Pocahontas and John Smith (Essay Sample)

Pocahontas and John Smith
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Pocahontas and John Smith
Pocahontas and John Smith might be household names, but the true story of their magnificent lives have been covered up in myths that have persisted for a long time. Pocahontas real name was Matoaka, and her well-known name was just an alias, which meant a spoiled child. Years after the incident, John Smith wrote about how the daughter of a native emperor rescued him, an English explorer, from being killed by her father (Our Country, n.d.). However, Smith’s narrative, adopted by the mainstream culture and most recently by Disney and films, has been criticized for fabricating the real story. The Powhatan natives contend that the history documented by the English and adopted by mainstream culture is falsified purely for entertainment, and the fabricated story was used as an excuse to wage war against the Powhatan nation (Powhatan.org, 2017). Nonetheless, the story of Pocahontas and John Smith should be viewed as the mending of alliances and compromises being made by conflicting parties as portrayed by the mainstream culture.
John Smith’s version of the story seems more accurate than that espoused by the Powhatan nation and other native cultures, which relies on oral history as the primary source. The argument by Powhatan nation that it is Pocahontas who was captured by the English people do not seem to hold water (Powhatan.org, 2017). Although the story told by indigenous cultures may seem credible, oral history depends on the memory of individuals, which is arguably less reliable than a written one. The notes that survived from John Smith, portray Pocahontas as a girl with extraordinary strength who chose peace between her pe