Pocahontas Movie Essay

Pocahontas would be brought back into the picture after the English kidnapped her. She converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe, bringing peace between the two sides. Pocahontas would then be brought to England as an example of a “Savage” being turn to Christianity. After she dies, the peace between the Natives and the settlers slowly diminishes. In March 22, 1622, the Natives would attack the English, killing around 400 settlers. This attack backfires on the Native since the English would attack back more drastically. To end the book, Price talks about John Smiths life after Jamestown and his opinion on the settlement. The story also addresses the beginning of Slaves entry in America, which would be an important part in the history of America. This book overall informs us of early America history.

There are five sociological concepts I am going to explain. And I will be using scenes from the Disney movie Pocahontas as examples. The five are: norms, role conflict, values, ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

Many people believe the 1995 film, Pocahontas, to be the true story of a young Powhatan woman. However, the story lacks facts. Pocahontas isn’t even her real name. Matoaka, the real Pocahontas, faced mush more misery than the movie showed. Mataoka’s life in America, life in England, a comparison between the movie and real life, and how fictional portrayals of real people effect society today will show you that Disney’s inaccuracies could change history.

The Jamestown landing was on May 14th, 1607 and was the beginning of the first English settlement in America. The Virginia Company of London financed this journey to Virginia to extract profits from gold, silver and many other riches expected to be found. Additionally, they hoped to create a trade route to the Pacific. Of the many men that were selected to make this journey, there was a John Smith, who was a former soldier and an arrogant impatient natured man. Smith would eventually meet a young Indian princess named Pocahontas. He and Pocahontas would later become known as the two people who saved Jamestown.

In the movie, Pocahontas and her tribe are shown helping the settlers survive there first winter by bringing them food and supplies while Smith is already established as the leader. Her tribe then proceeds to ambush the settlers through a harsh battle the following spring for not leaving the land and Pocahontas is banned for supporting the settlers. It is an epic scene of action and dramatic fighting that seems to last for days. The battle most likely never happened though, because not one historian accounts for it. In fact in Alan Brinkley’s text, An Unfinished Nation, it is explained that for two years the settlers led “unrelenting assaults against the Powhatan Indians” and in the process captured Pocahontas to hold for ransom (Brinkly 32).

As young children we are often misled to believe that the stories and movies we are exposed to are presumably based on factual history, but are in reality myths, keeping the truthful, important, and fair facts hidden. Amonute is an accurate example of learning the real events that occurred in a person’s life while the typical myth of Pocahontas saved an Englishmen from being killed by her father. In the beginning of the book we are briefly introduced to Pocahontas, the Powhatan people and the English colonists. As the book continues we follow Pocahontas when she is kidnapped, her married life, and her trip to London where she got sick because of foreign illnesses and died. Camilla Townsends “Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma” wants Pocahontas’ true story to unfold because she is worthy of respect for her bravery and sacrifice and because “everyone subverted her life to satisfy their own needs to believe that the Indians loved and admired them” (Townsend, pg. xi). I also believe that the author was trying to argue that even though the Englishmen believed that the Native Americans were uncivilized and lived like savages, that instead they were wise people.

To begin, unlike Disney’s portrayal of what most people thought of as an epic romance of the ages, Pocahontas and John Smith were never intimate with each other. In addition, while being the

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.

[1] Disney’s Pocahontas has understandably received a lot of flak about the historically inaccurate story that is told about the legendary Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. There is a good reason for that. The movie does little that can be construed as historically accurate, yet Disney claims that was never their intent. Disney, in their previous movies, has been attacked for being racist and unsympathetic to racial minorities. Their answer was a movie whose sole purpose, as stated by Disney, was to promote racial tolerance. The question is, then can a movie promote racial tolerance when the issue is built on false history, history that if told accurately would depict the exact opposite?

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.

These are so many influential people in the world we live in. These many people positively change the world by their actions such as putting other lives before theirs, leading the path for others, and remembering to stay kind and helpful. Pocahontas, a friendly Powhatan Indian, and a brave friend, is one of those influential people. Pocahontas is influential because of her accomplishments, legacy, and her character.

He started scouting around and began drawing maps immediately. He met Pocahontas by almost shooting her by a water fall, and later they fell in love. He was captured later in the movie while venturing out alone at night to meet Pocahontas. John Smith was going to be executed on top of a rock at dawn, in front of an army of colonists who planned to rescue him. In reality, John smith was arrested and chained in irons during the voyage over, and he was released a month after arriving to Jamestown, Virginia. After he was set free, he did a lot of exploring and trading with the Indians. John Smith mapped most of the Jamestown area. He was eventually captured while seeking food along the Chickahominy River. John Smith was brought to Chief Powhatan and was sentenced to be executed. This is when he actually met Matoaka, the real name of Pocahontas, and she rescued him from execution. Matoake was the oldest daughter of Chief Powhatan. John Smith became good friends with Matoake, and eventually Chief Powhatan adopted Smith as his son. (Squidoo, Inc., 2012)

Many people know the story of Pocahontas, but how much of it is true? Pocahontas was a Native American princess who was one of twenty-seven daughters of Chief Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan tribe. Disney has produced a film based on the life of Pocahontas; however, it has been debated how closely this fiction movie has stayed to its history. Though reality and the children’s movie share many similarities, they also differ in many ways. Pocahontas has been portrayed in many different ways in both history books and fiction films.

In the movie doesn’t Pocahontas look like she is in her twenties, but is she really? She may look and seem like she is at least in her twenties but, really she is not. In John Smith’s “The General History of Virginia” she is actually only eleven or twelve. The movie makes it seem like she is older; it just seems like a little too much of over exaggeration. When thinking about the fact of how old Pocahontas is does it bring up the thought if she was only eleven or twelve then, how old was John Smith?

In Camilla Townsend’s book, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, Townsend points out that there are many historical inaccuracies and myths that are associated with the story of Pocahontas. Using historical evidence to support the story of Pocahontas, Townsend attempted to create an accurate timeline bringing the past to the present. At the same time, the Disney film Pocahontas attempted to depict Algonquian culture accurately, however, according to history, much of the material presented in the film is full of misconceptions and is historically imprecise. In fact, Disney’s Pocahontas epitomizes John Smith and