When sitting down to watch either a TV or a movie, it is not thought about how much it references the fundamentals of American politics. Whether it is politics, political power, one of the bases of democracy, federalism or political culture, it is shown in almost every episode of a television series or movie that is produced. With so many crime dramas on TV or war movies that come out to theaters where it is obvious to see the connection between the two, a not so common place that one would think to see the fundamentals of American politics would be in Disney movies. Over the almost decade that Disney has been producing movies, a handful of them show many different aspects of American politics, one of which is Pocahontas.
Pocahontas is Disney’s 33rd animated movie, which takes place in early 17th century Virginia. The movie is based around Pocahontas, a Native American who is the daughter of Chief Powhatan of the Powhatan Tribe located in the New World. When British settlers of the Virginia Company, including Governor Ratcliffe and John Smith, make landfall in the New World looking for gold, they encounter the Powhatan Tribe when they start building Jamestown and excavating for the precious metal. While the rest of the crew builds Jamestown at the order of Governor Ratcliffe, John Smith starts exploring the wilderness, where he meets Pocahontas. The two of them bond and quickly fall in love with each other, even though Chief Powhatan gave his daughter strict orders to stay away from the Englishmen after a few tribesman, including Kocoum, the Native American warrior Pocahontas is set to marry, gets in a fight with a group of settlers. Word gets around to Kocoum that Pocahontas is spending time with John Smith, and goes to confro...
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...rior over the Native Americans based solely on his race and social class. This impacts his decisions when it comes to engaging in war with the Native Americans and his attempt to shoot and kill Chief Powhatan. There are many different values that each character has that support political socialization and political culture.
It’s not only movies like Pocahontas that reference the fundamentals of American politics, it can be found in many other TV shows and movies. Pocahontas showed many connections to politics, political power and political culture through two completely different groups of people: the Powhatan Tribe and the Jamestown settlers. American politics and its fundamentals can not only be found in movies on television series, but in everyday life and it is important to realize how much of an impact such a thing can have on people without even realizing it.
To conclude with “The General History of Virginia” and Disney’s version of Pocahontas, the two stories had two different opinions and views. Although, Disney’s portrayal of Pocahontas was perceived as an offense to the Native Americans, no one really knows the actual events that took place during that time. People will continue to think that John Smith’s version was a bit hysterical, while the Native Americans will take the Disney movie Pocahontas to an offense. John Smith and Disney both gave their own versions of their story. Others will continue to do the same.
The Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman was commissioned in 1837and was placed in the Rotunda in 1840. The painting depicts the baptismal ceremony of Pocahontas and takes place in 1613 or 1614 in Jamestown, Virginia.1 The relationship between the Indians and Virginians was strained during this period. In an attempt to force the Powhatan Indians to negotiate a peace treaty, Virginia kidnapped Pocahontas in hopes that it would force the Indians to accept the peace treaty.2 Pocahontas had three options during her capture, and chose the option of marrying John Rolfe with the hopes of helping forge a relationship between the Virginians and her people.2 However, the armed guards and the somber look of the Indians seems to imply that
In her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee portrays a town in southern USA, plagued by the disease known as prejudice. Throughout the novel, the reader observes prejudice to 3 characters: Atticus Finch, who appears old and weak, and his own family regards him as a disgrace, without knowing why Atticus defended Tom; Arthur (Boo) Radley, is looked down on by society, illustrating how society can twist someone’s image although the only real fact that society has of him is him getting arrested for disorderly conduct and assault; and Dolphus Raymond, who is misunderstood as an uncivilized drunkard, showing that society judges on first appearances, without actually finding the truth of his actions.
One of the biggest reasons the relationship between Tom and Atticus was frowned on was because of their difference in race. Atticus was a white, middle class politician and lawyer who was well respected throughout the community and the state. Tom on the other hand was a poor, black sharecropper who had little say in any official matter. However this did not hinder Atticus’s judgement
When an author puts a simple-minded group of people in a complex plot, one would get a confusing story line. William Faulkner does just this. He takes a young black boy and puts him in the real world of chaos and disorder. The world of the South, race is one of the most important factors in the way one would live then. “Sartoris Snopes’ struggle to free himself from his violent, driven father” (ASST, 7.) The only way he can retain his own dignity at the end of the day is to believe in his own courage and goodwill. Between this young boy, Sartoris, and his father, Abner Snopes, there is a naturalistic kind of loyalty that comes from a higher power. This loyalty is what saves Abner from the wrath of the white men, during the beginning of the story.
A example of this is the trial, the death of grandma, and grandpa's outlook on the south: “Our way of life is precious. It's the way I live, the way my daddy lived, my granddaddy, and his daddy before him. It's going to be the way you live too, if I have anything to say about it” (Crowe, 11). Grandpa has a lot of emotions when it comes to the south. He heavily believes that Whites and African-Americans are not equal, that Whites are superior over African-Americans, and that the African-Americans are meant to be the workers. This is a racist view that goes back for generations in grandpa's family and he intends on continuing to raise his family this way, since grandpa believes there is nothing wrong with this way of life. This contributes to my feelings towards the book in many ways. I feel as if the book was a little too serious and grim for my liking. Some major conflicts in the book were Emmett Tills death and the trial. I felt that the book was well written in the sense that it covered the gruesomeness of the death very well. I think the major theme in this book is perspective, seeing things through new eyes. I think this because Hiram grew up listening to his grandfather and the ways of the south, and how his father did not agree. After the trial Hiram saw racism and the south the way his father
In our culture a hero shows courage and integrity. A hero doesn 't need a cape or a special power. A hero is someone who makes an impact in someone 's life. Heroes are people like the front of the line D-Day soldiers or the first responders in the 9-11 attacks. As a famous hero once said "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." This hero’s name is Jackie Robinson. Being threatened, cursed at, and treated badly, Jackie Robinson didn’t fight back and continued to play the game of baseball. Mr.Robinson helped future generations live with peace. In Harper Lee 's book,To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus is a hero. Without using any superhuman powers, Atticus shows courage, responsibility, and integrity without fighting back.
Although it was written more than fifty years ago, Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, addresses many current topics including society's attitudes towards the mentally handicapped. Boo Radley, the only mentally handicapped character in the novel, gives insight into mental illness and how its viewed. The 1930s attitudes and treatment towards the mentally handicapped, as shown by Maycomb's view of Boo Radley, was a central theme in To Kill a Mockingbird and demonstrates how society's view of mental illness has not changed much in the last fifty years.
The Walt Disney productions may have wanted to have the right intentions in creating strong Native American characters but with them doing that they may have overlooked the issues that caused a lot of criticism. Movies have the ability to educate and influence a lot of audiences but because of all this I think that movies should be made historically factual in order to ensure the audiences get the right information on what they are watching. Like this Disney movie, Pocahontas, not having the right information can cause cultural and social problems between
The Disney movies of Pocahontas tell a plot of a Native ¬American tribe and English colonists that fight for the land the Native Americans live on though war ultimately creating moderate peace. While keeping to their own sect, the imbalance of power between the two social groups is prevalent throughout much of the story. Walt Disney’s Pocahontas is more than a classic children’s movie. It is a thoughtful, well contrived narration that portrays a message that in order to fit in, you must be a certain race and born into a specific culture. Disney’s Pocahontas suggesting that the color of our skin shouldn’t matter when being accepted into social groups as well as the idea that arranged marriage should be rejected. Thus, treating people right could ultimately have a positive outcome and lastly, the film also suggests that family roles change without a mother figure.
...the cultural, racial, a national values each characters has since there’s no one protagonist but multiple very different characters less than one universe dealing with very different problems. . Wolcott’s lack of traditional Epic elements distracts the readers from focusing on the real issue of the wounds history has caused in our various cultures. By understanding how Walcott links the races with the characters issues of their wound; one can realize that each character had something another was lacking. . Wolcott deviates from the norms of Epic writing because he’s importing all African, European, and Caribbean culture to show unity amongst everyone. This is why he uses contradictions from the very beginning to show how no one character is from one specific region. However, we all are multi-cultural or multi-racial because of the wounds that history has created.
When many people mention Pocahontas the first thing that comes to mind is the Disney movie. Like many movies they stem from many true facts and sometimes tailor it to only portray what they want or sometimes they don’t have all the real facts. One thing that can be said is that “She came to symbolize for white Americans the possibility of cultural unity, for many Native American’s she symbolizes the loss of traditional culture.” (Barrett 2005)
The True Story of Pocahontas, written by Dr. Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star”, is a written account of what truly happened in the story of Pocahontas from the oral history of Powhatan tribe. Chapter four begins by stating that after the summer of 1608, the relationship amongst the English colonists and the Powhatan tribe began to crumble. The leader and captain of the colonists, John Smith, begins to mistreat his position as a werowance. He demands food from the Powhatans, despite being aware that the Powhatans had less of a supply due to draughts that limited their harvest. In response to John’s greed, a Mattaponi woman exclaims, “You call yourself a Christian, yet you leave us with no food for the winter!” Overall. John Smith’s
Although the movie did not use many accurate facts, it was able to let the children know who Pocahontas was and where she came from. The movie was able to portray how the Native Americans lifestyle would look like, as well as what food they ate. The viewer’s got a glimpse at what if would have been many of years ago, but the film didn’t quite capture the whole image of that American History really looks like. The film just showed what Hollywood does to make the movie more appealing to all viewers, and in this movie, Disney changed cruelty and violence for peace and
...aches his children to see through people’s disabilities and skin color. He stands for what is right without disrupting the town, but isn’t afraid to voice his opinions when it was necessary. He creates equal rights for everyone by helping Tom Robinson during his trial while everyone else didn’t.