Real History Of Pocahontas And Its Cultural Device

Real History of Pocahontas and its cultural device

Introduction

The following work aims to make a review, where a deep analysis will be made to a cultural device and will be related together with some of the topics that have already been addressed in class, to be able to do this work, the Disney classic was chosen’Pocahontas’. Where the real story will first be told and then it will go to the movie.

Developing

The Pocahonta movie was one of the first audiovisual productions that Disney made, based on totally real events, as well as the ‘Mulán’ film, the purpose of the creators was to reflect with great realism the facts that happened in those times;Its premiere was June 23, 1995 in the United States.

The curious thing about this main character ‘Pocahontas’ is that it was one of the first indigenous to be totally American, his real name was ‘Matoaka’, but Disney when he saw that it was a bit difficult to pronounce they decide to change it for ‘Pocahontas’,To greatly facilitate the issue of marketing when launching the film and that the pronunciation of its name is something very easy.

Being a story based on real events, Pocahontas was the daughter of an Indian chief of a tribe called Wahunsonacck, it is said that they came from northern Florida;In 1607 a large group of settlers made an expedition, where they wanted to analyze the place to see the economic potential that could exist, to which during their way their whereabouts ended up being another.

After the settlers failed to reach their destination, they come to ‘get lost’ in another town, this is where the English settlers begin to receive the help that the indigenous people gave them, regardless of the intentions with which they were going, whereThey came and among other aspects and from this story based on real events, the issue of interculturality begins to be evidenced.

Interculturality, finally, can be described in static and dynamic terms: it is described statically when used to describe a communicative situation in which two (or more) individuals who perceive each other as belonging to different as belonging to differentcultures;It is dynamically described when used to describe the mechanisms that are put into operation in that communicative interaction and, especially, so that this communication is effective. (Sáez, 2005, p. 9)

At the time when settlers and indigenous people have some kind of interaction;In this case, the help they provide to the settlers, directly interrelate with the issue of interculturality, since in the same way the relationship that existed between these two groups had no conflicting intentions.

The curious thing about all this is that over time this good interaction that existed was breaking little by little, because the settlers began calling more people and this number of people was getting much bigger, bywhat the Indians demanded their lands, since the English became directly creditors for ‘having discovered them’, when it is actually known that it was not so.

Some time later John Smith, who led this group of settlers are directed in search of food, where two of his companions die and he is captured by the tribe of the Papa de Pocahontas, and this made the relationship between these twogroups get worse and more;As a result of its conflicts, Pocahontas is captured, kidnapped and forced to marry a man named John Rolfe.

Disney at the time of seeing how the situation really was, decidessay it.

In the Disney classic, the characters that stand out within this audiovisual production are:

Pocahontas: She is the main character of the film, she is a mischievous, observer and funny girl but above all she stands out for her maturity and for being an extremely spiritual person.

John Smith: English settler who gets ready on this trip to the New World simply for his desire to discover. At first he is a person of closed mind, he has a good heart, and when he knows and falling in love with Pocahontas, he will teach him new things that will open his mind.

Governor Ratcliffe: entrusted to discover and colonize this new world. However, he arrives with a personal mission: to get rich with the gold that he thinks there may be, just like the Spaniards made in their colonizations. His greed will reach such an extreme that he will not mind sowing hatred and that people lose their lives in order to achieve their goal.

Powhatan Chief: Papa de Pocahontas, he is also the head of his tribe. He shows himself as a character with a lot of wisdom and reasonable;although he is also able to obfusca in his opinion and always sees well -being for his people and his tribe.

Grandmother Sauce: The incarnation of nature is found in this tree. It is her to whom Pocahontas trusts her problems, tells her everything from her and at the same time receives advice.

Nakoma: She is the best friend of Pocahontas from childhood, spend all the time they can together, she has a lot of appreciation and worries so much about her that she will do what she has to do in order to ensure her well -being.

Kocoum: It is part of the tribe, he is recognized for being a brave person, he is also admired and respected by each of the people inside the tribe. He has set his interest in Pocahontas with whom he wants to marry;Something that the Powhatan boss sees with pleasure but not his daughter who considers him too serious and not of his type (Anonymous, 2017)

Focusing on the movie, we will talk about the most important scenes and reflect the themes that have been seen in class. This begins when the English settlers begin to prepare to carry out the expeditions and go in search of new destinations, scenes are shown where they say goodbye to their relatives, during the journey of their trip they have to face different difficulties;Meanwhile you can see a scene where the tribe is carrying out its daily activities, next to that is the arrival of Chief Powhatan (Papa de Pocahontas), who was the leader of this tribe.

From the beginning of the film, in these scenes, the division between these two classes that are totally opposite can be witnessed, since that of the settlers they are put a ‘label’ that they are civilized people and the indigenous people like the ”Incults’ and native American non -knowledgeable, these scenes can be evidenced through the theme of coloniality.

Coloniality is a much more complex historical phenomenon that extends to our present and refers to a pattern of power that operates through the naturalization of territorial, racial, cultural and epistemic hierarchies, allowing the re-production of relations of domination;This power pattern not only guarantees exploitation by the capital of some human beings by others worldwide, but also the subalternization and obliteration of the knowledge, experiences and life forms of those who are thus dominated and exploited. (Restrepo & Rojas, 2010, p. fifteen)

Within the coloniality, the theme of the hierarchies, which is something that is totally evidencebecome creditors of this and ‘a new discovery’, thus generating what is domain, that is, having power over the other.

After the appearance of several scenes, the arrival of the settlers finally arises to this town, where they begin to explore it to see that they can obtain from there and finally ‘conquer it’, Pyohontas presence all this from afar and their tribe alsothey find out the arrival of these settlers to their lands. The tribe realizes the arrives of the settlers, they begin to create what is called ‘xenophobia’, that is, the fear or rejection abroad or immigrant, since they begin to give a bad image of them, they say they aretotally bad people and at the same time assemble a plan to attack them.

The settlers after the place begins to take over that people and at the same time also put their own conquest plan against the tribe that already lived there. ‘Multiculturality is distinguished by being a descriptive term that indicates a phenomenon’. The existence of several cultural groups in the same context ’. (Hernández, 2007, p. 434). Within these scenes, the issue of multiculturalism can be clearly evidence.

Pocahontas and John Smith are found and becauseThis scene is also present, since certain characteristics are covered within this topic. "Individuals develop some empathy that helps them understand the implications of diversity" (Matos, s.F).

In turn, as part of the interculturality and characteristic that was mentioned, after Pocahontas takes confidence, he teaches him about his customs and traditions, in the same way John Smith tells Pocahontas about London, as is, which is what they usually do and among other things, in this way making Bolahontas intrigue for wanting to know London.

English settlers assume that in that town you can find gold, therefore, John goes again where Pocahontas to ask if he has seen something similar to a coin, to which she replies that no. Meanwhile, the tribe contacts another so that together they can ‘unite forces’, make the settlers leave their people and put together a plan, in the same way interculturality can be witnessed because 2 tribes join forces to develop interaction and defeatTo the settlers.

Pocahontas already at this point has feelings found with John, so he asks the tribes not to join so that they do not fight, in the same way John does, tries to convince the other settlers who do not conquer those lands, sinceIt does not belong to them and will not get anything good, in this way the values of respect for others are instilled, tolerance that would be directly related to interculturality, since if there is no equality, there can be no interaction.

As ‘love’ wins more, the two characters want good for each of the people around them and that is why they do not want to hurt each other;Pocahontas kisses John and Kocoum (part of the tribe) discovers them, and for the fear and hatred between these two groups they fight, since Kocoum thought that John would hurt her when it really was not so, meanwhile, James who was a settler, manages to see this conflict and accidentally triggers Kocoum, causing death. John is caught by the tribe and they want to pay for the cause.

Pocahontas again tries to convince his father not to harm John, much less than kill him, since this is where she confesses her true love for this English boy and finally Pocahontas’s father reflects that violence is not theresponse to all problems and to what extent hate between people can come.

Within this specific scene, the dad of Pocahontas ‘promotes interculturality’ so to speak, at the time it falls into account that both violence and hatred do not bring good results and that it is not the proper way to react to asituation and solve problems.

The settlers felt frustrated and angry at not achieving what they wanted, so Governor Ratcliffe is not aware of his actions, as was Pocahontas’s father and tries to kill him, John defends him and shoots him, the settlers laterFrom this action that the governor performs they realize that he should never be heard and that they should have listened to John.

Another of the scenes that reflects interculturality is at the time when the tribe and the settlers come together to be able to fire John Smith, here the interaction that exists between the two groups can be evidencewith a positive purpose. Chief Powhatan thanks John for saving him and calls him ‘brother’ breaking this xenophobia chain that appeared at the beginning when the settlers arrived in his town.

Finally, Pocahontas must choose and listen to his heart, that is, if he wants to go to London with John or stay with ‘his’ but he prefers to stay in his tribe, and as John was already in love with her, he wants to make the decision to stayThere, but she refuses and does not care to leave and end with the typical happy end of the kiss.

The film shows the conflict that exists between the natives and the settlers as mentioned above, the curious thing about this is that in Governor Ratcliffe you can see the individualism that he has to want to conquer that land by gold regardless ofher around and in turn, thinking about himself.

On the other hand, it can be noted that there are problems of ‘power’, this is known as ¨ the ability of an individual or a group to affirm their own interests and values¨ (Rocio, 2016, page. two). It can be seen in the relationship between Pocahontas and her father, who was much older than her, was the leader of the tribe, so she had dominance over others and especially on her, this can be witnessed in the scene in which the fatherHe wants to force him to marry Kocoum.

Another power problem is between English and indigenous settlers. The indigenous people believe that they have all the power because it is their territory, while on the other hand, the settlers believe that they are the owners of power for having discovered ‘new lands’

An important aspect that must be taken into account within the issue of interculturality and that already mentioned it above, is that of language, but here we will analyze it more depth. In the film, at the beginning the indigenous tribe speak in Spanish and not in their native language, at the moment in which Pocohontas meets John Smith speaks in his native language that he was the ‘algeoning’, here the interculturality was presence as it had already beenmentioned before, due to being tongues spoken of different places and there is a diversity.

But in turn, despite the fact that then Pocahontas speaks in Spanish, he does not understand certain words, as at the moment in which John Smith asks if he has ever seen something like the ‘gold’ and in the case of John, the noUnderstand that it is corn and this type of interaction begins to emerge between the two, teaching certain details of their cultures.

With respect to the image and colors of the film, this is divided into warm and cold colors, but these are changing according to the situation of the scene. The colors that stand out are, pink, blue, brown, green. The film plane also depends a lot on the scene that is happening, in the farewell scenes or that cause some type of shock, they are normal, in the final scene, when Pocohontas is on a rock, it is a plane scenechopped.

conclusion

Finally, to conclude, this film is one of the most appropriate, which serves to exemplify the issue of interculturality, the relationship between cultures, through the various aspects that are reached and that are directly related tothis matter.

It is a film that also helps us understand the ‘conflicting’ situation, so to speak, which existed many years ago among the settlers and indigenous people, in turn, such as learning to take us alone with other types of cultures, races, not onlyof the same place, but from different parts of the world.

"Interculturality clears horizons and opens paths that face colonialism still present, and invite you to create new and different positions, relationships and conditions," (Walsh, 2009, p. 14)

In the film it can be said that at the beginning there is not much the issue of interculturality, due to the aspects of xenophobia, between settlers and indigenous people, rejection, violence between these two groups, but as the scenes pass, it can be evidenced thatThis concept is slowly emerging.

Interculturality has a lot to do with the issue of equality, from my point of view, this scene can be witnessed, since, regardless of the differences, the two groups joined to help a person, whoIn this case it was John Smith.

The film helps us to understand the development that exists of both the colonies and the indigenouscultures within the same space.

This cultural device that I chose is the ideal, both for children and for young people and adults, since it helps us to put into practice the aspects that have to do with the issue of interculturality and to better understand this concept. In turn, within the film they put into practice many positive values. It allows us to know the history of our ancestors.