American South – Handout
Pocahontas
her popularity, the Pocahontas Myth and her role as a woman
The Pocahontas story has gained worldwide attention and popularity. It is retold and interpreted again
and again. Pocahontas is a leading figure in many pieces of literature, theatre plays, film and music.
Pocahontas Story –popularity
The Disney Film
The story is set in Virginia in 1607. The loving father and chief of the tribe Powhatan pledged his
daughter Pocahontas to be married to the brave and serious warrior Kocoum. At the same time British
settlers of the Virginian Company, in search for gold and other treasures, arrive at the coast of the
“New World”. Pocahontas and Captain John Smith fall in love. While their friendship blossoms, the
relationship between the colonizing English and the native Indian becomes more and more tense and
is dominated by fear and hatred. When a conflict erupts Powhatan declares war and sentences Smith
to death. Pocahontas bravely stops the execution. Smith has to return to England due to an injury.
Pocahontas and Powhatan bless and welcome him to return in the future.
 mixture of music and drama, Disney’s 33rd animated film, released in 1995
 first one to be based on a historical character
English literature
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Numerous children’s books, novels and comic editions were published
character became a “cultural phenomenon”, multi-generational appeal
different depictions depending on the authors’ intended message
tale of Smith’s salvation at the hand of Pocahontas is the most frequently written story
Pocahontas and music
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In 1958, just one year after the 350th anniversary of the foundation of Jamestown Peggy Lee
released the song Fever. Its main focus is on the “mad love affair”.
Popularity among Native Americans
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The Pamunkeys and other tribes had told the story frequently before the hype in the 1990s.
They used the story to validate their Indian identity in the eyes of their white contemporaries.
Referring to a myth that is dear to the Indian and the white population sets common ground.
Plays re-enacting the saving of Smith were frequently performed between 1881 and 1915.
They were used to remind white Virginians of the owed dept and the old alliance between the
races.
Rolfe is often neglected, although he became a relative of the Pamunkey through marriage
Reasons for popularity
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gaining recognition, search for identity
American’s ideal of an Indian heroine, good Indian theme
depiction as the aboriginal Barbie, idealized female figure, exotic beauty
her sensuality and spirited intelligence
otherness and foreignness is appealing
ability to translate and mediate (Native Americans-English and humans - nature)
diversity, cultural clash
multiple dimensions and topics: conflicts and peace, religion and politics, race and gender, racism
and intolerance as well as adventure and discovery
Bettina Singler
1
American South – Handout
Pocahontas story – Myth – Legend – Folktale
Elements of a Myth
A myth is a traditional story told in an attempt to explain how the world works. It gives insights into
the worldview of people concerning an event or peoples. Myths generally involve nature, heroes,
magical and superhuman elements.
Mythical elements in the Pocahontas Story
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The story tells about the foundation of the settlement and the encounter with the Indians (events).
The talking willow (oracle) and Pocahontas’ vision are the magical, supernatural elements.
Princess Pocahontas is the female heroine in the story.
Myth – Reality
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The love romance is highly unlikely as it was first mentioned by Smith himself in one of his works
in 1624 (17 years after the encounter had probably occurred).
According to a historical estimate Pocahontas was 11 or 12 years old and Smith 27 when they
first encountered each other. Often she is depicted as a mature woman.
Most stories do not mention her real fate; the marriage to an Englishman, her conversion to
Christianity or her tragic death. They also neglect facts like her having 20 siblings, her mother,
Powhatan’s other wives and her own child Thomas Rolfe.
Pocahontas’ role as a woman
Pocahontas role as a woman in the story
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Pocahontas embodies lexical functions and is the key to the New World (informant, mediator).
The convention of the white men being the superior reader that can only make use of the Natives’
knowledge is turned around. Pocahontas teaches Smith how to interpret and interact.
The native girl bears no the burden of civilizing white men.
The Native American woman is used as a metaphor and a metonymic extension of her lands.
Pocahontas has an intrinsic connection with the land and symbolizes fertility and nature.
Disney limited the sexual interactions to occasional kisses and hand holding.
Pocahontas is portrayed, like many others of Hollywood’s women, as having hardly anything
more important in life than her relationship to men.
Marriage brought peace and English legally owned land through this legal bond.
Women’s role in Early Jamestown
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Women in early Jamestown had little historical significance. It was a male domain.
Imbalanced sex ratio in colonies
Interactions between Indian women and strangers were often significant. (“sleeping dictionaries”)
In 1619 African women began to play an important role as workforce in tobacco cultivation.
Indian-White marriages were relatively rare and seldom brought peace and communication.
As women of colour had suffered multiple and intersecting oppressions, their stories have been
privileged as authentic sources and voices of otherness.
Literature
Aleiss, Angela (1995). Community Comment: Maidens of Hollywood: ‘Pocahontas’ is the pure expression of filmmakers’’ fantasies about Indian
women. 28.07.2013 < http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-24/local/me-16519_1_indian-women>
Brown, Kathleen M. (2000). Women in Early Jamestown. 30.07.2013 < http://www.virtualjamestown.org/essays/brownessay.html>
Egerton, Gary & Jackson, Katy Merlock (1996). “Redesigning Disney. Disney, the “White Man’s Indian,” and the Marketing of Dreams “. Journal of
Popular Film and Television Vol.24 Issue 2
Feest, Christinan F. (1987). “Pride and Prejudice. The Pocahontas Myth and the Pamunkey”. European Review of Native American Studies 1.1: 1-8
Maslin, Janet (1995). Film Review; History as Buckskin-Clad Fairy Tale. 28.07.2013 <http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/11/nyregion/film-reviewhistory-as-buckskin-clad-fairy-tale.html>
Theweilt, Klaus (1999). Pocahontas in Wonderland. Frankfurt: Stroemefeld/Roter Stern
Theweilt, Klaus (1999). You give me fever. Frankfurt: Stroemefeld/Roter Stern
Weatherston, Rosemary (ed.) (1997). When sleeping Dictionaries Awaken: The Re/turn of the Native American Woman Informant. 23.07.2013
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/postid/pid9999.0001.106?rgn=main;view=fulltext
Bettina Singler
2