district 9 discussion
For individual discussions, you will generally be required to post a response of at least 200 words to a topic of your choice. Each prompt includes introductory explanation plus several questions. Each topic response should focus on a relevant issue you wish to examine and should make a thoughtful, well-developed argument. Close reading and use of quotation is encouraged. Use parenthetical page or electronic location numbers for citation, ie. (148). Before responding to the prompts, read prior posts, especially any that have been highlighted by the instructor. If particular questions have already been answered satisfactorily, choose other questions to address. Strive to avoid producing repetitive responses; instead, try to bring something new to the conversation to keep it moving forward.
Sympathy is a feeling of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune. Sympathy is a sentiment experienced by an onlooker. In contrast, empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another being (a human or non-human animal) is experiencing from within the other being’s frame of reference, that is the capacity to view the world from another’s perspective and place oneself, by an act of imagination, in another’s position. It used to be assumed that the empathy was a uniquely human trait, but recent research has shown that some other social animals have a capacity for empathy (see, for instance, the work of primatologist Frans De Waal). The evolutionary development of empathy has been tied to its value in complex social environments where understanding others and making alliances boosts social status, security, and mating opportunities. Moreover, the capacity for empathy is now seen by many anthropologists as the necessary biological foundation for ethics.
Do the South Africans in the film District 9 express empathy towards the Prawns? Is Wikus empathetic? How do his feelings about the Prawns evolve over the course of the film? What makes it difficult to empathize with the Prawns? In what ways does the film conspire to create empathy in the audience?