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--- 329:question:329--week_2_questions_comments-2022 [2022/09/01 13:33] – jmcclurken
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 ====== How does this movie work as a secondary source? What does the movie get right about history? ======
-Disney’s 1995 film, Pocahontas, **works well as an introduction for children to the history of conflict between European settlers and Native Americans.** **Its themes, while simple, are compelling and serve to teach the film’s younger audiences about the values of understanding, compassion, and mutual respect.** The film does a good job of underlining the similarities between the two people groups in songs like Steady as The Beating Drum and Savages; while also underlining the differences in their cultural values in songs like Mine,Mine,Mine vs Colors of The Wind. As one might expect from a children’s film, the story does significantly simplify the nature of the historical events, packaging them in a characteristically Disney-esc romance, obscuring much of the real history in the process. I would have perhaps liked to have seen more of a focus on the Colonists’ reliance on trade for food, as it would have further helped to underscore the themes of working together and how much the colonists had to learn from the Native Americans. Overall, while essentially nothing more than historically inspired fiction, Disney’s 1995 film Pocahontas does work to convey the themes of America’s earliest colonial history.  -Lucca Crowe
+Disney’s 1995 film, Pocahontas, works well as an introduction for children to the history of conflict between European settlers and Native Americans. **Its themes, while simple, are compelling and serve to teach the film’s younger audiences about the values of understanding, compassion, and mutual respect. The film does a good job of underlining the similarities between the two people groups in songs like Steady as The Beating Drum and Savages; while also underlining the differences in their cultural values in songs like Mine,Mine,Mine vs Colors of The Wind. As one might expect from a children’s film, the story does significantly simplify the nature of the historical events, packaging them in a characteristically Disney-esc romance, obscuring much of the real history in the process.** I would have perhaps liked to have seen more of a focus on the Colonists’ reliance on trade for food, as it would have further helped to underscore the themes of working together and how much the colonists had to learn from the Native Americans. Overall, while essentially nothing more than historically inspired fiction, Disney’s 1995 film Pocahontas does work to convey the themes of America’s earliest colonial history.  -Lucca Crowe
-The movie works as a secondary source in depicting history from the colonies and Native Americans. It does not work well as a secondary source because it is not very accurate. **One thing it did seem to get right about history was the English’s desire for gold, wealth, and political power in Virginia.**
+The movie **works as a secondary source in depicting history from the colonies and Native Americans. It does not work well as a secondary source because it is not very accurate. One thing it did seem to get right about history was the English**’s desire for gold, wealth, and political power in Virginia.
-This movie, although inaccurate in many ways, does work as a secondary source in many ways; **for starters, it explains the one of the reasonings for the English coming to America, shown in the song "The Virginia Company." In this song, the English sing, 'For the New World is like Heaven // and we'll all be rich and free // or so we have been told // by the Virginia Company.' ** These lyrics describe the blessings and wealth promised by the entrepreneurs of the Virginia Company which was the main reason for attacking the Native Americans. Later on in the show, we see how the English truly viewed the Native Americans in the song "Savages." Their bigotry and disgust towards the natives is shown in the lyrics, 'Savages! Savages! // Drive them from the shore // They're not like you and me // Which means they must be evil." - Zack Steinbaum
+This movie, although inaccurate in many ways, does work as a secondary source in many ways; for starters, it explains the one of the reasonings for the English coming to America, shown in the song "The Virginia Company." In this song, the English sing, 'For the New World is like Heaven // and we'll all be rich and free // or so we have been told // by the Virginia Company.'  These lyrics describe the blessings and wealth promised by the entrepreneurs of the Virginia Company which was the main reason for attacking the Native Americans. Later on in the show, we see how the English truly viewed the Native Americans in the song "Savages." Their bigotry and disgust towards the natives is shown in the lyrics, 'Savages! Savages! // Drive them from the shore // They're not like you and me // Which means they must be evil." - Zack Steinbaum
 In the beginning, the British emphasized that they are coming over to become rich and for freedom. I want to assume that freedom is religious freedom. It also shows the women of the native tribe farming which is an accurate portrayal of their jobs. (Sophie Weber)
-As a secondary source this movie works well in the sense that it shows the violent relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans. **It shows that the colonists were sent there by the Virginia Company of London to make money and to claim the land. The movie also shows women farming and the men coming back from warring with a different tribe, as well as showing the men preparing to fight the English. These gender roles are historically correct; however, there is also a significant amount of the movie that is incorrect, and this is where the movie fails as a secondary source**. -Teresa Felipe
+As a secondary source this movie works well in the sense that it shows the violent relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans. It shows that the colonists were sent there by the Virginia Company of London to make money and to claim the land. The movie also shows women farming and the men coming back from warring with a different tribe, as well as showing the men preparing to fight the English. These gender roles are historically correct; however, there is also a significant amount of the movie that is incorrect, and this is where the movie fails as a secondary source. -Teresa Felipe
 I believe that the movie could work as a secondary source, operating word being could. The movie gets many of the smaller details correct, but the larger ones usually go awash. While the movie itself is not a credible source, it has many credible facts like women harvesting, the English searching for gold… -Annika Sypher
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 Pocahontas works as a secondary source, not as an in depth one, but works well as an introduction. Being a children’s movie, it gives a watered-down version of the events. It gets a lot of things wrong, but it does manage to get some things right. The movie depicts the motivations of the English for wealth, which is correct. It also depicts that their expectations of the expedition were set forth by the Spanish. The gendered roles of the Native American community are depicted fairly well too, with women doing agriculture and men primarily being hunters and warriors. Most importantly though, it shows that the relationship between the English and Native Americans was not a good one. It was a relationship stained by conflict and animosity. The movie does a good job of portraying both sides in the conflict as well. - Taylor Coleman
+Disney’s Pocahontas works as a secondary source mainly for children. This movie works as a glorified version of the history of Native Americans and the English settlers. The main concept that is accurate from the movie is the Virginia Company and their theories of the land being filled with gold. As well as the perspective the English had on Native Americans. In the movie, the english called them “savages” and assumed the worst from them. The governor believed they were hiding all the gold, when in reality they weren’t worried about the gold. This was represented by John Smith asking Pocahontas in the movie if they had any gold and she pulled out a husk of corn. There are many inaccuracies in the movie, but this is an easily digestible version for children because it leaves out the gruesomeness of the wars between the Natives and the English, but allows them to grasp the general ideas.
+-Leah Bicknell
+Pocahontas works as a secondary source because it depicts real life events in an easily digestible form. It shows how the British came to form colonies in North America and their rocky relationship with the Native Americans. It references a real company - the Virginia Company of London - and their effort to gain wealth through digging gold. It even states why they think there is gold in Virginia because the Spanish who made colonies in the southwestern part of North America were able to find/exploit gold. It correctly displays the difference between Woodland tribes' way of life and the colonists. The ways in which Native Americans use nature to create a product (corn, clothes, houses) to sustain life and trade. Versus the colonists who use manmade products such as guns to display their abilities, and assert power. - Liliana Eib
 ====== Problems with historical accuracy? Errors in fact? ======
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 This movie works really well as a primary source, better than a secondary source. Pocahontas represents one of the first princesses of color. Disney in the 1990s was starting to feature stories with more diverse characters; it shows a step towards representation. Prior to Pocahontas, princesses were primarily white. Disney was starting to change the kind of stories they told, and Pocahontas was an exploration into that. The movie also shows Disney’s attitudes towards colonization. Disney showed a switch of the previously dominant narrative of Native Americans being “savages”, by depicting them as more peaceful and the emphasis on their connection to nature. Pocahontas’s relationship to nature and her environment is gentle, which makes the depiction of the English immediately digging for gold when they land at Jamestown jarring. Colonization is not seen positively, and that is the narrative Disney wanted to influence their young audience with. - Taylor Coleman
+The movie can also serve as a primary source for the time in which it was made (1995) to understand the specific perspective the writers, producers, and artists wanted to portray to an audience and why the audience wanted to see it. Especially since it was written for Disney, viewers are supposed to be given a certain impression. It could be seen as an educational story based on a written history that reflects a historical event of high interest. However the key part of the story is that of a romantic one. This factor appears to be more child friendly, or aimed to draw a wider audience to gain more profit. Whether it was its intention or not there is a  romanticization of colonialism. As this specific love story between Pochaontas and John Smith is not true to the written history by John Smith himself. The love story would have been between Pochaontas and John Ralfe, but there is little written about how their love was formed and/or how truly mutual it was. - Liliana Eib
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