Analytical Reading and Writing - Essay Example

In the scene where John Smith met Pocahontas, he tried to introduce new things and concepts to her like the compass. They both found their customs unknown to each other, and were quite with their own. John thought that the names of places and the people are weird, but so did Pocahontas. It is a normal reaction to anything new or different to what we are accustomed to. If we are introduced to a Chinese person, we will have the same reaction. However, the reaction is not exactly negative, more on being reserved which is how most people react to new things and new concepts.

Pocahontas tried to teach John the way her people says goodbye and hello, to which John claimed to prefer his own customary hello and goodbye in contrast with the more elaborate way of Pocahontas. Another normal human reaction. We are comfortable with what we know and more often than not, ill at ease with new customs.1 In the scene, John unwittingly called Pocahontas and her people savages. The story underlines this same view of the American Indians. The typical white man, as was portrayed in the story, have a poor view of the natives which are disregarded by the natives as inconsequential to the realities of their Indian lives.

Many regards the story of Pocahontas as misleading, with regards to the true nature of American Indians and their customs. It may also be said that the popular version of Disney of the story of Pocahontas is a mere romanticized version as most Disney movies are. 2 Disney is known for their fairytale which gives a mold for little girls and little boys to fit in order to find their happily ever after, although, was not the case with Pocahontas. Despite the not so happy ending of the movie, the story was still angled towards romance which, in itself is misleading and which would be tackled on the latter part of this article.

Regardless of the increased awareness in terms of cultural differences and studies of the American Indian history, one can only wonder how much of the known works are misrepresenting the true nature of native people. History stands for “his story” which entails that despite the proposed objectivity of the narrations of history, there are still unavoidable biases that authors unknowingly input. The motion picture of Pocahontas is an evolution of the negative presentation of the stereotyped Indians.

3 There are many contradictions in the views of Indians and also as they were represented in the story. Some characters were gentle and good while others were terrifying and evil. The song entitled “Savages” was used in the motion picture to describe the lowly opinion of the settlers regarding the natives. The song proves to be extremely offensive to an American Indian which demonstrates a lack of sensitivity in the cultural sense and is degrading for the Indians. The lyrics of the song portrays the natives as unpredictable people who are ruled by their emotions as well as their intractable desires.

Some other parts of the lyrics may also be perceived as a intentional insult to their differences in religion and faults them for not acknowledging the Christian God which is both unfair and irrational in today's standards wherein mutual respect in terms of religion as well as other cultural differences must be observed. There are also certain implications of racism used which underlines the fact that white Americans regard Indians to be of lower status. In addition