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Sofia Motta

Professor Granillo

English 103

25 November 2018

Postcolonialism and Marxism in Disney’s Pocahontas

Disney has been creating films that captivate entire families since 1937. As time has past

and people have paid closer attention to these family films, some of these movies have become

quite controversial. The Disney classic, Pocahontas is very controversial and contains Marxism

and Postcolonialism. Marxism focuses its attention on the individual psyche and its roots in the

family complex, psychoanalysis distracts our attention from the real forces that create human

experience: the economic systems that structure human societies. Postcolonial criticism asks us

to to think of ourselves and others in terms of what it calls cultural difference: the ways in which

race, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, cultural beliefs, and customs combine to

form individual identity. It offers a framework for examining the similarities among all theories

that deal with human oppression. While parents argue that the film is already too violent and

shouldn’t show the actual events the movie is based on, because of how it will affect their

children, the film should explain the history behind the maltreatment of the natives. By way of

Postcolonial concepts such as colonial ideologies and Marxist discussion of the bourgeoisie and

the proletariat, the idea that colonists were superior to the natives is exemplified throughout the

film. By embellishing the truth, Disney has erased history from the minds of their viewers.

Disney’s Pocahontas is a cult classic that many grew up with as children. The film, while

being one of Disney’s more popular movies, also has major controversy surrounding it since the

time it was released back in 1995. Pocahontas tells the story of a young Native American woman
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who falls in love with Captain John Smith, one of the Jamestown settlers coming from the

Virginia Company. While the settlers are looking for the tribes non-existent gold, conflict arises

due to the discovery of Smith and Pocahontas’ relationship; this ultimately leads to the death of

Kocoum, a native warrior who was supposed to marry Pocahontas, and the call to battle between

the settlers and the tribe. In the end, Pocahontas is able to bring peace to both groups and saves

John Smith’s life. This tale is quite controversial because it overlooks and glosses over real

events by telling a story that is not historically accurate. Although some argue that because it is a

children’s movie it should be left as is.

Parents have argued that Pocahontas tells the story of these people well enough for

children to understand, and if it was truly told the way it happened then it would be too much for

kids. They believe that because the original story contains violence, rape, and pillaging that it

isn’t suitable for children. Some even go as far as to say that the movie is even too violent to be

considered a G rating. The majority can agree that the unfiltered version is too intense for kids,

but by completely changing the story and taking away all the parts that make it history, it is

doing a disservice to the children who are watching because they believe that what happened in

the movie actually happened in real life. This couldn’t be further from the truth. By

romanticizing the characters as well as the story of Pocahontas, they are creating a false image in

the minds of the impressionable children that watch their films. While this movie is intended for

children, it should still tell the original narrative of what happened to these people, but of course

leave out the gruesome details that make this story too mature for young audiences.

Postcolonial concepts such as colonialist ideologies are very prominent in this Disney

film. Colonialist ideologies, also known as colonialist discourse, is “... colonizers’ assumption of

their own superiority, which they contrasted with the alleged inferiority of native (indigenous)
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peoples, the original inhabitants of the land they invaded. The colonizers believed that only their

own Anglo-european culture was civilized… native peoples were defined as savage, backward,

and undeveloped” (Tyson 400). This shows that colonists were so eurocentric they believed that

they were far superior to the natives that had been living there before they arrived to Jamestown.

Throughout the movie, John Smith and other settlers, frequently call the natives “savages”

among other names, such as “heathens”, “uncivilized”, “dirty”, and “devils”. By referring to the

natives this way, they are spreading the idea that they were a subordinate to the Jamestown

settlers because their culture was not as advanced as that of the colonizers. It also portrays the

idea to the young, impressionable audience watching that the way they are treating these people

is justified. In reality, the natives were treated much worse, which is not shown in the film in

order to create a picture in the minds of the children watching that it was possible for the natives

and the settlers to get along. Besides the derogatory terms used to aid the film in the negative

portrayal of the natives, there is also a vast amount of historical inaccuracy.

Disney’s revered film, one of the first that shed light upon a different culture, is also

historically incorrect. This is probable because the story is being told through a white

westernized perspective that has been shaped in order to undermine what actually happened to

these people. On top of the already biased, white colonial perspective, comes the more

challenging aspect; it is a children’s movie. In order to make Pocahontas family friendly, Disney

filmmakers change many major aspects of this story, which completely diminishes the

importance of the movie and its history. As stated by Couzelis in his article, Generic

Pocahontas, while it "can be easily caricatured as politically correct yet historically incorrect…”

(Couzelis). Pocahontas is portrayed as a tall, beautiful young woman, when in reality “she was a

prepubescent girl of about twelve in 1607…” (Entremont). John Smith and Pocahontas were
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never lovers, nor was there ever a romance. Pocahontas was actually kidnapped by the English in

1613. The movie’s inaccuracies also follow the characters of John Smith, Kocoum, Powhatan,

and Ratcliffe. These are the only characters in the movie who are based upon real life people, but

they are not accurately represented. Besides the historical flaws of the characters, the movie also

fails to correctly represent the religion of the Native people. While the film does display conflict

and a lean towards violence, it embellishes the relationship between that of the settlers and

Natives. Perhaps the greatest thing that is overlooked in the Pocahontas film, is the mass

genocide of the Native people. While the movie does try to display important themes of equality,

unity, and peace through songs like Colors of the Wind, “None of what made Pocahontas

significant in American history is included or even hinted at in the film…” (Entremont). This

aids in the establishment of false ideals in the minds of the audience, and it allows for the truth to

be pushed to the back, in order for there to be a happy ending. This is not only done through

Postcolonialist ideals, but also through Marxist concepts as well.

Marxism can be easily identified in the Disney film, because it deals with the concept of

the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. These terms are defined in Marx’s work as “By bourgeoisie is

meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of

wage labour. By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of

production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live” (Marx 2).

During the time Pocahontas takes place in the early 1600s, Imperialism had taken over. More

and more european countries were colonizing multiple parts of the world. The English might not

have been the only ones colonizing the Americas, but the Jamestown colony and the Virginia

Company played a significant role in the exploitation of the natives inhabiting the land. This is

where the concept of the bourgeoisie and proletariat comes into play. The colonists are the
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bourgeoisie because they had come to the Americas in search of gold, which they planned to take

from the Natives living there. The proletariat are the natives, the ones being exploited. An

example from the movie, is when John Smith tells Pocahontas that “We’ve improved the lives of

savages all over the world”(Pocahontas 38:41), meaning that by invading their land and taking

their resources they have somehow made the their lives better. This shows their bourgeoisie

motives. This is similar to what Marx refers to when he states “It compels all nations, on pain of

extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls

civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves” (Marx 6). Through the

colonization of the lands they discover and inhabit, the settlers impose their way of life upon the

natives, therefore making their lives “better” because they have exposed them to a new form of

society and way of life. By displaying the colonists and the natives in this Marxist light, Disney

is sending the message that the natives are inferior to their more advanced counterparts.

The exploitation of the native people and the land is quite evident in the movie. In the

film, there is an entire number called Mine, Mine, Mine which is about the main villain of the

movie, Ratcliffe, commanding all the Jamestown settlers to dig up all the land in Virginia until

they find the gold that is rightfully theirs. This shows how the colonists are represented as the

bourgeoisie, because they believe that since they settled on a new land, everything that the land

produces belongs to them. This includes gold, lumber, raw materials, crops, and even the land

itself because they have claimed it for themselves; the fact that people already live there is but a

minor inconvenience to them. In an interaction between Pocahontas and John Smith, Smith states

that the natives are ignorant and that the colonists will “... show your people how to use this land

properly. How to make the most of it… you think that because you don’t know any better”

(Pocahontas 38:23). This exemplifies their relationship as the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
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because Smith comes from a more civilized way of living and Pocahontas has not been exposed

to this, she is deemed ignorant but it is acceptable because she will learn when colonists bring

their civilization and society to the new world. They are portrayed as civilized and advanced

because they come from a more developed society, which makes them superior to the natives

who don’t have as an advanced way of life.

Disney has made it acceptable to overlook history and practically rewrite it in order for it

to fit the narrative of the white westernized perspective. By making Pocahontas a family friendly

story, they have essentially diminished the importance of the history behind the injustices and

cruel acts against the native people. While it is important to leave out the details that are too

mature for young audiences, it is even more necessary to teach children the violent crimes

committed against these people, so they can become educated and learn about the past mistakes

of older generations. By not including significant pieces of Native American history in this film,

Disney has erased it all together from the impressionable minds of its audience, because they will

believe whatever is on the screen to be truth. Which makes it even more essential that what is

included in the movie be accurate to the people and culture.

Works Cited

Couzelis, Mary J. "Generic Pocahontas: Reinforcing and Subverting the Whiteness of

Mythohistory." Children's Literature, vol. 43, 2015, pp. 139-160,325. ProQuest,

http://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2048/login?url=https://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2457/docview/1693206

642?accountid=38295.

Entremont, John. "Movie Reviews -- Pocahontas Directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric

Goldberg." The Journal of American History, vol. 82, no. 3, 1995, pp. 1302. ProQuest,
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http://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2048/login?url=https://ezproxy.canyons.edu:2457/docview/2249107

58?accountid=38295.

Gabriel, Mike and Eric Goldberg, directors. Pocahontas. Buena Vista Pictures, 1995.

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. 12th Media Services, 2018.

Mignola, Scott G. “Parent Reviews for Pocahontas | Common Sense Media.” Common

Sense Media: Ratings, Reviews, and Advice, Common Sense Media, 24 June 2003,

www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/pocahontas/user-reviews/adult.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Third ed., Routledge, 2015.