Pocahontas Play In Today's Society

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.

One of the things Pocahontas is most known for saving John Smith’s life. It all started when one day, the Pamunkey tribe caught a white man. The man was to be presented to Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan, that night. The village prepared large feasts, and Pocahontas was thrilled to finally get the chance to see one of the mysterious outsiders who had come to their homeland. When the man was finally brought out, many villagers screamed in horror when he glanced at them, although Pocahontas didn’t understand why everyone was afraid of this man to be called “John Smith”. Pocahontas’ father declared that the handsome man with the blue eyes was to be killed! The toughest warrior poised his arms above his head with a club in hand and… Pocahontas

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.

The movie Pocahontas setting was when the British were trying to explore the new world and king James granted settlers exclusive rights to settle in Virginia.

Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma is a novel written by Camilla Townsend, which illustrates a well detailed perspective of the life of Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan. It is often shown that Pocahontas 's story is misinterpreted, as many analyses of this subject are conducted by the speculations of various historical writings. To record, there is no single document by Pocahontas herself, so it is left for historians to rely on other people 's perspectives of the time. With the idea that most sources of this period would have come from rich, white men, these ideas would ultimately be biased in their views. In my opinion, I believe that the thesis regarding this book was to illustrate the true telling of Pocahontas and the effect of the English on the Natives residing in America during the 17th century. Specifically, I chose to analyze Chapter 3: First Contact, as Townsend was able to shed light upon the mythical idea of Pocahontas and demonstrate the plethora of inaccurate ideas portrayed by the settlers on the Native American culture.

[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?

4. When I was growing up, Disney's Pocahontas was one of my favorite movies. While I knew that Disney's version of the story was not completely true, I never actually researched John Smith and Pocahontas to learn the truth behind the real story. So, when I read John Smith's letter to the queen this week I was surprised at some of the content. First, I did not know that Pocahontas was so young, only 12 or 13, when she met John Smith. His letter depicts that they were "friends" rather than romantically involved. So, with the idea of the romance between the two depicted by the Disney movie, that fact was bizarre to me. Something else that surprised me was that Pocahontas married John Rolfe, converted to Christianity,

Pocahontas was mainly known for saving the life of John Smith. John Smith and his men arrived in Virginia and ran into the Tsenacommacah Indians many times. In 1607, a Native American hunting party captured Smith and took him back to Powhatan’s home. In Smith’s journal, he stated that Pocahontas was doing everything in her power to stop the execution and even almost sacrificed her own life to save Smith. By committing such a brave and

The colony had many problems, one of them were the Powhatan Tribe, who were not quite friendly with the colony. Another problem was the supply of food. They were running out of food. John Smith took action. He went to the Powhatan Tribe with caution, hoping to be able to trade for food. This was when Pocahontas played a big role in the colony’s survival. If it weren’t for her, the trade might’ve not been successful. She didn’t just help with the trade, but because of her curiosity of the

In “The True Story of Pocahontas,” the authors, Dr. Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star,” accurately describe the true story of Pocahontas. Many people to this day do not know her true life, only the stories broadcasted on television. Throughout chapter four, the authors describe the rocky relationship between John Smith and his Englishmen and the Powhatan people.

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.

John Smith and Pocahontas did, in fact, meet and they did develop a kindly relationship. It is said that his love for her is what helped her negotiate the release of two Indian prisoners that John Smith had caught and he stated that “not only for feature, countenance, and proportion,” she “much exceeded any of the rest of Powhatan's people.” [4] It

Governor Ratcliffe a greedy Englishman uses the situation to declare war. Pocahontas, fearing for her lover’s life, tries to resolve the conflict by throwing herself onto John Smith at the ceremony trying to protect him by admitting her love. The central conflict of the movie however is less connected to the love story of Pocahontas and John Smith than to the cultural conflict between Native Americans and the English settlers in the context of colonialism. This makes the movie particularly interesting to analyze.

Barnett explains, "a number of unlucky Pocahontas figures populate the frontier romance, saving white beloveds only at the cost of their own lives" (93). Fortunately, Pocahontas's life was spared despite her willingness to sacrifice, although her later affiliations with a white man and Europe led to her death from disease. The notion of females rescuing white men and assimilating with their culture have traditionally been connected, which resulted in greater Indian deaths due to their exposure to a foreign culture from which they had not yet learned to protect themselves.

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