Disney's Inaccurate Portrayal of Pocahontas Essay Example

In both history as well as popular culture, Pocahontas happens to be without a doubt one of the most well-known Native American figures. However, Disney's movie about this figure, does not portray what happened between John Smith and Pocahontas. Near the end of the film, John Smith happened to be in a tight situation by the chief of the tribe. He was about to execute him without hesitation. But when all hope was lost, Pocahontas jumped in front of him and somehow persuaded her father to cease this action and to release him. Disney’s representation of Pocohontas saved John Smith is inaccurate because when Smith returned to Jamestown to share his story, no other members of the Virginia Company wrote about Pocahontas saving Smith’s life, and his later entry exaggerates a lot of information written in his older one.

Evidence from a historian's work shows that Disney's portrayal of Pocahontas is inaccurate, for a variety of reasons. The historian states in his documentation that no other member of the Virginia Company, an English trade company whom Smith happened to be a part of, who kept diaries ever wrote about Pocahontas saving John Smith’s life. If John Smith was indeed apprehended and was going to be executed before being rescued, I'm sure his company would write about it, as this is a noteworthy and timely event. In 1624, Smith wrote in his General History that Pocahontas had rescued him and that Chief Powhatan had provided Indian guides to the Jamestown colonists. I doubt the same chief who intended to put him to death would want to back him up.  (Source 1.5).

Pocahontas is portrayed in Disney's movie in an erroneous manner by a historian's documentation. In his document, it states that a lot of information of A General History of Virginia exaggerates a lot of the information that happened in the earlier document by Smith, A True Relation. It also brings up a lot of details that have never been mentioned between the writing of the two documents. Adding to that, in his earlier document, Smith never mentioned Pocahontas, therefore, she could have never saved him. Furthermore, Pocahontas went to Jamestown in 1608 according to A True Relation. Smith provided her with gifts in return for the kindness of her father. I would think that he would be gifting her because she saved his life, because according to Disney, Powhatan tried to kill him. And finally in 1612 Smith wrote about the execution method he witnessed in his time being held captive, but he never talks about his experience of almost dying by the same execution. (Source 1.3)