Pocahontas Theory

Townsend examines the following months on the settling of the English, as well as Pocahontas’s kidnapping, to her imprisonment, down to her marriage to John Rolfe, her conversion to Christianity, and finally her death.

In reality it is roughly based on historical truths and not entirely factual. There is a clear difference and it is often lost in the cinematic glamour of a great story. “The New World” is no exception and has clearly created a loosely fact based adaptation of the story of John Smith and Pocahontas. In summary fact based period films by Hollywood can easily mislead people into believing anything when it is based on facts. Moreover, the reason the “The New World” took this approach was simply to make the movie more appealing to the

When Smith was captured, he was held prisoner and the leader of the tribe was going to execute John Smith that was until Pocahontas shows up and stops them from killing smith and he was shown the ways of the tribe. But long story short, Smith returns to Jamestown he began to make more money because he learned better ways to find food and to make some products so he became rich and he basically didn't care about anyone that he left Jamestown and went back to Europe and never returned

In a scene where Pocahontas and John Smith had their first face-to-face encounter, John Smith who is holding his gun up ready to shoot but instead lowers his gun upon laying eyes on Pocahontas, obviously taken aback by her beauty. This shows how native American women romanticized by the media and portrayed as being mesmerizing to men. Movie-makers had taken a more sexualized approach in creating Pocahontas’s appearance as can be seen by how Pocahontas wears a mini dress that bears much skin and she was given a voluptuous figure with a tiny waist, adding how her hair was placed to attract attention throughout the movie (van Wormer, & Juby, 2015)(Ono, & Buescher, 2001). In the case where Pocahontas sings the famous Colours of the Wind soundtrack, Pocahontas dances in a sensuous way moving very closely to John Smith despite how they just met. This gives off the meaning that Native American women are very open, exotic and a sexualized image (Hopkins, 2005)(R, & Berger, 2004)

Smith was badly burned in 1606 from a gunpowder explosion and forced to return back to England. In 1614 he returned with an expedition to map the New England coastline. He would never return to Virginia again after this. He would from then on only promote colonizing the New England area. His efforts to promote colonizing were blocked by weather, pirates and lack of funding. He then resorted to writing about colonization. In his writing he elaborated about how wonderful it was in the new world. He would say that the fish practically jump into your boat when you go fishing and things such as that. He made the new world seem better than it really was so people would want to travel here and settle in it. His plan worked because year after year more and more people flocked to the New England hoping to colonize and not have to worry about running out

The movie "The New World" tells the history of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. The movie goes on to tell the events that took place in the creation and development of Jamestown. The story involves a heavy romance between Pocahontas and John Smith while explaining multiple events that took place. The movie is questioned whether or not it is historically accurate or completely inaccurate. Based on the research of the characters and the events that took place, "The New World" shows more historical accuracy than inaccuracy.

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.

Pocahontas was captured by Samuel Argall and during her captivity she became pregnant. The father was a mystery, but she was supposed to be marrying me. We got married on April 5, 1614 and then her baby was born on January 30, 1615. We were blessed with thousands of acres of land from Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan. My wife, our baby, and I traveled to England on the ship, Treasurer, in 1616. Pocahontas was soon addressed by the name, Princess Pocahontas, because she was so widely respected. While in England, we visited Queen Anne and King James I. While in London, Pocahontas met John Smith who she thought was dead. We stayed and toured England for several months, and on our trip back home Pocahontas became very ill and died. I returned back to Virginia while Thomas, our son, stayed in England. I soon married the daughter of a colonist. Her name was Jane Pierce. Soon after we married, we had a daughter and named her Elizabeth. My house was on my tobacco plantation, and it was attacked by stupid Native Indians. I honestly don’t know why they hate me so much. It’s devastating. There, I was left stranded with no help, just lying in the grass. It’s my time to go…

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

As she adventures into the deep Everglades with only a few supplies, she comes across a deer, and she wondered why it was so spooked. “Hardly had she spoken than she was struck by a blast of hot air, more searing than the one she had felt in the boat.’ It smelled of burning grass”(27). Then she sees fire through all the tall and short trees and runs to shore when she realizes her boat and then runs straight to it. As she gets on the ship, she cannot paddle fast enough, and she says “The fire is coming too fast”(27). So she finds a nearby cave and figures it is her only hope. As Billie is running from the fire, she assumes the fire was the serpent because “They spat black smoke as the many-tongued beast came rushing toward Billie”(27) just like if the fires black smoke was the tongue of the serpent. While she was hiding from the serpent, she explored the cave and found fascinating artifacts about the Calusa tribe. The Calusa tribe are the ancestors of the Seminole tribe and there a Seminole legend. The Calusa tribe are called the underground people because they built ramps that go underground and she identified how they lived.When Billie was in the cave, she found a cause pot that inspired her to start believing in her tribe's legend. So far billies evaluation has changed because she has become very intrigued in her tribe's

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

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.

Dunbar knows that the arrival of American troops in the frontiers will only be a matter of time. Soon, he has to make the decision whether he wants to stick to his new friends or go back to his fellow soldiers and fight against the Indians. When Dunbar rides back to his post to get his journal, American soldiers are gathered around his post. They see him coming and shoot his horse. Since Dunbar is wearing a Sioux gown, the troops look at him as a trader and treat him brutally. When the soldiers are on their way to the next village to have Dunbar hanged, the Sioux attack, and rescue their friend, Dunbar. Back at the Indian camp, Dunbar and his wife decide to leave the Sioux. John Dunbar knows that he is a wanted man now.

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