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Pocahontas movie essay
Pocahontas movie essay
Pocahontas movie essay
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The classic Disney film, Pocahontas, released in 1995 depicts the developing amorous relationship between young Native American Pocahontas and Jamestown settler Captain John Smith. When Pocahontas’s father,Chief Powhatan, finds out about their blossoming relationship he is quick to disapprove and later attempts to take Smith’s life for the supposed murder of a Tsenacommacah tribe member. Pocahontas ends up saving Smith from execution by covering Smith’s own body with her own as the Chief Powhatan is close to clubbing Smith to death. However the ‘historic timeline’ followed in the movie is notably different from John Smith’s own account in the True Relation, yet Disney still claims the movie is in fact, “responsible, accurate, and respectful.” …show more content…
The inaccuracy can be blantly seen by comparing the events in the film with what John Smith had recorded in his earliest literary piece, True Relation, which was written while he was settled in Jamestown. One notable example being Smith’s first encounter with the Chief Powhatan of the Tsenacommacah tribe, in which Disney portrays as John Smith being seized by the the tribe to later be impaled in the head with a club by Chief Powhatan. In John Smith’s True Relation he does not speak of any event that resembles the prior, instead Smith had described the encounter as peaceful, with the Chief Powhatan welcoming Smith kind words and the promise of freedom in the days to come. Furthermore, Smith, does not indicate whether he met Pocahontas during his encounter with her father or beforehand. Generally speaking no evidence can explicitly prove the climax of the Disney movie, John Smith’s execution, had ever really …show more content…
The real importance of the film is how both Native Americans and Jamestown settlers are rendered to clash culturally, yet the audience is able to see that both are imperfectly human. Meaning both are seen to act on fear, to hate the unknown, and have the capacity to act with compassion; so culture, skin color, language, etc. gives no advantage. Since at the end of the day humans are all ‘programed’ to react to similar situations in similar
Source D is an account written by Paul Lewis about what happened during and after John Smith traveled to the americas in a third person's point of view. This source was created in 1966, it is about what Paul lewis believed happened when John smith traveled to the americas. Lewis is skeptic that Pocahontas actually saved John Smith because “[Why would] a chief who had been so friendly before, suddenly decide to kill John Smith”? The author also suggests that Smith added in the fact that Pocahontas saved him to make it seem like she was a hero once she was becoming a well known Native American who has switched to christianity and had started treating the King and Queen of england as her King and Queen. This source was created in 1966. During
As a young child many of us are raised to be familiar with the Pocahontas and John Smith story. Whether it was in a Disney movie or at a school play that one first learned of Jamestown, students want to believe that this romantic relationship really did occur. As one ages, one becomes aware of the dichotomy between fact and fiction. This is brilliantly explained in David A. Price's, Love and Hate in Jamestown. Price describes a more robust account of events that really did take place in the poorly run, miserable, yet evolving settlement of Jamestown, Virginia; and engulfs and edifies the story marketed by Disney and others for young audiences. Price reveals countless facts from original documents about the history of Jamestown and other fledgling colonies, John Smith, and Smith's relationship with Pocahontas. He develops a more compelling read than does the typical high school text book and writes intriguingly which propels the reader, to continue on to the successive chapters in the early history of Virginia.
Disney movie “Pocahontas” and John Smiths “The General History of Virginia” there were many differences, other than things someone could compare. The two versions had different thoughts and views on the accounts of Pocahontas, the Native Americans, and John Smith. The way Disney portrayed Pocahontas had more of a view of mending enemies, compromises being made between two parties, and that there is more to life than materialistic things. On the other hand, John Smith’s account of what happened was way different than Disney’s version of what happened. For example, John Smith describes his journey to Virginia as a long journey, filled with Hunger, with a majority of the people who attended the voyage with john smith ended up dying. At the end, with him and others being captured by Native Americans who reside on that land. Although, no one knows the actual events that took place during this time.
In D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation the interactions between black and white characters represent Griffith’s view of an appropriate racial construct in America. His ideological construction is white dominance and black subordination. Characters, such as the southern Cameron’s and their house maid, who interact within these boundaries, are portrayed as decent people. Whereas characters who cross the line of racial oppression; such as Austin Stoneman, Gus and Silas Lynch, are portrayed as bad. Both Lynch and Lydia Brown, the mulatto characters, are cast in a very negative light because they confuse the ideological construct the most. The mixing of races puts blacks and whites on a common ground, which, in Griffith’s view, is a big step in the wrong direction. Griffith portrays how the relationship between blacks and whites can be good only if the color line and positions of dominance and subordination are maintained. Through the mulatto characters he illustrates the danger that blurring the color line poses to American society.
In Paul Lewis’s interpretation of these events, “ In 1617, Pocahontas became a big media event in London… While all this was going on, John Smith published a new version of True Relation, adding footnotes that say that Pocahontas threw herself on Smith to save him. Smith even takes credit for introducing Pocahontas to the English language and the Bible.” (Document A: Paul Lewis, Historian). The publication time of the version of True Relation was perfectly aligned to be when Pocahontas was in England and famous. The reason John would publish this version of heightened drama and the story of Pocahontas saving his life is because he wanted to be noticed. John Smith wanted to get a piece of the action Pocahontas was experiencing. Because John Smith wanted to be involved, the publication date is planned and already decided because John wanted the action. Also, John Smith claims that he introduced Pocahontas to English culture, which is his doing, trying to portray himself as Pocahontas’s teacher. That way, he can be known in the world as Pocahontas’s mentor. No man who would be chronicling a story of events would claim something that has no connection to what happened in the events he was
Even though I had the odds against me I really wanted to find out for myself what I thought of the Indians and the movie. What I found was this movie was very uplifting and really made me realize that even though some of us may have different color skin, or may have a different language we are all still human beings that are not that different from each other. No one of us are better than anyone else, we are all the same. I am very grateful that someone made a movie like this because we all need to realize we can all get alone if we are open minded, willing to try knew things and courageous just like John Dunbar was. This movie and especially John Dunbar have taught me a valuable lesson; we should not judge anyone for what they look like, or for what people say about them because you really need to get to know them for whom they really are.
John Smith's tales of the Indian princess, Pocahontas, have, over time, encouraged the evolution of a great American myth. According to this myth, which is common knowledge to most Americans, Pocahontas saved Smith from being killed by her father and his warriors and then fell in love with John Smith. Some versions of the myth popular among Americans include the marriage of Smith and Pocahontas. Although no one can be sure of exactly what happened almost four-hundred years ago, most historians agree that the myth is incorrect. Pocahontas did not save John Smith's life from "savages" and never showed any affection for him. The events of her life differ greatly from the myth Americans have created. Historians, such as Nancy Egloff, of the Jamestown settlement, believe Smith created the story of his attempted murder to gain fame (Vincent 1).
It broadened my perspectives of Native American culture. First inclination may be to start blaming who is at fault in each situation. This movie allowed me to analyze reservation life as very different culture that it provoked sameness and no change. I saw how boundaries and lack of inclusion was more detrimental to this culture than what some intended. I was also able to view how male counter parts may initially feel it more comfortable to suppress emotions and not address them. Ironically, I wanted some native prepared fried bread by the end of the movie.
Pocahontas is Disney’s 33rd animated movie, which takes place in early 17th century Virginia. The movie is based around Pocahontas, a Native American who is the daughter of Chief Powhatan of the Powhatan Tribe located in the New World. When British settlers of the Virginia Company, including Governor Ratcliffe and John Smith, make landfall in the New World looking for gold, they encounter the Powhatan Tribe when they start building Jamestown and excavating for the precious metal. While the rest of the crew builds Jamestown at the order of Governor Ratcliffe, John Smith starts exploring the wilderness, where he meets Pocahontas. The two of them bond and quickly fall in love with each other, even though Chief Powhatan gave his daughter strict orders to stay away from the Englishmen after a few tribesman, including Kocoum, the Native American warrior Pocahontas is set to marry, gets in a fight with a group of settlers. Word gets around to Kocoum that Pocahontas is spending time with John Smith, and goes to confro...
The film presents scientific and biological evidence that people of different races are not genetically distinct from each other; the comparison of DNA sequences was able to clearly show that this idea of races being biologically different from each other is false. This was able to show that the belief of distinct differences between races is the effect society has had on us, because of the inequality and social injustice present. This shift will be difficult, because people are so used to seeing people being treated differently due to their race and have been exposed to people of different races being represented
The ways in which the author could strengthen the book, in my opinion, is instead all the descriptive, to me meaningless points as how they were coloring themselves, the author should have put a little bit more facts in there to make it more documentary. Anyhow, overall the book has strength in letting the reader understand the history from both sides, whites and Indians. Many people have different views on the persecution of Native Americans, some think that it was all Indians’ fault and that they caused their own suffering, which I think is absolutely ridiculous, because they were not the ones who invaded. And Native Americans had every right to stand up for the land that was theirs.
Before we get into the movie specifically, we should first talk about representation and how race is represented in the media in general. Representation is defined as the assigning of meaning through language and in culture. (CITE) Representation isn't reality, but rather a mere construction of reality and the meaning behind it. (CITE) Through representation we are able to shape how people are seen by others. Race is an aspect of people which is often represented in the media in different ways. Race itself is not a category of nature, but rather...
In this documentary by The National Geographic, The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown captures what it must have been like for the settlers of Jamestown. It takes place in an archeological site which is owned by the APVA where they found remains of the original men who first arrived to the New World and who set up the colony at Jamestown. They were sent by the Virginia Company in hopes of being able to bring home gold and other riches that the Spanish had already been taking advantage of. Unfortunately, in the process, they faced disease, death, hunger, and hostility from the Indians.
Disney’s intentions were more than to captivate young children. They were ultimately to retell the original story of Pocahontas and the settlers and to address social issues of lifestyle and acceptance depending on race and the way they are being treated, proving that marriage isn’t all that important and addressing familial gender roles in society based on having a mother figure. Since 1995, the story of Pocahontas serves to entertain the young minds of children, but none the less the messages for seen in the movie, are mentioned to stress the issues of a series of systems in which maintain the imbalance of power among society’s social organization.
In the film, there is a scene where members of the Powhatan tribe surround a fire while a shaman performs what looks like magic to show the danger of the Europeans. This is quite offensive and also unnecessary. It makes light of Native American culture and depicts it in an incorrect manner. Even the portrayal of Pocahontas herself is very inaccurate. When John Smith came to Virginia, Pocahontas was only 10 years old and was kidnapped to stay in Jamestown for a year. The only account of Pocahontas that we know of is from John Smith, but he does not even write about her in A True Relation By John Smith. There was no evidence that Pocahontas was in love with John Smith, only that she saved him from being killed. It is irresponsible of Disney to use a real person who existed and turn her into something she was not. Disney could have very easily done this story with a fictional character and since Disney has such a great impact on children all around the world; it is obligated to portray history the way it happened, or at least tell the full story. Another movie that talks about relations with Native Americans, although at a different time period, is Davy Crockett: King of the Wild