Essay I wrote for US History Class, just thought you might want to read it...


"In Walt Disney’s 33rd animated feature, Pocahontas is portrayed as a young woman in her low twenties. John Smith comes over from England in search for a new land, but Ratcliffe, the main antagonist, is going there because he wants gold. When John Smith meets Pocahontas, he is at first as prejudice as all the other men. But after Pocahontas shows him the land, and convinces him they don’t have gold, he decided that he doesn’t want to hurt the Indians anymore. When he and Pocahontas fall in love, everything goes wrong. Kocoum, a Native American who wants to marry Pocahontas, gets jealous and John Smith is captured. After he is saved by Pocahontas, Ratcliffe shoots the Powhatan Chief, also Pocahontas’s father. John Smith jumps in to save him and is shot, and has to go back to England without Pocahontas. Even though the movie has many historical inaccuracies, it still is one of the best movies ever made by Disney and receives many praises for its animation, love story, and soundtrack.
    Despite the inaccuracies in the film, there are still many accuracies Disney uses to defend its movie when it is ridiculed for portraying history wrong. To begin with, the settings and life style are both shown right. Jamestown was the name of the first settlement and was also set in the landscape shown. The Powhatan Tribe was also in the forest and their daily way of life is accurate. Second, John Ratcliffe was in charge of the colony. When John Smith was captured, he also led armies to rescue him. Lastly, John Smith wrote that he was indeed saved from death by young Pocahontas. Just like in the movie, she threw her head in-between Smith’s head and the Indian’s clubs.
    There are many factual errors in this movie, more than any other Disney movie, and they are shown the most because this film was based off a true story. First of all, the biggest inaccuracy is the ages of John and Pocahontas. In the movie Pocahontas and John are both young adults, while in real life, Pocahontas was a girl of 11 and John Smith was 28. Next, John Smith and Pocahontas don’t fall in love like they do in the movie. Even though Pocahontas does save him, they just simply because good friends. That makes more sense, saying how far apart their ages are. Lastly, in the film John Smith is captured one night when he ventures out to meet Pocahontas, while in the real story he is captured when on an expedition day in December when he got separated from his group.
    In conclusion, very rarely is there a movie that can be so wrong with history but still so loved by children and adults everywhere. I believe that just as long as a historical movie has some facts in it, it can be as fictional as necessary. It’s obvious to see that if Pocahontas had been dead on accurate, it wouldn’t have been as enjoyable. Also, Disney is known for its fairytale, falling-in-love aspect. That wouldn’t have been possible with an 11 year old girl and a 28 year old man. To finish off, Pocahontas is a wonderful movie for all ages and it will always be fun to watch a twist on the history as well as learning the true story."


:D how was it?