Dances With Wolves
In his movie Dances With Wolves actor Kevin Costner tries to do away with any preconceived notions that the viewer might have had about the Native American Indians being a savage and inhuman race. He does this by first unraveling the mysteriousness of the Indians then he brings the viewer to a point of connectedness with the Indians and their culture. We then come to a sincere appreciation for them as human beings and individuals and find ourselves siding with them in matters of allegiance. This movie accomplishes this goal with several tactics and strategies. As the story unfolds we follow the life of John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) and take on his emotions and therefore come to the same realizations that he does.
From the very beginning of the film we have a sense of compassion and empathy for John because he is injured and tries to die heroically. This form of justifiable suicide gives us a sense of his aimlessness and loneliness. Since most of the viewers have experienced some form of these feelings before we naturally want to hop on board with John's emotions and hold on for the ride. The first introduction we have to actual Indians themselves is when we find the Pawnee Indians discussing the idiocy of white men and how they should be destroyed. This band of Indians kill Timmons, a wagon driver who takes John to his new fort, and therefore we feel that our initial stereotypes are justified, however we do not see this through the eyes of John and therefore we are still susceptible to a reforming of our opinions. It is only through John's experiences and feelings that we feel truly attached to what is going on in the film.
Throughout his encounters with the Indians, specifically the Sioux, John begin...
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...s of the Indian, or have they. There is one last task that must be completed in order for the viewer to complete the enlightenment that was intended. When John is rescued by the Sioux we see that they are capable just like any other tribe of being both brutal, savage, and primeval in their attacks when they are passionate enough about what they are doing it for. In this action we see that the Sioux are therefore not the exception but merely our exception. They show us that the Native Americans were a people unlike any other with a very rich culture, a strong sense of family, and a passion for life that meant you worked hard and played even harder. They were not savages or barbarians in the typical sense they were individuals living together in harmony and strife the only way they knew how, which coincidently worked very well for them until the white man came along.
Despite the general ideas that Europeans and Indians lived and shared harmoniously and the Indians simply had a drastic drop in numbers, (this is the history regarding the matter I learned in grade school.), or the idea that the Europeans came over and exterminated all of the Indians, (This idea was more popularly taught in high schools or by extreme activist in the 60’s.), it shows that the devastation to the Native American culture was much more complicated than most of us realize. I think that Axtell did a great job on portraying the real struggle, challenges and temptation of the Native Americans. It gives me the idea that even if disease not been an obstacle that the Native Americans had to face and their population had still remained strong and large, I am now under the impression that Native Americans would have still have lost their culture. There was the immediate attraction to guns and horses which did help them but it also came at a price. Once natives discovered the convenience of these goods and how simpler hunting and traveling became, it was hard to go back.
From the Deep Woods to Civilization should be an intriguing read for anybody interested in Native American history. It gives an introspective look into the adjustments to society many had to make at that time. Eastman's own identity follows a parabolic curve from the beginning to the end. He rediscovers his Sioux identity after questioning it. The book implores us to consider the tactics, struggles, and other problems that Indian people have had to go through to achieve success despite the odds being stacked against
“Quantie’s weak body shuddered from a blast of cold wind. Still, the proud wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross wrapped a woolen blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the reins.” Leading the final group of Cherokee Indians from their home lands, Chief John Ross thought of an old story that was told by the chiefs before him, of a place where the earth and sky met in the west, this was the place where death awaits. He could not help but fear that this place of death was where his beloved people were being taken after years of persecution and injustice at the hands of white Americans, the proud Indian people were being forced to vacate their lands, leaving behind their homes, businesses and almost everything they owned while traveling to an unknown place and an uncertain future. The Cherokee Indians suffered terrible indignities, sickness and death while being removed to the Indian territories west of the Mississippi, even though they maintained their culture and traditions, rebuilt their numbers and improved their living conditions by developing their own government, economy and social structure, they were never able to return to their previous greatness or escape the injustices of the American people.
Aquinas’ second proof for the existence of God is a sound argument. Aquinas’ argument about the efficient/agent cause is philosophically persuasive because it is easy to apply to things. The second proof is based on the notion of the efficient cause. The efficient cause is based on a chain of cause and effects. Aquinas does a suitable job in proving God’s existence through the order of caused causes through the world of sense.
“Film is more than the instrument of a representation; it is also the object of representation. It is not a reflection or a refraction of the ‘real’; instead, it is like a photograph of the mirrored reflection of a painted image.” (Kilpatrick) Although films have found a place in society for about a century, the labels they possess, such as stereotypes which Natives American are recognized for, have their roots from many centuries ago (Kilpatrick). The Searchers, a movie directed by John Ford and starred by John Wayne, tells the story of a veteran of the American Civil War and how after his return home he would go after the maligned Indians who killed his family and kidnapped his younger niece. After struggling for five years to recover his niece back, who is now a young woman, she is rescued by his own hands. Likewise, Dances with Wolves is a Western film directed and starred by Kevin Costner. It is also situated during the American Civil War and tells the story of a soldier named John Dunbar that after a suicide attempt; he involuntarily leads Union troops to a triumph. Then, by his request he is sent to a remote outpost in the Indian frontier “before it’s gone”. There, the contact with the natives is eminent and thus it shows how through those contacts this soldier is transformed into another Indian that belongs with the Sioux to tribe and who is now called Dances With Wolves. While both John Ford and Kevin Costner emphasize a desire to apologize to the indigenous people, they use similar themes such as stereotypes, miscegenation, and the way characters are depicted; conversely, these two movies are different by the way the themes are developed within each film.
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, is a classic piece of American literature. The novel follows the life of a dog named Buck as his world changes and in turn forces him to become an entirely new dog. Cruel circumstances require Buck to lose his carefree attitude and somewhat peaceful outlook on life. Love then enters his life and causes him to see life through new eyes. In the end, however, he must choose between the master he loves or the wildness he belongs in.
The Native Americans were promised a large amount of private land for their families to live on forever in peace. As time went on throughout the years, Native Americans started to see their land shrink by acres. This was unsettling to many of the Natives and would start to raise problems with the white soldiers. By having the Promised Land taken away from them it would only start to add fuel to the fire before the Indians would attack back. Taking of land was of several items that would start to enrage the Indians. The next item that I took away from class was how the U.S. would continuously steal from the Native people and made it evident in the video. The U.S. would continually steal Native American money for their benefit. This would not help the Indians moving forward in trying to provide a life for their family. U.S. agents would withhold Native Americans money that was given to them from their federal government. It was the payment for the land that U.S. bought from them. The United States (US) would continue to make numerous treaty violations by having to make Natives make payments to Indian agents who would use the money for what they want. With all of this occurring, it caused an increased number of families to stricken of hunger and adds to the never-ending hardship among the Dakota tribes in Minnesota. This would all boil over to having the Great Sioux Revolt that would trigger the infamous Dakota
Hubble, Edwin. 1929, "A Relation between Distance and Radial Velocity among Extra-Galactic Nebulae" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp. 168-173
The year 1912 brought one of the most important presidential elections in United States history. Four nominees confronted one another during this election: Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson, Progressive leader Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, Republican William Howard Taft, and Socialist Eugene Debs. This election also proved to be crucial as it brought forth new considerable and “substantive” discussions concerning the Union and its future. These issues included, whether government should expand democracy, apply more control over businesses, and how solve the labor conflict, among others. Each of the four major presidential candidates took a position on these issues, either choosing to support or oppose such changes. The presidential election of 1912 involved aggressive and “violent” politics. In fact, these candidates offered choices which would be “unimagined in today’s political world.”
The movie Dances with Wolves was a real good movie and I enjoyed watching it. It showed how life was back in the time of the Civil War. The movie also showed how Indians lived and how they respect everything except the white men.
The movie starts by showing the Indians as “bad” when Johnson finds a note of another mountain man who has “savagely” been killed by the Indians. This view changes as the movie points out tribes instead of Indians as just one group. Some of the tribes are shown dangerous and not to be messed with while others are friendly, still each tribe treats Johnson as “outsider.” Indians are not portrayed as greater than “...
Hollywood has helped create and perpetuate many different stereotypical images of the different races in the world. Those stereotypes still continue to affect the way we think about each other today and many of those stereotypes have been proven to be historically inaccurate. The movie Dances With Wolves, directed by actor Kevin Costner, does an excellent job in attempting to promote a greater acceptance, understanding, and sympathy towards Native American culture, instead of supporting the typical stereotype of Native Americans being nothing but brutal, blood thirsty savages.
Heathcliff's love for Catherine transcends the normal physical "true love" into spiritual love. He can withstand anything against him to be with her. After Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights, he flogged Heathcliff like a slave. Although Heathcliff could have simply run away, his decision to endure the physical pains shows his unrelenting devotion to Catherine. Fortunately, Catherine feels as deeply for Heathcliff as he does for her, explaining to Nelly that "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…" Their love for each other is so passionate that they can not possibly live apart. At Catherine's death, Heathcliff hopes that she will not rest, but will haunt him until he dies. This absurdity contradicts the traditional norm that one should pray that the dead rest in peace. Near the end of the novel, we learn that Catherine has haunted Heathcliff, allowing him only fleeting glances of her. This shows that despite their physical separation, nothing can part them spiritually. When Heathcliff dies and unites with Catherine once again, the neighbors see them haunt the moors. We finally see the power of their love; Not only does this love transcend physical barriers, it transcends time as well...
encounters the same conflict, when John abandons the Indian reservation to go off to the new world,
“Dances with Wolves” is a movie that seeks to deliver a message of the need for cultural diversity. The story follows the main character Lt. John James Dunbar, played by Kevin Costner, from the battlefields of the Civil War to the barely touched western frontiers that house the Sioux people. Once Dunbar arrives at his post, Ft. Sedgewick, he sets out to find his place in his new home. However, due to two plot moving events, the suicide of the officer who dispatched Dunbar to Fort Sedgewick and the murder of the coach driver who took him there, no one else is alive that holds knowledge of Dunbar’s placement.