Pocahontas: Who Is She Really?

Disney, a name that spread around the world; a mass media company; a company with a revenue of more than 50 billion dollars a year; Pocahontas, among other famous story are brought to awareness by Disney to the silver screen. Disney’s1995 Pocahontas movie grossed more than 140 million dollar in total. Disney claims the film is “responsible, accurate and respectful”. But how can Disney make such promises when people’s age and half of the plot never occurred?

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.

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)

Sojourner Truth was an extremely strong and courageous woman. She proceeded through many hardships and Truth even escaped the bondage from slavery. After that she spoke out for women’s rights and was even the first African American woman to take a white man to court and win. Throughout her eighty six years of life Sojourner Truth she stumbled through numerous hardships, escaped slavery, and spoke out on women’s rights.

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.

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…

The background of Pocahontas is one that many know or have once heard. Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief. She was captured by the English and was held for ransom of her father. While she was captive, she converted to Christianity

[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?

Pocahontas was born in 1596, in Virginia, and her name was Amonute, but she is called by her nickname, Pocahontas. She was a Powhatan Native American woman. The name Pocahontas meant “playful one” because of the environment that she lives in. She is the daughter of Chief Powhatan, Wahunsenaca. She was her father’s favorite daughter. Like any other females, she have learned how to find food and firewood. She also need to prepare feasts for any celebrations and build houses. She needs to learn all of these jobs by when she becomes an adult woman.

Sojourner Truth wasn't just a hero to blacks, slaves, and women. She was also an abolitionist and a champion of women's rights speaking through the country. She acted on her feelings about life and the way it should be. But, in Battle Creek, Michigan where Sojourner Truth spent her last years, and everywhere else, she is known for her powerful speeches that traveled the nation advocating for the fair treatment of freed slaves. Sojourner Truth was born in 1797, born into slavery, and was given the name Isabella Baumfree. Sojourner’s parents, were also slaves, in Ulster county N.Y. Because slave trading was very prominent in those days, Sojourner was traded and sold many times. Sojourner ran away from slavery before the Emancipation act was published, and changed her name to Sojourner Truth. This name has great meaning, because she intended on telling the truth to all people about slavery. Sojourner also wanted a religious name. Sojourner set out on her mission, to educate all people on the subject of slavery, and became a very powerful speaker. She became a very influential speaker for women’s rights, as well for the abolishment of slavery all over the country. She became famous for being the first black women to speak out against slavery. Sojourner died at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. She left behind a legacy of ideas and principles for other great black leader to follow. She will always be remembered for her courage, perseverance, diligence, and patience

The book “Pocahontas: Medicine woman, spy, entrepreneur, diplomat” was written to explain how Pocahontas was important in American history; and to explain the roles she played in our history. Paula Gunn Allen purpose of writing this book was to explain Pocahontas Life, she also states that although there are many stories about Pocahontas it is difficult to know if they are facts or not. Allen also states that her goal writing this book was to bring to life Pocahontas culture and how she played many roles in society. Pocahontas united two worlds The Powhatan with the English;

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.

A quote from the website called (¨Pocahontas Leadership and Legacy¨), it is said that, ¨She had preferred to live with the English and kept her new found faith breaking barriers on religious freedoms.¨ This is a legacy of Pocahontas because her name meant ¨playful one¨ or ¨naughty child¨ and she always wanted adventure and exploration. As said in the website called (¨Pocahontas Leadership and Legacy¨), it says, ¨She, in her efforts broke down walls of religious freedoms, and interracial inequality all while changing the demographic of stereotypes early settlers had on native Americans. Which led to enriching our country financially, ethically, and socially directly affecting the prosperity of our county as we know it.¨ This is a legacy of Pocahontas because she wanted people to stop the fights and arguments to have peace. (¨Encyclopedia Virginia/Pocahontas¨) says, ¨¨In fact, she did not become a celebrity until the 1820s, when southerners sought a colonial heroine to compete with the story of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts and so establish Virginia (more accurately) as the earlier of the two English colonies.¨ This is a legacy because it shows that at one point, people didn't know about Pocahontas and that it took awhile to find out about her. These are some of the legacies of

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.