Comparing Pocahontas And Playing Indian In The Cupboard

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In an article that echos Robart Bard’s piece “Going Indian”, Pauline Turner’s article on “Playing Indian in the Nineties” highlights the juxtapositional messages that are imposed in the 1995 films Pocahontas and The Indian in the Cupboard. The piece uses several examples to highlight the way both films support the idea of looking beyond differences and critiquing the objectification of human beings while reinforcing opposing notions in underlying scenes throughout both films or in the form of promotional material. The author poses questions that bring to light the contradictions found in these films by connecting it to his own life and family. The piece ends with a reflection on these themes and a call to action in the future. Starting with …show more content…

The segment starts off by outlining the importance that the film’s hit song “Colors Of The Wind” has on the moral of the story and how it promotes more of the same Western coming-of-age stories. It outlines the way the film sexualizes Pocahontas and how this led to Disney being able to create a New Age Pocahontas that embodies American millennial dreams for “wholeness and harmony while banishing our nightmares of savagery and emptiness”(198). The piece goes on to acknowledge that even though the film had minor contributions and advice from real Native American people, the film still strongly reinforces the stereotypical viewpoints of Indigenous people. The article ends by connecting the film to The Indian in the Cupboard and how it bombardes its audience with “consumables and impoverished caricatures while being admonished to treat other cultures, other creatures, and the land with respect”(202). The article ends with a call to action that encourages the audience to take a transformative step from the ambivalent messages of these films by rejecting the products and ideals these film market. Overall, Pauline Turner’s critique on both films reveal that many of the same concepts people have about Native Americans are still present today. It outlines contradictions and it shares way to try and overcome such

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