Terrence Malick's The New World: rewriting the Pocahontas narrative

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Student Name Professor Name Course Code Date Why The New World is a New Kind of Encounter Film “Encounter” films can be problematic, particularly when they perpetuate dominant culture myths, justify narratives of oppression, or reinforce stereotypes. Terrence Malick’s 2005 film The New World is a new kind of encounter film because it undermines the mythologized version of the story of Pocahontas. Although still technically an “encounter” film, The New World is not told only from the perspective of the English settlers but equally from the Algonquin point of view. The film is far from perfect; Malick does cast people of Native American descent like August Schellenberg as Chief Powhatan and Q\\\'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas but neither Schellenberg nor Kilcher is Algonquin. Yet Malick does help rewrite the fictionalized narrative that has prevailed in much encounter literature. One of the problems with the Pocahontas story is that primary sources are limited and biased. The most reliable primary sources include settler journals like that of John Smith, with Native accounts notably absent from the public discourse. In fact, Pocahontas has “not been a popular figure among Native Americans” because Native Americans have grown “tired of enthusiastic white people loving to love Pocahontas,” (Mansky 1). The reason for the Native American ambivalence or even outright disdain of one of white culture’s most prized Native American heroines is easy to understand: Pocahontas symbolizes colonial oppression on multiple levels. The New World adds depth to the Pocahontas story by showing how the daughter of a prominent and powerful chief grappled with the bittersweet realities of contact. Thus, the film transforms one of American history’s most problematic figures to add at least another layer of historical accuracy, especially when the film is read in light of John Smith’s own writing. Both the film and the primary source of John Smith’s A General History reveal that in fact the English did respect, and likely fear, their Native American counterparts to a degree. John Smith writes in third person of the first encounter between himself and Powhatan, who he describes as an “Emperor,” (119). When Powhatan emerges dressed in full regalia and is flanked by “two hundred more as black as himself,” Smith does describe the Algonquin leader as “more like a devil than a man,” (121). Using the term “devil” signifies the tremendous spiritual power he perceived Powhatan to possess. Smith was clearly in awe of the tremendous amount of power Powhatan wielded, as well as the methods Powhatan used to maintain and display his power and authority. The film treats the first encounter between Smith, who was far from being an “Emperor,” and Powhatan in similar ways. Powhatan’s society is, like Smith’s patriarchal. At least on this level the two men can agree as neither recognize any differentiation in their gender roles. Men hold positions of power in their communities; Smith respects Powhatan as he would have respected any other king of any European nation. That the Algonquin regalia, customs, and rituals are different from those he has previously encountered is not as much an issue as Smith’s personal desire to prove his own prowess in fulfilling his objective in security territory for Jamestown. Because of the lack of corroboration for Smith’s first-hand narrative, it is impossible to know whether his own diary possesses historical accuracy. It can reasonably be assumed that Smith wrote from a biased perspective, and would have perceived Pocahontas’s actions to have been more about him than about her own innate curiosity about his world, where he came from, and the strangeness of his appearance and ways. Malick does achieve the goal of depicting a mutual encounter, one that was actually lopsided in favor of the Algonquin. It is Smith who is initially taken hostage, and Smith whose head is about to get lopped off “to beat out his brains,” as he himself put it (120). Powhatan calls the shots; it is his territory and his men far outnumber Smith’s. What saved Smith—and no accounts would suggest otherwise—is the bravery of Powhatan’s “dearest daughter,” (Smith 120). Gender plays a far more important role in the Pocahontas encounter narrative than previous filmmakers and fairy tale spinners have indicated. Whereas Powhatan’s instinct is to use violence to deal with the perceived aggressor, Pocahontas seeks dialogue. Her role in fostering cross-cultural dialogue is what made Pocahontas the poster child of whitewashed encounters. Neither the film nor John Smith’s journals indicate that peace between the two disparate cultures was possible or likely. Pocahontas’s visible apprehension upon seeing England and receiving the kind of adulatory attention when she arrives speaks volumes about her ambivalence about the entire bridge-building proposition. It is impossible not to appreciate Pocahontas’s symbolic role as a woman who courageously broke free from her comfort zone to willingly learn about another society and language, being extricated from her community and thrust into situations where she would be bereft even of the small powers she already had as Powhatan’s daughter. Even if Pocahontas was instrumental in at least encouraging peaceful discourse between the Algonquin and the English, her gender prohibited her from making a more meaningful mark on the progression of history. The film does not go into much depth about the intersection between gender and power, and Smith ignores the issue of gender altogether. It is simply presumed that Pocahontas is admired for her beauty and courage because those features distinguish her from other women; not because her insight and intelligence help her stand apart as a leader who represents her community.

Whereas other encounter films about Pocahontas depict her as “an Indian who virtually worshipped white culture,” Malick resists the temptation to recreate the dominant culture narrative (Mansky 1). Traditional stories present Pocahontas from an English perspective, and a highly romanticized one at that. Rather than being based on Smith’s actual account in The General History texts, Disney and similar versions of the story are rooted in English romanticism and the Victorian myth of the white man’s burden in which the advanced European heroes rescue the noble savages from their barbaric state. Pocahontas has become a mythical figure constructed from English self-congratulation and perceptions of cultural superiority. In trying hard to create moral neutrality, Malick does err on the side of offering the English too much leeway. Judging by Smith’s narrative, awe and respect for the Algonquin do not actually cover up fear, disdain, and even disgust for the “savages,” (117). The New World shows how both the Algonquin and the English viewed each other with mistrust and suspicion but does not allow sufficient insight into the racist mentality of the settlers to do genuine justice to historical truth. What both the film and the Smith accounts show, sadly, is that leaving the land of her foremothers was an act of self-sacrifice. The New World does seem to accurately capture the mutual infatuation between Pocahontas and John Rolfe. It is highly likely that Smith’s (and Malick’s) account of Pocahontas saving his life was historically accurate, and that Pocahontas and Rolfe did develop as much love for one another as could be expected under the circumstances and in that time. In a letter written to Sir Thomas Dale, Deputy Governor of Virginia, John Rolfe earnestly asks for official approval to marry Pocahontas. The letter is indicative of how Rolfe would have felt towards his wife-to-be: that Pocahontas was not a passing fancy but a human being to whom he felt genuinely devoted. Malick shows that the relationship between Pocahontas and Rolfe was as the latter states it in his formal letter to the governor: that it is “no small moment” to seek the blessings of God for an occasion as solemn as a marriage (Rolfe 1). The marriage between Rolfe and Pocahontas subverts British customs and social norms, one that takes place between people from disparate backgrounds and cultures, and most of all between an English man and a woman from a culture that was labeled as “savage” and inferior.