ipl-logo

Pocahontas Argumentative Essay

914 Words4 Pages

If one mentions the name Pocahontas to any young girl today, chances are, their eyes will light up with visions of Disney's romanticised representation of the classic character. However, historical descriptions and portraits of Pocahontas tell a different story from the one playing on the silver screen. Compared to Disney's story of romance and sacrifice, Pocahontas' real story is more about politics, English-Indian diplomacy, and power struggles – not one of compassion and love. Although it may seem like Disney's Pocahontas is a retelling of her real story, Disney ignores the legacy of Pocahontas by twisting her story into one of mawkish romance rather than one of politics and diplomacy with the English.
The main contrast of Disney's Pocahontas to the historical Pocahontas involves her experiences with John Smith and the other English settlers. Take the compass in the Pocahontas …show more content…

Pocahontas used her relationship with the English to free Indian captives and to facilitate trade deals, eventually marrying a powerful English planter (John Rolfe). Additionally, Disney's skewed portrayal of Pocahontas applied to John Smith and his motives as well. Smith's own records state that his mission in Virginia was to gain leverage and power from the Indians in the area. Smith's actions of giving important gifts to powerful tribesman and becoming the adopted son of the chieftain truly reflect his motives. The story of Pocahontas, although inspiring, is a story of politics and power, not of love and compassion. Disney is famous for making fairytales and legends come alive on the silver screen and Pocahontas is no exception to this rule. Disney's Pocahontas is clearly a romanticised fairy tale and not from historical fact, but it is at the viewer's discretion to tell the difference before both fact and fiction merge into

Show More
Related

Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma Analysis

517 Words | 3 Pages

Now we have all heard about the story of Pocahontas, unfortunately many of the stories we were told growing up are not completely true. Camilla Townsend, the author of “Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma”, intends to inform its readers about the evolution of the many lies written and told by the Englishmen regarding their relationships with the Native America peoples that many of us have heard about today. However, Townsend has ineffectively given her readers information about the whole truth to the stories she has written about the many relationships of the English and Native Americans. Firstly, although Townsend claims to have done her research on the topic by reading all the documents written from this time period and beyond, she leaves

Read More

Anne Anderson Argumentative Essay

502 Words | 3 Pages

A seemingly uncorrelated death of a child becomes an attack on two businesses that brought forth unwanted attention. It reveals how corporations can truly neglect their surroundings and the safety of citizens without remorse. In the quaint town of Woburn, Massachusetts, the death of Anne Anderson’s son due to leukemia quickly transformed from a personal tragedy to an extensive lawsuit. Anne Anderson approached Jan Schlichtmann, a personal injury lawyer, to tackle the case. From the beginning, Anne makes it clear that she does not want money, she simply wants an apology.

Read More

Summary Of Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma

1011 Words | 5 Pages

While reading the book, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, I learned a great deal about early Indian life, in a way I had not before. Of course, in grade school you learn about “Pocahontas” but not in the way Camilla Townsend describes her. I started this book not really knowing what to expect besides to learn more than I had previously known. I know recently a lot about history has come up for discussion in ways it has never before. Native Americans and Africa Americans have been a topic of discussion for the past few years, shedding light on their history.

Read More

Relationship Between John Smith And Wahunsenaca

242 Words | 1 Pages

In Chapter 4 of Dr. Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel’s novel The True Story of Pocahontas; The Other Side of History, the relationship between John Smith and Wahunsenaca is described. The Wahunsenaca had promoted John Smith to the position of werowance (chief) and John was not preforming respectful acts under the name. The authors suggest that John Smith would go to villages and forcefully take their food, leaving the people of the village without food for the entire winter. In the eyes of the Wahunsenaca this was disappointing because he had treated John the best but John was acting like the worst.

Read More

John Smith's Involvement With American Indians

513 Words | 3 Pages

John Smith is now a house-hold name in American folklore due to his involvement with American Indians and his portrayal in the Pocahontas Disney movie, but many fail to know that he was responsible for the survival of England’s first colony in America. His leadership, and determination helped discipline the colonists, while his negotiations with the Indians prevented starvation and lowered the mortality rate. Smith was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1580. At the age of 16, he became a soldier, but was captured and sold into slavery. Smith killed his master and wandered through Europe and the Mediterranean before returning to England in 1604.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Pocahontas Vs The New World

606 Words | 3 Pages

The first movie “Walt Disney’s Pocahontas” and the second movie is “The New World”. Both showed the journey of the colonists and the epic love story of Pocahontas and John Smith. But the New World did just a little better of a job at being more historically accurate. To begin with, the plots were very different in both of the movies but “The New World” is more accurate. In “Pocahontas” it showed her falling in love with John Smith and then saving him from dying.

Read More

How Is Disney's Portrayal Of Pocahontas: True Or True?

436 Words | 2 Pages

Disney’s work is not historically accurate in many historians eyes. Lewis from source 1.5 says, “Why is it that none of the other members of Virginia company that kept diaries ever wrote about Pocahontas saving Smith’s life?” Disney could have looked into the story a little bit more, before producing a historically incorrect movie. Lewis proceeds to say “No one in England had heard of her until 1617. ” Therefore Disney’s depiction of Pocahontas was not responsible, because it is not

Read More

Argumentative Essay: The Odyssey

1474 Words | 6 Pages

Odyssey Argumentative Essay The Odyssey is an epic by Homer. It is a story about Odysseus journey back to Ithaca after the Trojan War. All the Greek heroes had returned home after the Trojan War except for Odysseus who was an important hero in Ithaca. Odysseus was absent in his son’s life and Telemachus decided that, it was time to find his father and bring him back home to his wife Penelope.

Read More

Disney's Influence On American Culture

724 Words | 3 Pages

Now Disney’s version of Pocahontas is that the English come to Virginia and are captured by the Indians and Pocahontas and Captain John Smith fall in love and their love story is what could save the Indians from getting robbed by the English. This is another example of Disney misrepresenting the Indian Culture and messing up the story. The real story of Pocahontas is the English came to Virginia and were captured by the Indians and the story, not believed by all historians, is that Captain John Smith and Pocahontas became really good friends and that she saved him and many other Englishmen from starving to death. The way that Disney made the movie and made the movie isn’t 100% accurate in the way the story is supposed to be told. Disney told some of the story but not all of

Read More

Scarlet Letter Argumentative Essay

445 Words | 2 Pages

Enough evidence was given in the book that Hester deserves the punishment. To prove that she does, Hester was raised as a Puritan so she knew what would be the consequences she has committed adultery and is left with a baby alone to raise without a father role model. As well she is not suited to be a mother. She can’t keep Pearl.

Read More

Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma Sparknotes

872 Words | 4 Pages

The author goes on to debate what Pocahontas actually felt in her relationship with John Smith and how she most likely did not reciprocate the feelings he claimed she had. This may be new information to the reader and provides historical difference of the real Pocahontas from the Hollywood version while strengthening Townsend’s argument. Also, the author does not use challenging language in her own writing. She keeps her own wording basic as to give the readers a break from the difficultness of the old language. Another positive aspect of this book is the notes section and the preface.

Read More

Similarities Between John Smith And Pocahontas

400 Words | 2 Pages

Pocahontas

Read More

Mary Rowlandson A Narrative Of The Captivity Analysis

1544 Words | 7 Pages

“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson”: The Influence of Intercultural Contact on Puritan Beliefs “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson gives a first person perspective into the circumstances of captivity and cultural interaction and an insight to Rowlandson 's attitude towards the Indians, both before and after she was held captive. Rowlandson displays a change in her perception of "civilized" and "savage", in spite of the fact that her overall world view does not alter. It should be covered below that in the following Essay, since the author and the narrator are the same person, will not be individually distinguished. For one thing, Mary Rowlandson provides all the conventions typical of a Puritan perspective.

Read More

Argumentative Essay: The Lady And The Tiger

599 Words | 3 Pages

Lady and the Tiger Argumentative Essay “She knew in which of the two rooms that lay behind those doors stood the cage of the tiger, and which waited the lady.” Which did she choose? In Frank Stockton's short story, the Lady and the Tiger, the lovely princess loves deeply for a man, but now that her father has found out she is with a man in a lower social class, she had to witness her soul mate be sentenced to her father’s coliseum. The princess loves this man greatly, but she is scared that she would have to watch her lover being mauled by a tiger or fall in love with a woman that she deeply despises.

Read More

A True Relation Summary

372 Words | 2 Pages

Smith 's first book, A True Relation, told the British people of Smith 's travels in what was known then as the New World. He would tell his countrymen of the beautiful sights he saw there, the resources abounding, the settling of the colony Jamestown, all of his adventures and misadventures. But most importantly, he would speak of the people. Those strange and foreign people who lived so differently than the British. While the British wore stiff petticoats with corsets and tail suits, these new people were draped in deerskin.

Read More

More about Pocahontas Argumentative Essay

Related Topics

Open Document