Ori Dona

Prof. Mathew Gold

Eng 2400-D552

Response Of District 9

District 9 had a very strong human and alien relationship theme. This movie takes place in Johannesburg South Africa which has a very long history of apartheid. Wikus van de Merwe is displayed as a weak man with a careless attitude toward the prawns. He is displayed as a caring man when it comes to his wife only. However later on after his fate changes and he begins to undergo his physical transformation, he also begins to change his perspective toward the prawns all leading up to the moment where he was willing to sacrifice his life to save father prawn and get them to the ship. This film is not like the traditional alien films because the prawns are not coming to invade, they actually are stuck and are the victims of human cruelty showing a correlation to the racial tensions in South African history. These prawns are clustered together in horrible conditions and are forced to fend for themselves while being isolated from the world. Wikus begins to see the error of his ways after he begins to taste the cruelty of the humans he was a part of. This movie is shown through Wikus’s perspective and shows his mental and physical transformation.in which he displays heroic qualities toward the last couple of scenes showing his ability to change.