Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Everything Disney Taught Me About Being America

Folklore and myth play a major role in depicting the history and identity of a people or nation. Both the content of such tales and the way they change from generation to generation are reflections of the group that tells the story. One example of such a tale that has been integrated into American history is John Smith’s record of his encounter with Pocahontas and her people the Powhatans. Though loosely based on actual events Smith’s tale has grown much from the time it was fist written. Upon examination of Disney’s version of the Pocahontas story in relation with Smith’s early accounts of the tale, we can see how the story’s telling has been re-shaped to greater enforce perceived American identity and the American concept of Manifest Destiny.
                From the very beginning of Disney’s Pocahontas  we notice a discrepancy between the way Disney depicts their character of John Smith and how Smith is depicted in earlier more historically accurate documents. Disney’s characterization is of a brave and noble warrior, explorer, who is respected and loved by his peers and embraced as a revered leader figure among members of the Virginia Company. Other more historical sources contradict this interpretation.  Documentation of the events of Jamestown suggests Smith’s real relationship with his peers was much rougher than Disney portrayed.  In settler’s letters, daily life life in the Virginia Company under Smith’s leadership was often described as “a misery, a ruine, a death, a hell” (Lepore 25), indicating a dissatisfaction with Smith that was conveniently left out in Disney’s account. 
An early scene of Disney’s Pocahontas depicts the voyage of the Virginia Company from England to the new world in which Smith is on deck commanding his men through a dangerous storm. Smith takes charge and keeps his men organized under life or death circumstances, even saving his crewmate Thomas from drowning after being thrown overboard by powerful waves. Ironically, when we examine more historical accounts we find that “for much of the voyage to Virginia, Smith was confined below decks, in chains, accused of plotting mutiny to ‘make himself king’” (Lepore 19).  Disney even goes as far as to change Smith’s appearance, their tall blonde and handsome portrayal of Smith is in stark contrast to the squat, dark haired, bearded man described in Ricther’s “Facing East from Indian Country.” So, why did Disney find it necessary to make so many changes to their John Smith characterization?
                Disney’s movie is an American retelling of an American folktale, and Smith is meant to be one of the first real American Heroes. Smith then serves to embody American identity and Disney does all that they can to ensure he embodies the wide eyed wonderment, thirst for adventure, and nobleness expected in an American hero. Smith is meant to be the quintessential embodiment of the pioneer spirit. However, a more historically accurate characterization doesn’t fit that mold. In order to satisfy viewers and create a true “American” hero of Smith that we are so familiar with, a few of Smith’s select characteristics needed to be shaved away.
                To do this Disney created Governor Radcliffe, a pompous, “dignified” Englishman to serve as the villain of their story. Effectively Disney syphoned off the negative aspects of historical Smith’s persona in order to create two distinct characters. On one hand we have Smith, adventurous, bold, and respectable. On the other we have Radcliffe, greedy, arrogant, and self-centered. By creating two polar opposite characters Disney effectively created separate embodiments of early American Identity. Smith represents the identity Americans prefer to associate with, the promise of the American dream and an unconquerable pioneer spirit. While Radcliffe is a personification of what Lepore refers to as “the American Nightmare.”  He represents the greedy conquerors that “steal somebody else’s land (the Powhantans’) and reap huge profits by planting and harvesting an addictive drug (tobacco, whose sale were responsible for the boom) while exploiting your labor force (indentured servants, and after 1619, enslaved Africans)” (Lepore 22).
The clearest example of this divide in Disney’s film occurs during the musical number “Mine, Mine, Mine.”  While Radcliffe and members of the Virginia Company are busy digging up the shores of Virginia singing of riches and gold, Smith is off exploring the countryside. Radcliffe looks at the new land as product as he sings of how “it all can be sold” (Disney). Meanwhile, Smith is more concerned with taming the new world and making it his own. Smith’s characterization in this case depicts the expected and accepted pioneer spirit we associate with early settlers, while Radcilffe exhibits the characteristic American greed and materialism we often try to sweep under the rug. Now with a distinct hero and villain, viewers of the Disney’s Pocahontas can cheer for their American hero without also lending their admiration to the more distasteful version of themselves now restricted to Radcliffe.
                Disney’s Pocahontas character has also experienced a drastic change from her early beginnings in John Smith’s journals and letters. In his written account of his time in Virginia, Pocahontas is little more than a footnote hastily thrown in towards the end of his work. However Disney presents us with a fully developed characterization to the beautiful Indian princess. She is described by her peers as wild and untamed “always going where the wind takes her” (Disney). Throughout the film Pocahontas is instructed by her father Powhatan that she is to be “Steady as the beating drum” and to take the path of least resistance, but instead she continually refuses to bend her will or be conquered. Disney’s has turned Pocahontas into a representation of rural America, or “the new world” which has yet to be tamed before the arrival of the Virginia Company on her shores.
                The romantic pairing of Smith and Pocahontas, though contrary to historical evidence, now makes sense in the context of the Disney story. If Pocahontas represents the new world and John Smith the quintessential American hero then it is logical that only Smith (the early American) possessed the qualities necessary to tame the untamable and conquer the heart of Pocahontas (the new world). Their paring demonstrates the American idea of “Manifest Destiny,” the idea that America was meant for Americans, and that it was our destiny to take this land for our own. There are other details of Disney’s film that play to this idea as well.  In her meetings with Grandmother Willow, Pocahontas speaks of a dream she has had where she is running through the woods when she comes across a spinning arrow, an arrow we later discover is pointing her toward Smith. Grandmother Willow then tells her that the arrow is pointing Pocahontas down the right path for her, and if she “listens with her heart” she will find her way (Disney).  The incorporation of this dream into the story as well as the way it eludes to Native American spirituality suggests that even Pocahontas and her people knew that the future of America lay not with them, but with the Englishmen landing on their shores.
                By changing the details of John Smiths original account of his time with the Virginia Company and his encounter with Pocahontas Disney creates a modern version of this American folktale that serves to reinforce our learned perception of American Identity while reassuring the American people in our belief that this land (North America) was always meant to be “our land.”  The Pocahontas story serves as a mirror with which to view a reflection of our national identity, though said reflection may be skewed. It may be that what Disney chose to remove and alter in their telling of this American myth says more about Americans and our beliefs than the details that were included in the film’s final cut.



Works Cited
Gabriel, Mike, dir. Disne'ys Pocahontas. Disney: 23 june 1995. DVD.
Lepore, Jill. Here He Lyes. Cambridge: Random House LLC, 2002. 16-30. Print.

Richter, Daniel. Facing East from Indian Country. Cambribge: Harvard University Press, 2001. 68-79. Print.