Pocahontas And Real Life

Disney’s Pocahontas is a great movie, but is it historically correct? Well the answer is both yes and no. There are similarities between the history of it and movie, but there’s also differences. Why don 't I tell you about them.

Sometimes life’s greatest lessons are found in the simplest things. Implicit ideologies can be seen through film dialogue, book text, and even music lyrics. With a more profound level of interpretation, watchers can comprehend what is implicitly implied through a film's message. Pocahontas, the 1995 Disney movie, is an animated film about the legend of Pocahontas. Throughout, the film reinforces the ideologies of interracial relationships, the misinterpretation of Native Americans, and gender stereotypes in an effort to appeal to young children and teach them lessons about life. The song “Savages” taken from the film Pocahontas conveys a powerful message that not only transcends well beyond this adventurous tale. The lyrics of the song, “Savages” are offensive and declare war as if there is no other solution. In addition to that, the lyrics lack cultural sensitivity to both races, particularly to the Native American.

Pocahontas was born in 1595, with the given name of Matoaka and later got the nickname Pocahontas. She has been known as the favorite daughter of the powerful Powhatan Chief but she is also famous in history for contributing greatly toward the survival of the Jamestown colony. When the English colonists settled in Jamestown in 1607, there became tension between the Colonists and the Powhatan Indians. During the 1600s, the leader of the Colonists, Captain John Smith was caught by the Powhatan’s men. It has been said that Pocahontas saved Smith’s life and has had great influence on early relationships between the colonists and Indians. During Pocahontas’s life, she has faced many tragedies but triumphs have also played a role in her time.

Remember that Disney movie of an American Indian tribe member with the long, flowy hair? If so, that might have been Pocahontas. Pocahontas was the beautiful daughter of the Powhatan leader, who the English named Virginia. Her story was truly amazing. I chose this topic because of the curiosity of who this beautiful lady really was, and what journeys in life she had overcome. This topic was brought up in Social Studies class as we were doing centers. One of the centers was only about her, and I have been curious ever since.

The book is written in narrative flow and shows Pocahontas’s development from a little girl to a grown woman. The author is showing how big of an impact a woman made to her people and culture. Even at the age of nine she was a main concern of her people because her father was Powhatan, the paramount chief. At that time she experienced strangers who came to her father’s kingdom in big ships. As the story progresses, she is more and more as a greatly influential person. Townsend portrays that she is the one who saved John Smith’s life. She also explains who Kocoom is and his relationship ties to Pocahontas.

[5] Gary Edgerton and Kathy Merlock Jackson, in their review of the movie, conveyed these same ideas about Pocahontas. They insist that “The filmmakers at Disney never really intended Pocahontas to be historically accurate, despite all the

Pocahontas was connected with English colonists through Captain John Smith. He arrived in Virginia on April 1607. John Smith was captured by a group of hunting men led by Powhatan’s relative while exploring

Savages!” (songlyrics.com). There was an imaginary form of ideology being represented for the real conditions of existence by the Native American’s during this time (Althusser 155). “The starting-point is the simple one that ideology is read from film texts, consciously or unconsciously, and the relationship between each text and its culture are traceable to ideological roots.” (Turner, 1999, p.171) Pocahontas gives viewers a different picture of the Native Americans role during this time. In addition to Native American’s being criticized and misrepresented from their actual history, they were also portrayed as a Willow tree, Meeko, and Flit, whom were all objects in nature or animals. Because all Native American characters were the animals and the objects in nature, their heritage and people get pushed to the edge of society because they are made out to be different [to be objects and animals]. They are marginalized because they are different from the westerners. This impacts the ideology of social exclusion and misrepresentation of a social group. The Native American’s are misinterpreted through society today due to movies like Pocahontas portraying their people as animals, objects, or misinterpreting their role in history with negative connotations in the text. “Importantly ideological approaches reject the view of the film text as ‘unitary’ in meaning; that is, as making only one kind of sense, without considerations, exceptions, or variations in the

The movie Pocahontas was released by Disney in 1995, and its sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World three years later. Together the movies depict, to a certain extent, the story of Native American “princess”, Pocahontas. I will watch both movies in their entirety, paying close attention to detail, and take note of how exactly the story is portrayed. Afterwards, I will research as much as I can about Pocahontas and compare it to what is presented in the Disney film. I will then asses why I think, exactly, the filmmakers left out or changed what they did.

"Instead of progress in depicting Native Americans, this film takes a step backwards – a very dangerous step because it is so carefully glossed as 'authentic' and 'respectful.' " – Jacquelyn Kilpatrick

Pocahontas was the most important Disney film. Not only does it have beautiful songs, and colorful animation, it speaks to Western Cultures' relationships to the indigenous people of North America. Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas' father, says, "these white men are dangerous." He was right, Western Culture eventually dominated all the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, this is also known as "Manifest Destiny". This is western cultures' excuse for the genocide of millions of indigenous people. In Louise Erdrich's novel, Love Medicine, Erdrich exposes how western cultures, specifically Christianity, have white-washed Native American culture by personifying her own upbringing through her characters' battles between religion and society.

Back in 1995, as a 20 year old woman, I was, absolutely, still in love with everything Disney. I was still very much enamored with the romance and fairy tale aspects of all their stories and movies. So when the Walt Disney Company released the animated feature “Pocahontas” in the summer of my 20th year, I had to see it. At the time, I thought I had hit the jackpot with this movie. “An American legend comes to life” is the tagline to get viewers interested in this movie. [1] A heroin, whom was a beautiful Indian and a love story, who could ask for more from a Disney movie, I thought to myself. Now, being ignorant of the true facts about the Indian woman Pocahontas and even about Indian culture and history itself, I took this story more

[1] Before I start this essay, I feel the need to remind the reader that I find slavery in all its forms to be an oppressive and terrible institution, and I firmly believe that for centuries (including this one) bigotry is one of the most terrible stains on our civilization. The views I intend to express in the following essay are in no way meant to condone the practices of slavery or racism; they are meant only to evaluate and interpret the construction of slavery in film.

Disney movie, Pocahontas portrays the life of the Powhatan nation in the state of Virginia. The movie itself may not be very explicit in details, however, history is. This movie depicts the Native Americans to be settled in Virginia and the Englishmen from London come and try to rob their land of gold. The minute the English step foot on in Virginia there was a great deal of conflict between the English and the Natives. After failing to discover the gold they anticipated, the English quickly ran out of food and leaned on the Natives to trade their food for goods. Those events of conflict and food trade, represent interactions between people and the environment. The motion picture also slightly illustrates the roles of women and men in their

Pocahontas. Americans know her as the beautiful, Indian woman who fell in love with the white settler John Smith and then threw her body upon the poor white captive to protect him from being brutally executed by her own savage tribe. The magical world of Walt Disney came out with their own movie version several years ago portraying Pocahontas as a tan, sexy Barbie doll figure and John Smith as a blond-haired, blue-eyed muscular Ken doll. Although Disney attempts to instill racial tolerance, inter-racial friendship, and nonviolent resolutions in Pocahontas, they contribute to the inaccurate Indian woman stereotype that has evolved from such stories. While it can be argued that Disney has