FREE ESSAY ON BARAKA

BARAKA

BARAKA: In Class Essay 
Modern culture encourages mass production including the commercialization of animals and
poeple. In the film Baraka, the effects of mass production and commercialization are
contrasted in serene nature scenes and other scenes from today's busiest industrial
cities. 
First of all, mass production is the manufacturing of goods in large quantities. Baraka
shows several examples of this, the most memorable one takes place at a poultry factory
in Hong Kong. The assembly line of baby chicks being tossed around as their wings are
clipped and beaks are burned is painful to watch. The blank, almost cold expression on
each of the workers faces who handle the innocent, baby chicks is disturbing. This scene
shows how people can become programmed and objectified or only be
worth the quantity of product that they produce is mind boggling. 
Another example as a result of mass production 
takes place in the scene where acres and acres of trees are being cut down to make paper.
Considering the amount of recycling we do today, it is hard for one to consider the need
to tear down as many new trees as we do. The mass murder of beautiful, innocent trees
that produce oxygen and homes for animals are examples of how mass production ravages
nature to provide material things for modern cultures. 
Defined as applying methods of business to exploit or produce something to make a profit,
commercialization has the same effects as and is also a result of mass production. In a
previous example at a poultry factory in Hong Kong, the workers are shown with blank,
exhausted expressions on their faces. It is hard to tell if they are at all content with
their occupation. The lack of emotion and blind focus on
producing product is all that is shown. 
One might conclude that the workers are unhappy since it is common for factory workers to
be paid a petty amount for a ridiculous amount of work. To be content with existence,
like the people of India 
shown praying and cleansing their soul in the Ganges River, may be might be hard to grasp
in industrial cities, but it cannot be stressed enough. Happiness is not achieved through
material things, the end products of people and animals being reduced to objectification.
Another moving scene in Baraka was of a group of young female prostitutes on the streets
of China. Young girls who had no other way of making a living, were sold on the street
and only worth as much as they make according to their society.
Over a prolonged period of time, workers slowly kill themselves physically and
emotionally, perhaps without getting compensated for it while people who tend to make a
lot of money don't work as hard but get paid more. It is in these urban industrial cities
all around the world where commercialization effects not only the status of the economy,
but the well being of the workers. Even though this film has no dialogue, it's visual
production of real images around the world is intense. It shows how the effects of mass
production and commercialization are contrasted in serene nature scenes and other scenes
from today's busiest industrial cities.