Book One: Chapter One
The Boy in the Iceberg
The first episode in this series introduces many themes and narratives we find woven throughout the three books. We first encounter bending as Katara bends to catch a fish while Sokka struggles to fish on his own (if only the two worked as a team, how many fish they could catch!) Here we encounter various attitudes toward bending: Katara’s bending is un-nurtured as water bending in her tribe has all but disappeared and her talents are mostly seen as a waste of time and energy. As the fire nation appears, Zuko embodies bending for domination while Iroh presents a more nuanced connection to bending and the self. Iroh understands the spiritual aspects of bending and presents a mystical way in. Katara, Zuko, and even Aang will deepen their connections to bending throughout the series and draw upon the wisdom we see Iroh sharing in this first episode.
Once we’re introduced to Aang, we immediately come into contact with his use of humor and levity. He does so in ways that expose his ability to be brave and make light of danger, while hinting at his naivety at the same time. He also uses humor and levity to mask his guilt over fleeing, which will come to be a major theme. And yet he cannot run away from his ultimate responsibility as the Avatar, which brings us to the theme of the episode that we want to highlight-The responsibility born by children that so many of the characters carry (Sokka’s desire to “protect” his village, Katara’s role as mother, Zuko’s mission to hunt the Avatar, and even Aang’s role as the Avatar that he sought to escape). One line that jumped out and exemplifies this is Katara saying “I haven’t done this since I was a kid” and Aang responding, “You still are a kid!” This is a theme that we will continue to see throughout the series as these children take on responsibility much beyond their years.
Our Jewish textual connection for this episode is the story of the binding of Isaac. In ATLA, we see both the trauma of war and trauma inflicted by parental figures (both intentionally and unintentionally). In the Biblical narrative, Abraham is instructed to sacrifice his son whom he loves the most. Rabbinic tradition tells us that Isaac may have known what was happening as the two journeyed up the mountain, and he still chose to continue on. With this, he takes on the responsibility and status of one much beyond his years as he understands his role in the meta-story. Such responsibility and status as the chosen “sacrificial lamb” reminds us of Aang running away from a responsibility that he can’t outrun (like Jonah perhaps?). Zuko and Aang both personify that being “chosen” for a role has the potential to weigh very heavily on one.
Avivah Zornberg connects Isaac’s trauma from the Akedah (binding) with his blindness upon fathering children- this trauma literally stunts his ability to see. In a somewhat similar way, Aang has yet to encounter the trauma of his young life being lost but upon doing so he immediately shifts into the Avatar state- a state in which he has an out-of-body experience and his past lives take over in order to overcome the trauma of the moment. Similarly, in the moment of what is to be intense pain and trauma in the story of the Akedah, an angel intervenes- a creature from a mystical realm. In Aang’s intense moment of pain in the next episode, his past lives take over, drawing upon the power of the spirit realm.
Such stories leave us with a powerful question for today- in intense moments of pain and trauma, how can we each draw upon the wisdom of our spiritual lineages to make it through?