District 9 VS Once Upon a Time

District 9 is a sci-fi film inspired by historical events that took place in South Africa during the apartheid era. “Once Upon A Time” is a short story that shows how apartheid brought people mistrust and a need to stereotype everyone in an effort to supposedly protect themselves. District 9 critiques the apartheid through the manipulation of sci-fi conventions and visual codes whereas “Once Upon A Time” manipulates the conventions of a narrative, fairytale and irony. Both texts critique apartheid. District 9 strongly comments on the apartheid that was occurring in Johannesburg at the time and represents this through the use of human VS alien. The apartheid in South Africa was a period of time when segregation was enforced, often resulting in evictions of thousands of coloured South Africans from their homes. In District 9, clear parallels to these events take place. The aliens in the movie are forcibly contained within an area known as District 9. In the film, the aliens are the ones who are being discriminated against by the whole human race. The aliens are called prawns. They are far from beautiful, they are bottom feeders, they are addicted to cat food, they live on rubbish dumps; they are presented as grotesque savages and scavengers. By presenting the aliens to us, not as attractive, high creatures, by making them look like half-human and half insect, the film constantly trips us up by making the racist gaze our gaze. Through the use of the sci-fi conventions, we sympathise the aliens, and we realise that what the humans are doing is very immoral and unjust. This then relates back to the apartheid, as in our modern society, we recognise that what happened was wrong, and we feel this same emotion that we feel for the aliens in District 9. On the other hand, “Once Upon A Time” introduces a family and their willingness to "protect" themselves from the community around them. In the story, the family interprets the world around them through the lenses of prejudices and stereotypes, instead seeing things for what they really are and living based on their own experiences. They separate themselves from the coloured people because that is what they are told to do, that is what the people around them think is right. They turn a blind eye to the segregation around them, automatically assuming the worst. They construct walls topped with barbed wire and install alarm systems to “protect” and separate themselves from a community they know little to nothing about. Crime during the apartheid was high. Riots broke out all across the regions, and rebellions rose and fell. At one point in the story, the family was told how a couple of their neighbours were robbed. This sent them into the final craze to “protect” their possessions and happiness. In trying to "protect" themselves from unseen robbers, they disrupt and ultimately destroy their way of life, indicating that no good came from the tragedies of the apartheid. The story focuses largely on the actions of the white family and their direct consequences. However, their trusted housemaid, who is black, provides insight on the social and political issues on the outside world. While the description of the housemaid is minimal, the way the story navigates her position is revealing; the housemaid’s relations with her own race are characterised by isolation, fear, and discrimination. The story’s portrayal of the trusted housemaid reveals a subtle, but important symptom of institutionalised racism: the harmful divisions that occur within groups. Ultimately, the housemaid’s actions are not reflections of her own inherent racism, but the product of apartheid. In spite of the fact that both texts critique the apartheid, one is a movie critiquing on what keeps us treating other people inhumanely isn’t tested by treating people that we admire with dignity, but treating people we don’t understand with the same level dignity whereas the other one is a short story critiquing on how apartheid brought people mistrust and a need to stereotype everyone in an effort to supposedly protect themselves. For these reasons, each text uses different techniques to achieve these purposes. District 9 uses the conventions of sci-fi and visual codes while “Once Upon A Time” uses the conventions of realism narrative, fairytale and irony. Both texts manipulate conventions to critique apartheid. District 9 uses the conventions of sci-fi and visual codes. In the film, the prawns are discriminated against by the whole human race. However, when during a mass eviction Wikus is infected and begins to turn into one of the aliens, we begin to sympathise with the aliens. This subverts the convention that humans are the good guys, as we perceive the humans as corrupt and immoral. The film strongly conforms to a number of sci-fi conventions however, such as extra-terrestrial life, futuristic technology, massive spacecrafts, humanlike-aliens, biotechnology and alien weaponry. The forced eviction and “resettlement” of the aliens clearly evokes South Africa’s apartheid-era removals of its coloured population. Images of signs that read, “For human use only” and “No non-human loitering” and of aliens using metal sheets to shield themselves from bullets add to the texture of this particular allegorical strand. The use of dialogue in this text also represents apartheid. There is a specific line in the text, which says, “This is our land, you must go now.” This is a clear representation of black and whites shown through human and alien. Themes of racism and xenophobia are shown through the use of the alien species in District 9 and the evacuation of aliens from their home to be separated from humans. Regardless of this, Wikus’ transformation shows the similarity between the black and white and plays on the ideology that they feel the same emotion regardless of their race/species. On the other hand, “Once Upon A Time” uses irony. The story uses irony to twist our expectations and end the story in a completely different way than how we think it is going to end. We expected it to be a happy ending because of the story line and the way she sets the story up, but the story ended tragically. She also used irony by creating a title that misleads its readers and gives them a false impression about what the story is about, as well as playing with our expectation of a fairy tale. It is ironic how their goal is to be completely safe, and yet they are the ones putting themselves at risk. Both texts blend genres to critique apartheid and get their message across. District 9 have three different plot lines: the past of the 1980s when the aliens arrive, the present set out by the interviews that frame the movie, and the main story around Wikus’ disappearance and transformation from human to alien. Each of these plot lines is depicted through a different style. The first third of the film seems to be transmitted through TV cameras: from the arrival of the aliens that we witness through live TV recordings only, via the questioning of the people in the streets of Johannesburg who express their resentments towards the aliens, to the MNU cameras that document the operation that Wikus is in charge of. From documentary style to narrative style, this construction makes it hard for the viewer to question the authenticity of the subjects that are presented in the given video material. “Once Upon A Time” have two different plot lines. Like District 9, each of these plot lines is depicted through a different style. The first is about the narrator, which is a realism narrative, and the second is a bedtime story to herself, which is a fairytale. The two stories relate through their theme of unfounded fear. In both stories she tells of the imagination and beliefs making people become prisoners of fear and keeping them from examining their prejudiced ideas about the apartheid. Both texts critique the apartheid, but uses different techniques at the same time. District 9 critiques the apartheid through the manipulation of visual codes and sci-fi conventions whereas, “Once Upon A Time” manipulates the conventions of a narrative, fairytale and irony. Both are highly effective texts, in terms of representing the apartheid through the audience and both take aim at a significant flaw in our society.