Potential Dances With Wolves Rhetorical Analysis

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The concept of the anti-conquest love plot consist of a story that communicates clear-cut messages about race, colonialism and cultural others within stories of survival and adventure. The purpose of the anti-conquest plot  is to eliminate any responsibility for colonialism, as opposed to justifying it. Typically, in an anti- conquest love plot the natives come to help and follow the protagonist. Then, the protagonist eventually re-encounters his “people.” His people are colonizers who come to  kill, enslave, and destroy native followers. After which, the protagonist leaves behind the one’s he loved that had allowed for his survival. The protagonist then anguishes about his morality along with the morality of his society. He regrets the potential …show more content…

The anti-conquest love plot in this film develops due to the love intimacies created by gift exchange. For example, the scene that shows the first exchange of gifts occurs when Lieutenant Dunbar makes coffee for the small Lakota band that comes to visit him at the soldier fort. At the end of the scene, the warriors leave with new tin coffee cups strapped to their backs and through a voice over narration, it is revealed that he has also given them some coffee and sugar to take back to their camp circle with them. This film also depicts anti-conquest because it regards the indigenous inhabitants of a colonized country as victims as opposed to foes of the …show more content…

The film demonstrates the anti-conquest love plot through its illustration of the kinship between Crusoe and Friday.  This is clearly evident at the end of the movie, in the scene where a European scout party shoots Friday in order to rescue Crusoe and return him to Scotland. However, Crusoe becomes visibly upset because Friday was his friend. This depicts anti-conquest because Crusoe returns home unscathed, and the friendship and love Crusoe established with Friday allows him to wash himself of any blame for wrongdoings due to colonization. So, the juxtaposition of Friday’s death and Crusoe’s return effectively supports the anti-conquest ideology and provides an overview of the type of colonial love that grows between the two

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