Pocahontas Thesis

Aside from the lack of historical accuracy, Pocahontas still teaches its viewers multiple life lessons. The main lesson for children that comes across is the idea that being an individual should be embraced. All of the Native Americans are quick to hide and prepare for battle when they see that Europeans have started taking over their land. Pocahontas is the only one who gives the Englishmen a chance to talk and share their story as to why they have come here. Pocahontas rebels against her family's wishes and ends up saving John Smith from death and the entire village from a bloody and violent battle. She does follow the herd and embraces her uniqueness

It is said that there are many different versions to a story. There is one persons story, then there is an other person’s story, and then, there is the truth. “Our memories change each time they are recalled. What we recall is only a facsimile of things gone by.” Dobrin, Arthur. "Your Memory Isn't What You Think It Is." (online magazine). Psychology Today. July 16, 2013. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/am-i-right/201307/your-memory-isnt-what-you-think-it-is. Every time a story is told, it changes. From Disney movies to books, to what we tell our friends and colleagues. Sometimes the different sides to the story challenge the

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.

With this policy, the survival rate grew to nearly ninety percent that year. He organized successful trading with the Native American Powhattan. Smith was however captured by him and only spared when Powhattan’s daughter Pocahontas pleaded for his life. This is where the story of Pocahontas comes from. Smith wrote a letter about this encounter to Queen Anne when he heard of her coming to England years later. He wanted to ensure that she would not be treated as someone that could not be trusted. He wanted to show her loyalty to him and to England.

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.

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

Although the classic Shakespearean tragedy Romeo and Juliet depicts love at first sight between the two titular protagonists, such is not truly attainable in its entirety. Mainly, this is due to the nature of true love, which requires more than what can be obtained upon first sight, or even over the course of a few days, as in the case of Romeo and Juliet, where it is illustrated that the protagonists are so deeply in love with each other that they consider their romance to be of a higher priority than their own lives; that they had been willing to sacrifice themselves for their lover. In addition, love often segues

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 believed that success in such adventures requires individual initiative and commitment. His journey began working with his dad in his shop up until the age of 16. After his father had passed, he attempted to run it on his own, but that didn’t last long; so he joined the French Army. After a while he started exploring the new world which included Virginia, New England and Summer Isles. Smith had a very prestigious and independent outlook on life and throughout his journey it had brought him misfortune for much of his explorations, but with the misfortune came a bundles of successes. One incident which played a significant role in his journey was being captured by Powhatan; and Pocahontas, herself, helped free him. John Smith was an

Powhatan, the supreme chief of the Algonquian Indians inhabited the coastal plain of present-day Virginia. By 1700, there was only a small amount of Powhatan’s survived. The Indians had to face the new colonial world that Powhatan and Pocahontas had to face when John Smith and the first colonists had arrived at Jamestown. Although, by 1700 the descendants of Pocahontas and Powhatan understood that the English had come to stay.

Powhatan was the leader of a group of Indian tribes. Powhatan wanted nothing more than to be at peace with the English. He thought that he would rather live nicely with his family and eat good food than fight with the English and be attacked. Powhatan had a daughter named Pocahontas who married an English settler, John Rolfe. He therefore, had a connection to the settlers and didn’t see them in a bad light because his daughter had defended the settlers. Powhatan was the first leader that had to encounter the English so because of that, he had hopes that they would get along and he didn’t see what they had planned for the land and the Natives.

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

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