"The Great Divide" in Black Swan Green
My favorite piece of media to ever grace my screen is Avatar the Last Airbender, an animated TV show where characters have the ability to “bend” four elements: water, earth, fire, and air. One episode, titled “The Great Divide,” reminded me heavily of the chapter “Knife Grinder” in Black Swan Green: specifically the back and forth between the Romani people and the rest of Black Swan Green. I’ll go through the similarities shortly, but what most captivates me on this subject is the fact that “The Great Divide” is the worst rated episode in the entire ATLA franchise. Why is this? Does this reflect on “Knife Grinder”’s quality as well? And how bad can the worst episode of a perfect show even be?
In “The Great Divide,” Aang, the protagonist and og peacemaker, and his friends, Sokka and Katara run into two feuding tribes, the Gan Jin and the Zhang. Both tribes need to cross a giant canyon, and Aang and his friends decide to help them out. Wow! Just like Black Swan Green! Eh…there’s a connection, I promise. The Gan Jin hate the Zhang because they are too dirty and coarse. Similarly, the Zhang despise the Gan Jin for their poshness. But don’t worry—they’ll travel separate routes, Katara going with the Gan Jin and Sokka going with the Zhang, while Aang gives the sick and elderly a lift on his flying bison. There’s only one rule when crossing the canyon: DON’T BRING FOOD. If you do, horrifying giant bugs called Canyon Crawlers will emerge and try to eat everyone.
Unfortunately, the Gan Jin bring in food because they think the Zhang will bring food because of their dirtiness (which they correlate with moral dirtiness, I suppose). Likewise, the Zhang bring food knowing that the Gan Jin would think the Zhang would bring in food. The Gan Jin explain to Katara how the Zhang stole their ancient ritual ball (that symbolizes the sun rising and setting). Meanwhile, the Zhang tell Sokka about how the Gan Jin unfairly imprisoned one of the Zhang for stealing, when in reality the man from the Zhang tribe was only trying to return what he knew was important to them. The feud over this ritual gone-wrong has been ongoing for generations.
This intercultural conflict is very similar to Jason’s description in Black Swan Green of the hostilities between the Romani and the townspeople: “the villagers wanted the Gypsies to be gross, so the grossness of what they’re not acts as a stencil for what they are” (page 227). And, similarly: “Gypsies wanted us to be gross, so the grossness of what they’re not acts as a stencil for what they are” (page 240).
But ultimately, the conflict isn’t as petty or trivial as it first appears. Even if the two sides aren’t actually fighting, creating these labels creates behaviours based on perceptions: these “stencils” Jason describes. The Zhang bring food because of how the Gan Jin perceived them, therefore growing into these molds set out for them. It’s dangerous, too, because suddenly your side is unequivocally correct, or else not only are you wrong, your entire identity, once associated with whatever it is you fight for, becomes wrapped into that, and it feels like a personal attack, leading to even more extreme stubbornness.
Okay, but what was that about “The Great Divide” being the worst rated episode in ATLA? Well…I know it felt to the viewer as a filler episode. It doesn’t end up changing much of Aang’s perspective; he’s always been this peacekeeper, always believing that everybody should get along. But, then, maybe it does. This is one of many times Aang is presented with the need to act on his long held convictions, helping him hone the skills of being the best Avatar he can be in later seasons. “Knife Grinder” is similarly deceptively simplistic in the plot. But although perhaps an obvious growing point in Jason’s perspective, it is an important one. Then again, maybe the reason “The Great Divide” performed so poorly was because the resolution to the conflict was Aang gaslighting everyone into thinking the ancient ritual was actually just a game played by five-year olds…I swear it’s a fantastic show.
(#epic confrontation)
I unfortunately can't weigh in on the relative popularity of this one episode of the show, and I don't know if "Knife Grinder" is usually less popular than other chapters in BSG for readers in this class. But I do think that the key is, as usual, how these incidents affect *Jason*--the Gypsy/BSG conflict does indeed lead to significant growth on his part, most notably through the "stencil" passages, both of which you quote. If there were only the first of these--where Jason develops a more skeptical/critical awareness of the racism of his community and how they define themselves as "non-Gypsy" rather than as something positive and inherent to themselves--it might be a significant but not outstanding degree of growth. Jason would have learned something about the underlying reactionary nature of some of his neighbors, and he surely would have noted the extent to which his father is part of this hysteria (while Helena seems much more skeptical and detached). But when Jason is able to literally see from both sides, when he has his first-hand encounter with the community being discussed at the town meeting, he sees how both sides have this same tendency to define themselves based on the outline of what they're not (and they each see the other as gross, uncivilized, crude). Like in "Rocks," where Jason doesn't end up on either side of the political conflicts at home or abroad, the important thing is that he sees the system for what it is--he sees how BOTH sides are experiencing pyrrhic victories of a sort, and the whole thing is absurd.
ReplyDeleteIt might sound a little naive and pollyanna, but when Jason observes simply that a lot of this mutual fear and mistrust could be alleviated if these people actually spent time with each other, he isn't too far off the mark. But then it would become more difficult to identify the vital "out group" that is necessary for anyone to be in an "in group."
HARMONY. THIS IS AMAZING.
ReplyDeleteYes yes yes yes yes. All the connections are there. completely agree.
With your correlation to the Zhang and Gan Jin bringing food into the canyon because the other is expected to, I think it related to the villagers building the 'towns' for the Romani people because they expected them to need help and the Romani people moving into the towns because they expected to be helped. I think both sides, similarly, needed a change in perspective to be able to communicate their actual values and livelihoods with one another. Maybe not with a story about little kids though... lol
Oh how I love the connections you make with our books to outside media, Harmony! I thought this was a great parallel--- the fact that the Gan Jin and the Zhang become so molded to the stencils that the other has laid out for them is especially stark with how Jason has been learning about the conflict between the villagers of BSG and the Romani. In reality I will say that Jason will probably learn more about intersectional oppression and the systemic marginalization of the Romani people, and see that the two sides are not as equal as he had originally perceived, although I'm guessing the Zhang and the Gan Jin are more equal-- more like the Montagues and Capulets, maybe? (Fun fact, "Zhang", or zāng, means "dirty" in Chinese, and "Gan Jin" or gānjìng
ReplyDeletemeans "clean"!)
Harmony you've done it again! I love avatar and I love the connection to the chapter Knife Grinder. I do see some similarities between the two now that you've pointed it out. There's plenty of coming of age themes in Avatar especially because people expect aang to be 112 and well..he's not really. Anyways I think a difference between the book and the show is that Jason is more of an observer type and people don't really expect him to get it (though in a way he gets it more than others) and Aang is expected to be a peacekeeper because that's his journey to realization. I'd say Jason's is a bit more internal. I digress, I love your blog and I too believe "the great divide" is an underrated episode in the show
ReplyDeleteWell, Harmony, yet another impressive connection between literature and media that has gone completely over my head... I unfortunately never got into Avatar (I guess it's never too late), but despite never having seen it the comparisons are still impressive. I generally found the stencil metaphor very powerful and an interesting way to describe prejudice: identifying yourself not based on what you are and value, but instead on what you are not and others are. Well done and maybe, just maybe, you may have convinced me to consider looking into Avatar!
ReplyDeleteHi Harmony! This is some insane work. I can tell you put a lot of thought into it. I never watched Avatar, but Alana made sure to tell me how good it was. I think your passion to see the connections is unmatched, and I agree that just from short clips I've seen, that Avatar seems like a coming of age show. So, I can see how it would connect nicely with Black Swan Green. Great job, I love the visuals!
ReplyDeleteWow, such a great and detailed comparison from a show I've never even seen! Above and beyond comparing Avatar conflict and Black Swan Green conflict!
ReplyDeleteHarmony you have no idea the scream I scrumpt inside when I recognized the picture from ATLA (i immediately knew what episode it was from... and what creature it was...) As someone who is very normal about ATLA, I love this comparison to Knife Grinder. I think that Black Swan Green makes a great basis for comparison to other media because of its chapters' episodic plots. I also like the comparison between the two ATLA tribes and the two groups in Black Swan Green because of their false perceptions of each other. I also like that you did your blog about ATLA it's so goated. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Harmony! As a fellow ATLA enjoyer, I really liked this post! I can totally see the connections and comparisons between Knife Grinder and this episode, and you do a great job diving into them. Both sides of the conflict, even if they don't know much about the other, want to perceive the other in a bad light so it'll make them seem more correct, and that definitely applies to both of these media sources. Awesome post :)
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