Essay about Dances With Wolves

Hollywood has helped create and perpetuate many different stereotypical images of the different races in the world. Those stereotypes still continue to affect the way we think about each other today and many of those stereotypes have been proven to be historically inaccurate. The movie Dances With Wolves, directed by actor Kevin Costner, does an excellent job in attempting to promote a greater acceptance, understanding, and sympathy towards Native American culture, instead of supporting the typical stereotype of Native Americans being nothing but brutal, blood thirsty savages.

Native Americans make up less than .9% of the United States population. With this trivial number, it is difficult to keep its culture and traditions alive as generations progress. In the short story “War Dances,” author Sherman Alexie morns the loss of Native American identity through a deprecating tone which illustrate a divide between generations.

These harmful images of how the Indian Americans were depicted, were subliminally created by him in many of his previous films where they were repeatedly stereotyped under the maligned appearance of bloodthirsty savages and hardly ever illustrated by their alter ego the noble savages. These descriptions and especially the denigrated bloodthirsty savage illustrations of the Indians remain seen as purely animals into the eyes of non-native populations, which caused racial discrimination against them at that epoch. Therefore, John Ford tried to redeem himself by making the film The Searchers, where he tried to expose the nefarious causes of resentment and racism that at that time the general population had for the Indians. This way of apology is likely to be strong supported by the image of the film’s hero. The depiction of the hero stresses the despicable habits of the westerners such as the tendency of the prejudices towards others. As shown by the arrival of the John Wayne character to his brother’s house and how he looked at Martin who is half-blood Indian. Similarly, Dances with Wolves represented an explicit apology to the indigenous people. However, although it was made by a white person point of view, it emphasizes Indians’ points of view. This is implicitly represented as the hero who is a white soldier from the American Civil War transformed himself into a real Indian of the Lakota Sioux tribe. Although both films symbolize intentions of apology to the

Have you ever went to a friends house and wonder why they only eat one category of food? Well that’s because of their culture, which plays a tremendous role in everyone's life. Culture not only affects food but many other things like tradition and religion. It is what makes us who we are ;something that we take daily use in. In the Essay “Indian Father’s plea” by Robert Lake , Wind-wolf's father, Medicine grizzly bear, is telling how much their culture and heritage has affected his son. “He was born and raised on the reservation” ( Lake 75) A reservation is Indian Land and Where they lived; by being born and raised there, he has learned things that are different from the way others know. Wind-wolf’s culture played such a big part on him that

In Dances with Wolves and The Searchers the viewer was able to see many of the Indians values and how they differ from the ones of the white men. In both films the Indians were vibrantly painted with symbols on their body and horses .They also wore feathered hats and beaded jewelry. The Indians were very spiritual in Dances with Wolves. They held many ceremonies with lots of dancing and music.

Lt. John Dunbar was lying on a hospital bed, leg totally mutilated. Barely conscious, the man over heard the surgeon say he could not amputate this mans leg as tired as he was. Dunbar didn’t like what he heard, so when the surgeons left, he grabbed his boat, and he slowly slid the boat up his mutilated foot biting on a stick to relive the massive pain.

"Their (Natives) present condition, contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies…By persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others have left but remnants to preserve for a while their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage doom him to

Typically referred to as ‘Indians’ in popular culture, Native Americans were traditionally seen in Westerns as the antagonists. The Western genre typically tells the story of the colonisation and discovery of America, which saw the major Hollywood studios revive the interest in the Western. Westerns draw on “historical actuality, a romantic philosophy of nature, and the concept of the […] savage” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3). Westerns often split the “depiction of the Indian, with the cruel and treacherous [Indian] balanced by the faithful [Indian]” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3) which resulted in the portrayals of Native Americans witnessed in films today.

Hollywood’s early depictions of Natives consisted of tribesmen and noble savages who are in tune with Nature. Films such as The Silent Enemy portray these stereotypes on screen with actors like Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance being shown as tribesmen who are very noble Natives. Although these stereotypes are positive, they are still stereotypes nonetheless. These stereotypes have caused

Soon he learns from bear claw that there are different type of Indians some which you should never even think of fighting and some that had never hurt a white man before. More than to be respectful the mountain men submit to the Indians out of fear.

Not looking like the rest of the Indians on the reservation hampered John's ability to fit in with the Savage society. John wanted more than anything to be a part of the Indian culture, to be part of the ritual, to give his life. "Why wouldn't they let me be the sacrifice? I'd have gone round ten times–– twelve, fifteen." John asked why, but he knew the answer. "But they

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

Dances with Wolves’ sense of identity is entirely with the Lakota Sioux when he is captured by the U.S. Army, his original people, and is beaten, yet Dances with Wolves refuses to cooperate with them, “I am Dances with Wolves, and I have nothing to say to you. You are not worth talking to.” Dances with Wolves sense of identity is closely related to his mindset.

Everyone has a preconceived opinion of how a certain ethnic group is in terms of the way they live, the morals they hold, the way they deal with people different from them, and how they deal with one another. We come to these conclusions by what we have seen in the media, heard from other people, or actually experienced ourselves. Most people would consider these opinions to be stereotypes. Dances with Wolves is a motion picture that deals with and touches on all sides of personal stereotypes we as American and American Indians have about each other. John Dunbar takes us through and allows us to see how it is to come into a situation he was not familiar with and then eventually the

Vigorous as a predator, affectionate toward its pack, the gray wolf elicits both fear and admiration among humans. This fear, along with ignorance, inspired a movement to eradicate the gray wolf from the lower forty-eight states in the early 1900’s. By the early 1930’s, gray wolf populations had been completely eliminated from the Rocky Mountains (Bangs, et al 147). In 1973, congress passed the Endangered Species Act that protected any wolves that naturally migrated from Canada (Bangs, et al 147). Public opinion began to shift and the value of the wolf on the ecosystem was realized. While the public support for a reintroduction increased, there remained many people who opposed the gray wolf. People