Pocahontas: Native American stereotypes in a Disney Movie

In this paper, the animated Disney movie Pocahontas will be discussed. The film was directed by Eric Goldberg and Mike Gabriel, and released in 1995. We will particularly examine how Disney portrays the Native Americans in the movie and whether stereotypes are used. We will start by thoroughly discussing the history of Pocahontas, as it is told in history books and biographies. The second part of the paper will deal with the images the early settlers developed of the inhabitants of the New World and how these images have evolved throughout the centuries. Particular attention will be given to the images of Native American women. The third part will deal with the actual movie, discussing the various stereotypes that can be found and relating these to the previous part. Finally, a conclusion will be provided.

As with every movie – and even more so in animated Disney productions – the story told in the movie is not necessarily true to the historical facts. When watching Disney’s Pocahontas, one can immediately see that the producers have adapted the history of Pocahontas to the likes of the – American – aud

“The English are thugs, all greed, gold, and guns, and they treat natives like savages. The Indians, by contrast, are civilized, peace-loving and eco-conscious. The animators have significantly made the Redskins look pretty much like modern paleface Americans, and speak like them, too. Disney’s fable of an arcadian American history wrecked by incursions from the Old World is obviously a means of allaying a bad conscience, while voicing xenophobic resentments about corrupt Europeans.”

During the voyage, the British motives are established once again, this time by Governor Ratcliffe. He gives his men courage by talking to them about freedom and prosperity. However, the audience can see he is greedy and the gold is his sole interest. Ratcliffe also establishes the European perception of the Indians, when he refers to them as “blood-thirsty savages”. This is a clear reference to the old Western image of the native as an ignoble savage, creature of Satan and harboring cannibalistic urges. Even the hero Smith calls them “savages”, which shows that he is equally prejudiced against the Indians as the rest of the English crew. The movie’s portrayal of the British or European ideology is quite accurate: as pointed out above, the inhabitants of the Old World did see the land of the Indians as something that was rightfully theirs to take, since the Indians were not civilized in their eyes and therefore they had no rights whatsoever. This portrayal of the English provoked criticism in the British press. At the movie’s release, The Times wrote:

There are a few reasons to believe that the story of John Smith’s rescue is more fiction than fact. First and foremost, Smith wrote several accounts of his capture by Powhatan and he only added Pocahontas to the story in a letter to the Queen in 1616. By this time, Pocahontas was a celebrity in England and Smith, who was known to be a self-promoter, may well have added Pocahontas to his story to enhance his own prestige. In another account he wrote only a year after the incident, Smith made no mention of Pocahontas’ courageous act. Another theory is that, if the rescue did take place, Smith simply misinterpreted the incident. According to some anthropologists, Smith’s near-execution was simply an initiation ceremony. By being symbolically rescued by the chief’s daughter, Smith was accepted into the tribe as Powhatan’s son.

Disney’s Pocahontas only includes some issues of the native girl’s real life and invents others, in order to ”save their American audience any cognitive dissonance and to keep them as comfortable as possible”. The socially relevant issues, like racism and environmentalism, are wrapped in an aura of romantic and nostalgic fantasy, so that they never invade the audience’s comfort zone. When Disney started making the motion picture, they had good intentions. They wanted to teach their audience about tolerance, having respect for other cultures. According to Peter Schneider, president of Disney Feature Animation, they intended to convey the message “to stop fighting, stop killing each other because of the color of your skin”. Moreover, they hired Native American consultants to advise the production team and cast Native American performers to provide the voices for the Indian roles. Disney was very aware of the fact that their version of Pocahontas would exist as fact in the minds of generations to come. Nevertheless, they never really intended Pocahontas to be historically accurate.

Some topics in this essay:
Native American, Native Americans, English Indians, Indian Princess, Disney’s Pocahontas, John Smith, French English, Jamestown” English, Rolfe Smith, England Smith, native american, native americans, ignoble savage, john smith, native american women, american women, disney’s pocahontas, bad indian, indian princess, pocahontas smith, powhatan tribe, justification imperialistic behavior, doctrine ignoble savage, binary perception native, invasion north america,