation‟s construction can be regarded as the representation of the United States

since the later is widely regarded as the world‟s sole military

superpower(cnn.com). The storyalso tells that the Fire nation has an ambition to

dominate the world of Avatar using their advanced army and military power.

Another American culture influence in the construction of the Fire Nation

can be seen in the setting of place. Some buildings and architectures in Fire

Nation resemble buildings in the United States, as exemplified in the figure 4

below.

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Figure 4. The Boiling Rock prison inspired from Alcatraz prison

The figure shows Boiling Rock, a prison in the Fire Nation, which is

located on an island in the middle of a lake. The Boiling Rock is surrounded by

water to prevent detainees from escaping. It is a high level security prison located

in the nation to detain the nation‟s most dangerous criminals. The Boiling Rock‟s

building, however, happens to share many similarities with the Alcatraz Prison.

Alcatraz, surrounded by San Francisco Bay, imprisons America‟s most

dangerous criminals. Alcatraz itself is nicknamed the Rock. Therefore, it can be

suggested that the series‟ creators might have been influenced by their perceived

cultural experience when creating the Boiling Rock prison. Therefore, it can be

suggested that Fire Nation represents the United States, which signify Western

culture in the series.

The setting of place in the Avatar: the Last Airbendershows that there are

two culture influences used in the construction.It can be seen that the setting of

world of Avatar is constructed with Asian and American culture influence. The

Asian culture influence is represented by the construction of the Air Nomads and

the Earth Kingdom. While the American culture influence is represented by the

construction of the Fire Nation. The combination of culture that is used in the

construction of the setting of place shows a clear global culture construction.

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2. The Construction of Global Culture in theMainCharacters of Avatar: the

Last Airbender

The global culture construction inAvatar: the Last Airbendercan be seen

clearly in the construction of the main characters. Actually, there are several main

characters in the animation series where each represents each nation narrated in

the world of Avatar. However, this discussion only focuses on three main

characters who are considered to have an important role in the animation series.

The three characters are chosen as the focus of the analysis because the

construction of global culture can be seen clearly on them.

Three main characters analyzed in this discussion are Aang from the Air

Nomads, Toph from the Earth Kingdom and Zuko from the Fire

Nation.Thethreecharactersare constructed under the influence of global culture

because they do not specifically represent American or Asian culture. The

creators construct them to be American and Asian at the same time. Each

character is constructed with different characteristics and complexity. A

charactercan have Asian appearance but with American characteristics and

behaviors, or vice versa.

The character analysis tries to show how global culture is constructed in

the animation series through its main characters. In brief, the construction of the

main characters of Avatar: the Last Airbendercan be simplified into two types of

construction. The first type is the character that is constructed with Asian

appearance,but American in characteristics. It can be found in the construction of

Aang and Toph. The second type is the character who is constructed in American commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id43

appearancebut characterbut Asian in characteristics. This type of construction can

be found in the construction of Zuko.

Aang and TophBei Fong are two main characters in the animation

serieswho are constructed to have Asian appearance and American characters and

behaviors.Both of the characters are created with the combination of Asian and

American culture influence. Moreover, the Asian culture influence can be seen

clearly from their appearance.

Aang is the Avatar from the Air Nomads. The Air Nomads, the nation

where Aang comes from, is the nation of airbenders. In the story, the nation is

banished by the invasion of the Fire Nation. Aang is the only Air Nomad

survivor, so that he is the last airbender in the world of Avatar.

Figure 5. The appearance of Aang, the Avatar, compared to a Tibetan monk

Asian culture can be easily spotted on the look of Aang and Toph. Aang, a

child at the age of 12 years old, is created with the Tibetan influences. For

example, the figure 5shows Aang‟s bald head, akin to its real Tibetan monk

characteristic. His wardrobe, loose robes dominated by orange and brown, also

resembles those of Tibetan monks. By their similar appearance and the costume,

it can be argued that Aang is constructed as a monk with Tibetan influences. The

same appearance can also be seen in other Air Nomads citizens.

commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id44

Figure 6.Toph‟s costumes compare to Korean traditional clothes

Then, Asian appearance is also spotted by Toph, a boyish girl.Toph always

wears a costume which looks like a traditional Korean boy clothes.As can be seen

in the comparison of the first and thesecond frame in figure 6, Tophwears a

trouser and vest, similar to traditional boy‟s Korean clothes. Her costume shows

her masculinity to show her boyish side. However, in episode The Blind Bandit,

Toph is spotted with traditional Korean dress called Hanbok.

Besides their appearance, the characterization and the drawing of Aang

and Toph are similar to Japanese animation or anime. Most characters inAvatar:

the Last Airbender have soft drawing and natural color. It is different from

typical American animation which usually has contrast color and unnatural

human figure. Characters in Avatar: the Last Airbender are constructed more

alike to human. Aang has more proporsional body construction if, for example,

compared to Arnold, another charactercommit created to user by Nicklodeon. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id45

Figure 7. A comparison between Aang and Arnold

As can be seen in the figure 7, Aang has a proposional head and face

construction, similar to a human. Meanwhile, Arnold is more caricatural. His

body and his head are not proporsional and unnatural as human. By the

comparison, it can be said that Arnold is heavily constructed with American

animation influence, while Aang is contructed with some Japanese animation

influences.

Aang is also different from another American animation characters, such

as Spongebob Squarepant, Mickey Mouse, and the Simpsons. Those characters

are created with american animation influence. They have similar characteristic

with Arnold character. However, there is also some American animation

characters, especially Disneys‟ characters, that do not own this American

animation characteristics. It can be seen in the characters such as Snow White,

Cinderella, or Rapunzel which are considered as pretty characters since they are

constructed based on human body proportion. They havedifferent

constructionfrom most American animation because they are not originaly

created by Americans. Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel are adaptation of

European folktales (Artz, 2002, p. 6). Therefore they are not considered as the

American animation.

commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id46

The other Asian culture influence in Aang and Toph character is

alsoshown in their bending ability.Bending is an ability to manipulate elements

and it is used for daily activities or fighting. Aang as an Air Nomad has an ability

to do airbending. He can control air and use it for duel or help him in his daily

activity such as flying or jumping. While Toph has earthbending ability, enabling

her to control rock and soil and form it into something she wants.

Both of earthbending and airbending are inspired by Chinese Kung Fu.

Most of the bending movements even indeed employ some Kung Fu style. In the

Literature Review, it has been discussed that Ba Gua and Hung Gar are part of

Kung Fu style. Both are fighting steps coming from different divisions of Kung

Fu style.Airbending is created based on Ba Gua fighting step which comes from

the nothern style, while earthbending is based on Hung Gar style which comes

from the southern style.

However, even thoughAsianculture influence dominantly affects the

appearance of Aang and Toph, both of them are constructed to act and behave

like Americans. In Aang, American culture influence is seen from his hobby, like

surfing. In the series, Aangoften shows some tricky movements with his ability to

manipulate air with his glider.Aang‟s glider is a tool made of wood and shaped

like a big Asian fan. Aang uses it for helping him to fly and fight. Aang uses his

glider and airbending ability for surfing in some episodes of the series.

Surfing is an extremely popular American sport in the world. Surfing was

developed in the United States in 1950s – 1960s and is still popular in American

culture. Initiated by the Hawaiian people, now surfing is transformed into commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id47

American‟s sport depicted in various works of popular culture. Americans do not

deem surfing merely as a “sport” but also as a way of life. Through surfing,

Americans create their own language, etiquette, fashion and music. Eventually,

surfing has created a whole culture of itself which is called as surf culture.

Surfing culture originates in Hawaii and was a spiritual way of life for

thousands of people including Hawaiian Royalty (Crawford, n.d.). Surfing is a

way of life for these seafaring people and forms an important part of their

society. Afterwards, the annexation of Hawaii to the United States brought a new

cultural ethos of surfing to the American visitors which emerged American spirit

of masculinity and rugged adventure. The Americans make surfing as the

manifestation of their desire in taming the nature(Corne, 2009, p. 433).In surfing,

the surfer can control the power of the ocean by riding on the crest of a wave.

Surfing is also assumed as a man‟s world since it is dominated by man. The

domination of man in surfing is also proved by the fact that most of the

Californian surfers are middle class white males who are fit and healthy (Flint,

1999, p. 2).

Figure 8.Aang can do some tricky movements with his glider similar to surfing

Aang is described to own this “surfing lifestyle.” As shown in the first

commit to user picture in figure 8,Aang“airsurfs” with his glider. Aang stands on his glider and perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id48

does some movements like surfing in the sky, he also looks smiling and enjoying

the surfing. Then, the next frame, taken from episode The Awakening, shows

Aangwindsurfs when he crosses the ocean. In this scene, Aang uses a piece of

wood and his glider as the surfboard. This is almost like the real life version of

windsurfing. It can be seen in the two scenes that Aang is doing some actions that

are similar to the real world surfing. But why the creators choose surfing as the

American influence in Aang characterization?

From the semiotic point of view, at the denotative level, the scene signifies

a boy in monk appearance is surfing using a tool shaped like a big Asian fan as

the surfboard. However, it is not just a boy who surfs. At the connotative level,

the scene signifies a combination of American spirit and Asian influence in Aang

character.Surfing is an extreme water sport that needs strong body and agility.

Surfing also represents the American spirit in taming the nature. So, by

employing surfing scene, the creators want Aang to be seen as a nimble and

active character who representsAmerican spirit.

The scene wants to contrast Aang as an Asian monk, who is usually calm

and passive, with Aang as “your nextdoor American boy.” With this construction,

audiences both in Asia and America, can still correlate themselves with

Aangcharacter. Thus, it can be said that Aang is constructed as a monk with

Asian appearance but he behaves and possesses American active character and

spirit.

commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id49

Figure 9.Aang is kissing Katara

Another construction of American culture influence in Aang‟s character is

shown in the kissing scene in episodes Sozin’s Comet and The Day of Black Sun.

Frames in the figure 9 scenesshow kissing scenes of Aang and Katara. The scene

here shows a passionate lip-to-lip kissing.The scene becomes crucial to analyze

because as stated earlier, Aang is influenced with Asian culture. His

representation itself resembles those of Tibetan monks, who in reality are

forbidden to engage in love. But then, the series‟ creators break the Tibetan

monks‟ tradition by narrating Aang to kiss his girlfriend Katara.

Kissing scenes often appear in many American movies and animation

series. The scenes become the romantic part of the series to show love, greeting,

respect and friendship. Kissing is common in any culture of the world but

expressed in various customs and traditions. In American culture, a lip-to-lip kiss

is considered as a sexual or romantic kiss, which is carried out by lovebirds to

express their love. Americans find it common to display such a kiss in public.

Meanwhile, kissing on one of the cheeks is usually done between friends and

family. For American culture, this kiss is also commonly used as a salutation.

Hence, kissing is a common custom in American culture that can be found in

everyday life.

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Aang and Katara‟s kissing scene, if seen literally, shows a kissing of a

monk and a girl. Aang, a monk, is kissing Katara, the girl he loves. In American

culture, such a scene is undisputed because the scene only expresses a lovebird

that is displaying their affection. However, the scene becomes disputable because

the actor of the scene is a supposedly Asian boy, who also happens to be a monk.

In Asian culture, it is improper for a monk and even an underage to kiss a

girl‟s lip passionately. Such a kiss is still taboo for kids raised in Asian culture.

Therefore, Aang and Katara‟s kissing scenes then connotatively signify that the

former tries to distance himself from Asian culture. He is like stating that he is

also influenced by American culture. It is another scene that shows Aang as

American boy who behaves like a typical American.

American culture influence can also be seen in the behavior of Toph, a

boyish girl.She often acts and wants to be treated like a boy. She is known as the

strongest among the main charactersof the animation series. The series narrates

that Toph joins a male-dominated professional earthbending wrestling

competition.

Figure 10.Toph in Earth Rumble competition

In the animation series, it is told that Toph is the champion of Earth

Rumble competition. She is knowncommit as the to Blind user Bandit and comes up to the arena perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id51

as a boy. In the episode of “Blind Bandit”, the American influence can be seen in

Toph‟s behavior when she joins the competition. She is constructed to act like a

real professional wrestler. It can be seen in the first picture of figure 10that

Tophlifts up and shows off her champion belt to the audience when she enters the

arena.This gesture is often shown by the professional wrestling athletes when

they enter the ring.The gestures are acted to show that they are the champion and

the strongest, as a proof of their superiority and masculinity. While, the second

picture in figure 10 is a cut from a scene when Tophwins an Earth Rumble

match.It is a gesture that is shown by professional wrestling athletes when they

win the match. As can be seen in the second picture, Toph raises her hand and

yells to express her feeling after winning the match. Toph is seen so masculine

when she does this gesture. She looks strong in this scene eventhough her body is

small, especially by the employing of low camera angle. By portraying Toph as a

champion of earthbending competition and employing some masculine gestures

into her character, the creators have successfullyconstructedAmerican

masculinity in Toph character.

Another Toph‟s behavior showing an American value can be seen in the

episode of “The Chase”.Toph is shown very independent and individualin this

episode. It is told that Toph has just joined in Aang‟sand his friend‟s

journey.There is a scene when the group takes a break after the long

journey.They have to set up a camp, make a fire, and collect some food to

eat.They help each other and have their own duty to do. However, Toph does not

help the group preparing the shelter, she prefersto prepare anything for herself. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id52

Toph thinks that she can fulfill all her needs by herself without anyone‟s

help.Katara, a member of Aang‟s group, does not like Toph‟s attitude and asks

her to help them.

Katara : So, Toph, usually when setting up camp we try to divide up the work.

Toph : Hey, don't worry about me, I'm good to go. Katara : Well, actually, what I'm trying to say is, uh, some of us might fetch water while someone else might set up the fire pit or put up the tent. Even Momo does his fair share. Toph : Katara, I'm fine. I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire, I've already collected my own food, and look. My tent's all set up.

Katara asks Toph to help setting up their shelter because it is a duty for each

member of the group. As Toph has joined the group, Katara considers that she

must help the others doing their task. In the contrary, Toph shows an ignorant

attitude and prefers being independent.

Toph‟s behavior in this scene can be seen as a representation of American

individualism. Americans are considered as an individualist society and they

respect individual privacy. Everybody has his/her own business and does not

want the others involved in their business and vice versa. They will try to fulfill

all the need independently as they can. Americans prefer being independent

rather than being communal. Americans may do and join any groups, but they

resist being thought of as representatives of the group(Kohls, n.d.). They can

enter a group and easily leave it. It also happens to Toph in the story; her

individualism bring her into a conflict with the group. Then, the conflict makes

Toph leave the group not long after she joins them. Though, it is only temporary

in the story, she comes back to the group in the other episode.In the scene, Tophis

portrayedas an individual and independentcommit to user character. Tophhas joined the group perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id53

but she still stands as an individual that can fulfill her needs by herself without

the help from the group. Therefore, she considers that the group‟s problem is not

her problem.It can be seen that Toph shows American individualism in her

behavior.

American culture influenced behaviors that have been shown through the

episodes obviously strengthen the characterization of Aang and Toph. Aangis

constructed as superhero and Tophis constructed as a boyish girl.Aang as Avatar

is constructed as the superhero in the animation series. He has some special

abilitiesand a duty to save the world from danger. Fingeroth defines superheroas

persons having heroic characteristics (i.e. surpassing their own fears and

limitations) who have fantastic powers, advanced technology or “who are just

plain brave/crazy/lucky” (Fingeroth, 2004, p. 16), thereforeAang character can be

regardedas superhero. The superhero construction in Aang character tends to be

American superhero character eventhoughAanghas an appearance as an Asian

monk. Moreover, Aang has some similar characteristics compared to American

superhero such as Iron Man and the Flash.

Aang has some special abilities that are not possessed by the others in the

world of Avatar. Aang as the Avatar is the only person who has an ability to

master the four bending; airbending, earthbending, waterbending and

firebending. Some of the bending abilities are similar to the abilities of famous

American superhero, Superman. Firebending that can burn anything is similar to

Superman‟s heat vision. Waterbendingand airbending somehow look like

Superman‟s super breath. Waterbending and Superman‟s super breath can cool commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id54

and freeze an object, while airbending which can blow anything with huge power

is the same as Superman super breath. Aang and Superman also have speed

ability. They can run like the wind.

Figure 11.Aang abilities compared to Superman‟s

The comparison between Aang‟s abilities and Superman‟s shows that the

existing of American superhero concept in Aang character. However, there is a

point that makes Aang different from the former American superheroes which is

fully constructed to represent America. Aang is constructed to respond to the

changing values of American society.The construction and concept of superhero

change frequently since superhero must represent the values of the society

producing him (Fingeroth, 2004, p. 17).Aang is constructed as a response to the

emergence of global culture which now tends to be global-as-Asian (Tay, n.d.).

Thus, Aang is differently constructed from another American superhero, the

character must be constructed according to the trend of global culture to be

accepted by the market and the society.Aang is constructed by combining Asian commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id55

culture influence in his appearance and American culture influence in his

characterization.Aang appearance as a monk is enough to show the influenceof

Asian culture, while the influenceof American culture is shown in his behavior

and the construction as superhero.Therefore, even Aang has Asian look, he

behaves just like an American.

The similar construction also can be found in characterization of

Toph.Toph is constructed to be a girl who has Asian appearance but her behavior

shows astrong American cultureinfluence. The American culture influence shows

in the construction of Toph as a sassy and independent girl.The construction of

shows an American culture influence, which is the influence of girl power

movement.

Girl power movement is a cultural phenomenon which arises in United

States in 1990s until today.The girl power movement gives a great influence

toward girls and women in U.S. It positions girls as smart, sassy, assertive, and

independent (Bettis& Roe, 2008, p. 3). It changes the society archetype of

women. It is no longer passive, submissive, tender, and weak to be an ideal

woman. Women can be anything they want, they can be independent women,

heroines, even gaining power to achieve success.

The girl power movement influences the television and movies industry.

It changes the old archetype of girl in the movies and television shows that

always become a passive victim into an empowered girl (Bettis& Roe, 2008, p.

3). Therefore, girl can be sassy, tough and independent in nowadays movies and

TV show (Costi, n.d.). They are few American animation and movie characters commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id56

who have similar character with Toph. This kind of characterscan be seen in

movies and TV show such as Buttercup in thePowerpuff Girls(1998) and

KatnissEverdeen in Hunger Games (2012). They are heroine characters who are

agile and able to fight.

Figure 12.Toph,Buttercup, and KatnissEverdeen

Thus, it can be said that Toph character construction is influenced with

girl power movement.However, the construction of Toph has uniqueness and

difference that can not be found in the characters mentioned before. The

uniqueness is shown in the construction of Toph as a sassy and independent girl

in Asian appearance and Asian traditional costume.Eventough, the Asian culture

influence is only employed in Toph‟sappearance, it can present a character that

combines Asian and American influence.

Both Toph and Aangare constructed by the creators with the same

formula, Asian influence in appearance and American influence inbehavior. The

creators do not construct characters that fully show American character.It can be

seen that there is a construction changing in the American animation character.

Formerly, the character used to be regarded as global culture and it always shows

a full American character. It means that the character is constructed to have both commit to user American appearance and behavior. As American culture was popular around the perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id57

world and regarded as a global culture, the animation product showing American

character was accepted and popularized around the world. However, it changes

nowadays because the global culture trend begins to change into global-as-Asian

since the raising of Asian power. The animation character is not only constructed

by American culture influence but it is also influenced by Asian culture, as can

be seen in Toph and Aang character. They are constructed in Asian appearance

but they still possess some American characters. It means that the creators still

preserve American culture influence, eventhough they constructthe character with

Asian culture influence.

After discussing the construction of the characters of the animation series

whohave Asian appearance and American character, the discussion now analyzes

another character, Zuko, who has different construction from the two

aforementioned characters. Zuko is constructed to have American appearance but

Asian characters

Zuko is the Fire Nation Prince, a member of the Fire Nation royal family.

As a prince of the Fire Nation, he is then expected to exhibit Western values as

he will inherit the throne of his father.

Figure 13.Zuko compared with Disney‟s prince charming character

Zuko character is constructed and inspired by the so-calledPrince Charming, an

American cartoon character that commitusually toappears user in a fairy tale, mainly in many perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id58

Disney animations. He is always paired with the main female character of fairy

tale. Prince Charming is usually portrayed to have handsome face and charming

personality, similar to his name. This construction can be found in Zuko

character. Ignoring the scar on his face, Zuko is constructed as a prince who also

has handsome face.Therefore, it can be suggested that the creators try to put Zuko

in equal status as Prince Charming.

Figure 14. The comparison of Fire Nation‟s armor suit and Roman armor suit

Zuko‟s American, or Western culture, influence can also be seen in his

costume (see figure 14). The frame shows Zuko donning a Fire Nation‟s metal-

made armor suit. The suitserves to protect the user‟s torso from shoulder to

stomach. It also equipped with a helmet to protect the head. Zuko‟s armor,

surprisingly, is similar to an armor suit of a Roman soldier, used to protect their

body in a battle. With such similarity, then it can be concluded that Zuko‟s

costume is influenced by western culture influence, especially the Roman culture.

Eventhough it cannot be directly regarded as an American culture, but it can

represent Western culture that is the root of American culture.

Thus far, the discussion has shown that prince Zuko is constructed mainly

under the influence American, orcommit Western to values.user As a prince – a role model for perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id59

his people – Zuko is also expected to cultivate his nation‟s values. But, the

creators of Avatar: the Last Airbender, once again, play along with this character.

They abandon the concept of Zuko as Prince Charming and instead, instill Asian

values in him.

Figure 15. The scene where Zuko cut his hair

Episode The AvatarState, for example, depicts a scene which is

constructed with Asian culture influence. In this scene, (see figure 15), Zukocuts

his hair after being banished from the Fire Nation palace.If the scene is seen

through the semiotic point of view, there is two levels of meaning that can be

asserted. At the denotative level, the scene signifies a teenage prince that cut his

long hair. However, it is more than a boy who cut his hair if it is seen at the

connotative level. There is an Asian culture values which the scene tries to

promote.

In ancient Japan, long hair is a symbol of honor and self-regard for a man,

especially for the Japanese swordsman, the Samurais (Gumilang, n.d). In Edo

period, men will tie their long hair upon their heads. Even, a samurai will not cut

his hair without any important reason. A Samurai only cuts his hair when he loses

in a battle or fails in performing his duty. A Samurai loses his warrior title when

he cuts his long hair and then becomes an ordinary citizen.

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This also happens to Zuko in the story. He cuts his hair after being

banished from his palace. Then, he decides to be an ordinary citizen by cutting

his long hair knot, as hair knot is a symbol and an identity for Royal family

member of the Fire Nation. This behavior constructed in this scene clearly

represents an Asian culture. But, without proper understanding of Asian culture,

one will fail to spot it as one. This scene also shows that Zuko behaves and thinks

like an Asian.

Another Asian culture influence can be found in the story when Zukotries

to re-master his firebending skill.Firebending is an ability practiced by the people

of the Fire Nation. It is an ability to produce and control the fire power.

In the earlier story, Zukoacquires his firebending power using his anger.

But then, he somehow loses his firebending skill and needs to re-master it. He

then travels with Avatar Aang to a temple where pacifist fire benders live. There,

he meets a couple of dragon that is regarded as the master of firebending. The

dragons teach Zuko and Aang that one must not rely on anger and physical

energy if he wants to master firebending because they are the source of negative

energy. The dragons say that the prince and the Avatar must instead draw the

power of the sun, source of positive energy, to be able to bend fire.

The narration, if looked deeper, conceals the wisdom of Asian culture.

Western culture does not have philosophical understanding teaching them that

sun is the source of positive power. But, in Asia, in Japan specifically, sun is the

source of positive energy. Japanese even worship sun because they regard it as

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Another Asian influence also can be seen in Zuko‟s way of thinking. He

prefers to createfirebendingusing positive energy coming from his mental power

rather than the physical negative energy. It is very philosophical and “so Asian”

since most Asian martial arts emphasize on mental power besides the physical

power.

From the analysis, it can be seen that Zuko is constructed as an American

outside but Asian inside. His character is full of contradictory, just like Aang and

Toph.Aang, Toph and Zuko are constructed by combining American and Asian

culture, therefore making it difficult to refer whether they are “Asian” or

“American”. Their characters are too complex to be simplified under a certain

label.

Eventough Asian culture influence more dominates their character‟s

constructions,Americanculture influence is also still preserved by the creator.

This complex characterization, therefore, makes Aang, Toph and Zuko appear in

the animation series as a new global culture construction.

3. The Construction of Global Culture in the Narration of Avatar: the Last

Airbender

The construction of global culture is also found in the narration of the

animation series.There are several part of the animation series‟ narration that is

constructed with the combination of Asian and American culture. For example,it

can be seen in the episode of “The Blind Bandit” and“Tales of Ba Sing Se”

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In the episode of “The Blind Bandit”, there is a plot that tells a

competition held in the Earth Kingdom.The competition is called as The Earth

Rumble. The Earth Rumble competition is a professional earth bending wrestling

competition in the Earth Kingdom. It is a competition to look for the strongest and

most powerful earth bender in the kingdom. To do so, participants must win all

matches by defeating all of opponents. The winner will be regarded as the

Earthbending Champion and win the Earth Rumble belt.

Figure 16. The comparison of the Earth Rumble and sumo arena

Basically, Earth Rumble competition is constructed with American and

Asian culture influence. It combines Japanese sumo and American pro-wrestling.

The Japanese influence can be seen in the construction of the Earth rumble arena

and the rule of the match. The arena is similar to sumo arena as can be seen in the

figure 16. It has rectangular shape and the surface of the arena is higher than the

ground. The Japanese influence also can be found in the Earth Rumble‟s rule of

the match. The participant must knock the opponent out of the ring to win the

match. It is similar to the rule of sumo which requires the participants to knock

the other out of the arena to win the match.

Beside the Japanese culture influence, the Earth rumble is also created

based on the American professional wrestling competition which is called World

Wresting Entertainment or WWE.commit American to user professional wrestling is a perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id63

competition that combines sport and entertainment. Professional wrestling is very

popular in United States. Even, it is aired regularly every weekend on national

television. For Americans, professional wrestling is a show that represents their

desire of masculinity (Ford, n.d.). The competition is full with men‟s attributes.

Most of the competition participants appear with muscular body and topless

costume to show their muscles. Professional wrestlers are also very popular and

adored by their fans. The professional wrestling venue is always full with the

fanatic fans. This shows that professional wrestling is a popular sport in the

United States. However, professional wrestling is not considered as a real sport

(Kreit, 1998, p. 16). It tends to be seen as a show for entertaining purpose since it

emphasizes on the entertainment element rather than the sport element.

The American pro-wrestling influence can be seen in the appearance of the

competition participant. The participants of Earth Rumble come up in

extravagant appearance similar to the pro-wrestler in WWE. They create their

own unique names, costumes, and fighting skills in order to gain self confidence

and fans. For example, the Gecko, he appears with a mask covering his face. It is

similar to the appearance of a WWE participant named Rey Misterio. As can be

seen in the figure 17, the Gecko is wearing a green mask and costume to have

extravagant appearance.

commit to user Figure 17. The Gecko and Rey Mysterio perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id64

The Earth Rumble as part of Avatar: the Last Airbender plot does not miss

from the global culture construction. The combination of Japanese sumo and

American pro-wrestling presents an interesting construction in the plot of Avatar:

the Last Airbender.The Earth Rumble construction indirectly shows a similarity

between American and Asian culture. It shows that both of cultures own a sport

match which is used as entertainment. Therefore, the combination of sumo and

pro-wrestling can be regarded as a proper choice by the creators of the series.

The episode of “Tales of Ba Sing Se” also shows a combination of Asian

and American culture. This episode tells that Toph and her friend, Katara, go for

spa day. They arrange “girl‟s day out” activity and go to the Fancy Lady Day

Spa, a spa resort in Earth Kingdom capital.Here the Asian culture influence has

shown clearly by the appearance of the spa resort building. As can be seen in the

figure 18, the building of the spa appears in Asian architecture. Even, the

nameplate of the spa resort is written in Chinese letters. Moreover, the spa

workers who appear in Chinese traditional costume strengthen the Asian culture

nuance.

Figure 18. The Asian culture influence in the Fancy Lady Day Spa

The story continues with Toph and Katara‟s activity in their “girl‟s day out”.

They are treated as in the normal spa treatment that can be found in the real

world, such as pedicure, mud bath,commit and do to some user make over in their make up. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id65

This plot is included a “girl‟s day out” habit which is usually practiced by

American girl. They go to the salon or spa to get beauty treatment. “Girls‟ day

out” actually is an activity practiced by American girls when they feel the need to

break from the everyday routine and experience something different. This

activity is usually filled by shopping, watching movie, visiting spa, and many

more.

This is a unique construction in the story of Avatar: the Last Airbender. It

constructs the “girls‟ day out” activity in the Toph‟s character which is

constructed in Asian appearance. The combination of the “girls‟ day out‟ activity

in the spa resort which has Asian culture nuance presents a global culture

construction in this plot.The “girls‟ day out” activity represents the American

culture influence, while the appearance of the spa resort shows the Asian culture

influence.

B. THEDOMINATION OFAMERICAN CULTURE IN THE GLOBAL

CULTURE CONSTRUCTION IN AVATAR: THE LAST

AIRBENDER

The discussion in the previous point shows that the global culture

construction is found in the construction of the setting, the characters, and the

narration. However, the characters are more noticeablethan the other elements of

the animation series. Therefore this point is focused on the analysis of the main

characters.

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The characters in the Avatar: the Last Airbenderare more complex, due to

influences of both Asian and American culture. This complexity distance

characters in the series from other characters in, for example, in the 1990s typical

American animation series.

Figure 19. Woody and Arnold, the 90‟s animation characters

The 90s American animation characters produced by Disney and

Nickelodeon have simple characterization. For example, Woody from Toy Story,

produced by Disney in 1995, and Arnold from Hey Arnold, produced by

Nickelodeon in 1966, are still relatively simply constructed. Woody is

constructed to have appearance like an American cowboy. While Arnold has

American boy appearance, even the creator creates Arnold‟s appearance with a

head similar to the ball used in American football. Their creators, unlike the

creators of Avatar: the Last Airbender, do not consider to put the influence of

other cultures to them. Therefore, both Woody and Arnold can unarguably be

called as American. Every inch of them represents American identity.

The 90s American animation looks more “American” than animations

produced today. The character, the setting and the story have a strong American commit to user influences. In 90s, American animation is still constructed with strong American perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id67

culture influence, since America has strong influence in that era, especially in

cultural influences. People still regard American culture as global culture because

back then, global culture is Americanization (Barber in Capcioglu, 2008, p.

11).Under Americanization, people around the globe were exposed to American

culture on and on. America back then was the world‟s strongest nation which

tried to hegemonize the world and culture was merely seen as one of their

medium to do so. Therefore, in 90s American animation creators did not need to

think to include influences of other cultures to their works because they did not

see it as necessary.

But, it all changes in the Avatar: the Last Airbender, produced after 90s.

Its creators, uniquely, does not show a strong American cultural influence in their

series. Even, sometimes people doubt and do not recognize that Avatar: the Last

Airbenderisis an American animation.

Avatar: the Last Airbenderis constructed differently from the 90‟s

animation. The series, as has been argued in this thesis, is constructed by

combining American culture and Asian culture. The series emphasizesthe Asian

culture influence in its construction, especially in the construction of its main

character and setting. Therefore, it becomes interesting to know why the series‟

creators bother to include Asian culture in their works.

As can be seen in the previous analysis, the three main characters are

constructed with the influences of Asian culture. All three analyzed characters –

Aang, Toph and Zuko – have complex characterization. Aang and Toph are

constructed to be Asian, based on their physical appearance and costume. Their commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id68

appearance does not show American characteristics. Zuko, to be physically

constructed as an American, also exhibits Asian values in his characterization.

Therefore, it shows that Asian culture influence plays dominant role in

theconstruction of the main character.

The creators of Avatar: the Last Airbender, this thesis argues, decide to

mix American and Asian cultures in order to response to a current global culture

development, which is now greatly influenced by Asian culture. Simon Tay, in

his article America’s Call to Globalization, says Asian culture is rising to be the

new global culture nowadays (Tay, n.d.).The product of Asian culture, especially

the popular culture, is being widespread all over the world, parallel to the

development of Asian economy and industry. The rising of Asian power and

influence, therefore, gradually replaces the popularity and influence of American

culture. The influences and the product of Asian culture; such as music, fashion,

cuisine and especially animation series; can emulate the American popular

culture product. The real impact of Asian culture that starts to rise in the world

stardom can be seen in the American animation by its popularity declining

(Leonard, 2005, p. 282)

The Asian animation, especially Japanese anime, becomes popular in the

United States. (Moist and Bartholow, 2007, p. 28) This can be seen by the

popularity of Japanese anime in the United States; such as Dragon Ball,

Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, and many more. Besides it is supported by the

global trend which is influenced by the Asian culture, anime has no age

boundaries(ibid). Thus, it means thatanime appeals to anyoneregardless of his commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id69

age. This is why anime can have a large number of fans and it is an advantage

which is not owned by American animation.

The creators of Avatar: the Last Airbender, therefore, arguably create

their work with a mix of American and Asian culture to appeal to people both

from Western background and Eastern background. They create their product to

be so to gain success in the market and bring back the popularity of American

animation. The creators try to follow the trend of the society so that their

animation product can be accepted by the society all around the world.

Thus, Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation series can be said as a

response to the emergence of the new global culture. Avatar was produced while

America was still struggling to keep their dominance in the global market against

the rising Asian power. Instead of forcing their American culture, Avatar creators

choose to mix the two contrasting cultures to produce a new construction of

global culture. Through this way, Avatar still tastes American, but also responds

to its Asian viewers globally. This can be regarded as an American‟s effort to

preserve its dominance in the world.

Actually, this kind of construction is not a new model for the product of

American popular culture since it has been applied in many American popular

culture products. Stuart J. Hall argues that global culture does not produce mini

versions of being American but it adopts the differences from another culture and

puts these differences within a product of culture that includes American culture

influences (as cited in Capcioglu, 2008, p. 13). An example for the adoption of

another culture in an American culture product, especially American animation, commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id70

can be found in the 90‟s animation such as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella which

are adapted from European folk tales or The Lion Kingwhich is adapted from an

African story (Paterno in Artz ,2002, p. 40). However, most of the animations are

only an adaptation from another culture. That is the differences of Avatar: the

Last Airbender which is the main characters are newly created and constructed by

its creator.

The analysis in the previous subchapter shows that the combination of

cultures is employed in the construction of the main characters including Aang,

Toph and Zuko. The creators present a construction for the main characters that

involve a combination of Asian and American culture. The employing of Asian

culture influence in the construction makes the main characters become complex

characters. The combination of American and Asian culture found in the main

characters can be said as the new model of global culture construction used in the

animation series.

However, the Asian culture influence constructed in it makes as if the

animation series losses its American characteristics. The strong Asian culture

influence constructed in the main characters and the setting makes the animation

series lack of visible American culture influence. Actually, this is what the

creators of the series want to construct. They conceal the American culture

influence behind the Asian culture influence.

Therefore, when one sees the series critically and deeply, he will still see

how American values are still held dear by its creators eventhough the Asian

culture influences dominates the animation series.The preservation of American commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id71

dominance in Avatar: the Last Airbender can be seen in the construction of the

main characters.

In the analysis of Zuko, it can be concluded that phyisically he represents

the Western world, or the United States. Zuko is constructed similar to prince

charming character. The prince charming characterization is given to Zuko to

present American influence.The prince charming characteristic constructs a

positive image for Zuko‟s character since prince charming is regarded as a

character that will not turn into villain or evil character.This is proven by the

construction of Zuko in the story. He is constructed to be a bad guy who changes

into a good guy and helps the Avatar. Thus, the construction indirectly gives a

positive image to American culture influence constructed in Zuko‟s character.

But, at the same time he is also constructed as a person who shares

Asian‟s way of thinking and behavior. It is necesssary because the era of Prince

Charming alone is in dire. The series‟ creators then imbue him with Asian culture

and therefore, produce a new prince charming who has both American and Asian

values.

The preservation of American existence also can be found in the character

of Aang.Aang, a Tibetan monk by his appearance, more promotes American

values in the series instead of promoting Asian values. American values, like

surfing, contradict to his appearance as a monk, who is supposed to be calm and

passive. However, in the animation series he becomes nimble, active, and able to

tame the wild nature just like the American surfer by the construction of surfing

as the American culture influence in his character. The employing of surfer commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id72

behavior to construct American culture influence in Aang is a proper decision

from the creator, since it can successfully construct Aang as an American boy.

Moreover, surfing is an American popular culture which is familiar for teenager

in America and around the world. Surfers simply are more popular than monks.

Thus, the character of Aang can appeal to the teenager in America and around the

world, which is they are the target audience of Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Moreover, Aang‟s surfing hobby also signifies American culture is still

influencing, even to a monk. From the second order semiotic, the scene shows

that surfing can be played and enjoyed by anyone who able to play from any age

and any group, even a monk can play and enjoy surfing. It signifies the flexibility

and hegemony of American culture. It shows the strength of American popular

culture, which can be enjoyed by anyone. The combination of monk and surfing

is a proper construction made by the creator to preserve the American culture

existence in the animation series. The construction of surfing in Aang‟s behavior

covers the Asian culture influence constructed in Aang. This makes the American

culture influence more dominant than the Asian culture influence. Finally, it

presents Aang as an American boy who appears with Tibetan monk costume.

American culture is also preserved in Toph. As argued in previous points,

she is constructed with Asian culture influence, indicated by her wearing Korean

traditional clothes. From her appearance, she is totally Asian but the creators also

construct American culture influence in her character. The American culture

influence is shown by the construction of Toph as a masculine character. Toph‟s

masculinity can be seen by her participation in the Earth Rumble, a wrestling commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id73

competition in the Earth Kingdom. The existence of American culture influence

is preserved by constructing boyish girl characteristic in the construction of Toph.

American professional wrestling is employed in the scene of Earth

Rumble competition to construct American masculinity in Toph. Moreover,

Tophis constructed with boyish girl behavior that is influenced by some

American movie characters. Toph always behaves like boyish girl rather than as

Asian girl. This construction resultsin the weakening of Asian culture influence

inToph‟s character. It erodes Asian culture influence in her character and on the

contrary, strengthens American culture influence. Here, it can be seen that the

creator can preserve the American dominance in the construction of Toph.

Thereby, it shows that the American existence is preserved in the Avatar:

the Last Airbenderanimation series through a global culture construction applied

in the main character. The American is can be seen in Zuko‟s appearance or Aang

and Tophbehavior. It can be seen that there is no main character who is totally

constructed only with American culture influence. The American culture

influence is not solely constructed in a character but it is distributed and

constructed to all main characters in certain portion. Therefore the American

culture influence is not as visible as in the 90‟s animation construction. With this

global culture construction, the existence of American culture influence can be

preserved in Avatar: the Last Airbender. Moreover, it also preserves the people‟s

interest to the American culture. It can be said that the construction of the main

character makes the Avatar: the Last Airbender appeal to the American and

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Asian audience. The creator can construct them so that they can appeal to all

audience.

The trend of rising Asian is then accommodated by presenting the Asian

philosophy in Zuko and Asian influenced appearance in the character of Aang

and Toph. Meanwhile, the American culture existence is preserved by

constructing Zuko in American influenced appearance and constructing

American influenced behavior in the character of Aang and Toph. This global

culture construction is not only preserved the American culture influence but also

can present the Asian culture influence which becomes a trend of the world

lately.

Besides being constructed in the main characters, the American influence

is also constructed in the setting and the story of the Avatar: the Last

Airbenderanimation series. The American influence is found in the setting of the

Fire Nation. As stated in the previous subchapter, the Fire Nation is constructed

to represent United States. It is shown by the construction of the setting which

presents American culture influence. For instance, a Fire Nation prison is

constructed similar to Alcatraz prison in the United States. Moreover, the Fire

Nation is constructed as a modern industrial nation. Fire Nation cities are

constructed with industrial atmosphere as can be seen in the construction of Jang

Hui city (episode 43, “The Painted Lady”). This city is constructed as a polluted

city with heavy army factory inside. By the construction of the setting, it shows

that the Fire Nation is constructed to represent America.

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The construction of American characteristic and stereotype also found in

the story of Avatar: the Last Airbender. The story tells that the Fire Nation

dominates most of the world of Avatar.It is the strongest and the most modern

nation in the world of Avatar. By its largest and advanced army, the Fire Nation

invades and dominates the other countries in the reason of sharing their

prosperity to the other. Thus, it makes the Fire Nation more superior to the other

nations, especially the Air Nomads and the Earth Kingdom which is constructed

with Asian culture influence. The domination of the Fire Nation which is

constructed with American culture influence toward the other nation which is

constructed with Asian culture influence can be said as a signification of the

domination of American culture toward the Asian culture.

Moreover, the domination of the Fire Nation still continues until the end

of the animation series. It is shown by the coronation of Zuko as the new Fire

Lord as can be seen in the episode 61 entitled “Sozin's Comet, Part 4:

AvatarAang”. This episode shows a scene of Zuko‟s coronation which is

attended by the people from the four nations. Zuko declares the end of the war

and he tells that he want to restore the world and begin a new era of love and

peace. This scene shows that Fire Nation is still respected in the world of Avatar

although it makes a serious mistake by invading the other nations. It also shows

that the Fire Nation, which is constructed as American representation, can

preserve its influence in the world of Avatar. By the second order semiotics, this

signifies that the American still can preserve its influence and dominance no

matter what happens. It can be seen that the creators do not construct the commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id76

American representation as the loser one, they keep constructing America to be

dominant and superior.

The American culture influence is also shown in the construction of

American pro-wrestling as the Earth Rumble. Besides strengthening the

American culture influences in Toph‟s character, the American wrestling also

represents American culture through a combination of culture in the construction

of the Earth Rumble Competition. The Earth Rumble competition is a game that

combines American pro-wrestling and Japanese sumo. The role of the game is

similar to Japanese sumo (as explained in the previous subchapter), but the

atmosphere, the setting, and the participants are constructed with American

influence. The creators construct the atmosphere of Earth Rumble similar to the

American pro-wrestling arena.

Even though Earth Rumble is constructed by combining American‟s

wrestling and Japan‟s sumo, the former is more dominant. This is the creator‟s

way to preserve American dominance in the Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Moreover, the existence of pro-wrestling as the American culture influence can

increase the audiences‟ interest to the Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation

series. It is possible since pro-wrestling is known as an American popular show

that is broadcast in many countries. Therefore, it can be said the usage of pro-

wrestling to preserve American dominance is a right decision from the creator

since it can represent the American culture and also appeal to broader audience.

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Once again, American proves that they can preserve their domination

through their product of culture. It is still successfully preserved even when the

Asian culture influence begins to replace American domination as global culture.

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

A. CONCLUSION

This thesis is conducted to answer how Avatar: the Last

Airbenderconstructs the global culture and how the global culture construction

can preserve American cultural dominance in the world. To answer these

questions, this research conductsanalysis on the setting of place, the characters,

and the story of the animation seriesthat show a construction of global culture.

However, the analysis is focused on three main characters, Aang, Toph, and Zuko,

since the main characters plays dominant role in the construction of global culture

in Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Normally, American animation series show a strong American culture

influence in their construction. However, such single influence cannot be found in

Avatar: the Last Airbender. Instead, Asian culture influences are abundant to find

in the series' construction. Therefore, it can be concluded that Avatar: the Last

Airbenderis constructed with a different pattern from common American

animation.

Each element analyzed in the animation series is constructed with global

culture value that a combination of American and Asian culture. The combination

of culture is seen in the setting of place of the animation series. A rich influence of

Asian culture in the setting of place of the series puts the animation series under

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77 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id78

the nuance of Asian culture. However, it still can be found some setting of place

that is influenced by American culture.

The story is also constructed in a combination of American and Asian

culture.A visible global culture construction is shown in the construction of the

plot of Earth Rumble and the “girls’ day out activity”.The Earth Rumble is

constructed with a combination of Japanese sumo and American pro-wrestling.

Meanwhile,the plot of the “girls’ day out” activity is constructed asan American

activity with Asian culture influence.It can be seen that the construction of the

plot strengthens the global culture construction in Avatar: the Last Airbender.\

The three main characters which are the focus of the analysis are

constructed with the most visible global culture values than the others element in

Avatar: the Last Airbender.Their physicalappearance may look like Asians, but

their behavior and mindset are Americans.Aang, for instance, is constructed with

a Tibetan monk appearance and Toph with a girlwearing a Korean traditional

costume. Yet, both characters are also constructed with American influence as

exhibited by their behavior. It can be concluded that the characters of Aang and

Toph are constructed to be “Asian but American”. Their appearances are

constructed to be Asian but their characters are American.

On the other hand, another character, Zuko, shows a strong influence of

Asian culture in his behavior and way of thinking despite his American look

resembling a Prince Charming. This construction, thus, makes the character of

Zuko as an “American but Asian”. Once again, there is an American cultural

influence preserved in the construction of the main characters. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id79

The construction of the setting of place, the story, andthe main characters

that includes a combination of American and Asian culture is uncommon in the

history of American animation series. They usually show American culture as the

solely promoted influence. Yet, in Avatar: the Last Airbender, the American

culture influence is constructed as a global culture which is shown by mixing it

with the Asian culture influence.

By the construction, it can be seen that the American influence is still

preserved in the animation series. Moreover, it can be said that American culture

influence is still dominant in the animation series despite its rich Asian culture

influence.Precisely, the construction of global culture in Avatar: the Last

Airbendercan be said as American value in Asian package.

It has to be pointed out that the creator of the animation series, Michael

DanteDiMartino and Brian Konietzko, are Americans but they prefer to construct

their animation series with rich Asian influence. It can be said that they include

the Asian culture influence in their animation series as the response to Asian

rising wave. They can read world trend and market demand. Therefore, they

employ the Asian culture influence to make the animation series appeal to Asian

audience while the American culture influence is preserved to make the animation

series appeal to American audience. Thus, the animation series can meet the

market demand and can be accepted by most audience from Asian and American.

This is why the animation series can gain success. It is possible for theanimation

series not to be successful in the market if the creators just follow the formula of

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the older American animation series and do not include Asian culture influence in

its construction.

In conclusion, Avatar: the Last Airbenderis constructed to respond to the

emergence of Asian rising power as the new force in the global world. The United

States, it can be argued, does not want to loose its cultural hegemony, which has

been preserved for decades. Therefore, they try to find away to welcome Asia as

the new global culture and at the same time preserve their domination in the

world's cultural contestation.

B. RECOMMEDATION

This research is conducted to analyze the global culture construction in the

Avatar: the Last Airbenderanimation series and the way American culture is

preserved its dominance in the construction of global culture.This research shows

that American animation can be an object of research to study American which is

as significant as other American popular culture product.It goes along with Paul

Wells’ argument that cartoon or computer animated film can reflect the anxieties

within American culture and the trend of the society (1998, p.16). It has been

proven in the analysis that the animation can represent the American culture and

its society.

Therefore, it is recommended for the other researchers who are interested

in conducting research aboutAmerican animationto conduct a deeper analysis and

include more critical theories in their research.The other research can discuss

about the postmodernism in animation or feminism in the construction of the commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id81

character of the animation series.Hopefully it can give a broader knowledge to the

readers who are interested in American studies.Moreover, the research can give

contribution to American studies, especially in this department.

commit to user