What Is The Theme Of The Movie The Education Of Little Tree Acculturation

The movie entitled The Education of Little Tree is about a young boy who is brought up by his Cherokee grandparents during the Great Depression, following the death of his parents. They teach him about a way of life that is very different from what he is used to, and is much more in-tune with nature. The state comes to find that the boy is not in school, something very European, and forces him to attend an oppressive school run by the state which forbids anything “Indian” related. Throughout the movie, there are stark contrasts made between the Cherokee and European way of life. It becomes evident that cultural influences have an effect on the young boy and they can be seen through the process of acculturation, the sensitive period for culture

This is called acculturation, which is how people learn to deal with a new culture (host culture), when it is significantly different from their heritage culture (Sam & Oppedal, 2003). The first time was easy for Little Tree, he adapted quite easily into the Cherokee traditions of his grandparents, who offered him love and support as well. This acculturation strategy would be called assimilation (Linden-Andersen, 2015), where the boy rejects his white heritage and instead, fully adopts and loves the Cherokee way of life. One explanation for this is that acculturation can occur when the individual needs to learn specific cultural skills so that they can thrive in their new culture (Furnham & Bochner, 1986). This can be explained by using the example that the American people wear shoes, but the Cherokee do not, and after learning the reasons why, Little Tree decides not to wear shoes either, which shows his assimilation. In order to fit in and be able to survive off the land, Little Tree needed to get rid of the white ways. This is a positive assimilation and demonstrates that changing cultures is not always a bad and traumatizing

Firstly, if the host culture is prejudice against the heritage culture, secondly if people from the host and heritage culture have very different physical characteristics and lastly if the host culture doesn’t value cultural diversity (Linden-Andersen, 2015), are all factors that can make an individual’s adjustment from one culture into another more difficult. This being said, in the movie, there were two of these present, although the host and heritage culture had similar physical characteristics. Little Tree is then taken away from his home and brought to a government school, which tries to dissolve the heritage culture of the young children coming in, in hopes that they will assimilate to the dominant white culture. Little Tree has his name changed to Joshua and is told never to speak “Indian” again (Eberts & Friedenberg, 1997) which shows that the teachers are trying to get him to reject his heritage culture and that they are completely unaccepting of it. Not only this, but upon arrival, Little Tree is instructed to wear certain clothes and get a haircut which makes his look almost identical to everyone else. This demonstrates that his new culture does not accept cultural diversity or multiculturalism. Due to the presence of these two factors, Little Tree finds it very difficult to adapt to his new life and does not enjoy it, which shows separation; which is where