Disney’s Pocahontas VS Reality

Essay by Notsoawesomeliam October 2014

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Disney's Pocahontas VS Reality

Disney has received a lot of criticism over the 1995 animation of Pocahontas.

In the movie Pocahontas is shown as a down to earth peaceful woman who falls in love with a fair-haired English man. But in reality the story is quite different as the real story of Pocahontas was full of violence and was not a feel-good story.

First Contact

In the movie the colonists rush to set up the new settlement and the rush to start looking for gold. Disney portrays this in a song when the colonists blow up the landscape with lots of dynamite. This alerts the Powhatan tribe and Kelata the tribe's shaman sends some warriors to find out more about the colonists. But in reality the colonist arrived in three ships not one. When they arrived James Smith was actually under arrest on the ship for attacking one of Jamestown's councillors.

When the colonists encountered the Powhatan tribe, conflict was almost instant. One of the warriors was shot in the hand and one colonist took an arrow to the knee.

The search for gold was not as enthusiastic.as portrayed in the film. Although the colonists searched for gold by panning in the river, there was no use of dynamite. They were largely gentlemen who had never done manual work in their lives and had they had no intention of starting when they reached America. In fact, there was no gold in Virginia. The settlers were looking for land suitable to grow corn.

When Pocahontas met Captain John Smith

In the movie John Smith spots Pocahontas thinking she was a "violent savage". When he realises she is a woman and he lowers his pistol. This is when Disney's award winning song "Colors of the wind" kicks in and the two...