JOHN SMITH

(1580-1631)

The General History of Virginia

No se trata de una autobiografa, sino de una crnica escrita en tercera persona del singular. En 1607 escribe sus aventuras y true relation (nadie conoce a Pocahontas); en 1624 hay una segunda edicin donde habla de su rescate por parte de Pocahontas (la incluye porque se ha hecho muy famosa). Se trata del primer texto sobre el contacto entre el viejo y el nuevo mundo. Smith no estaba all cuando lo escribi. Another feature John Smith used to become a hero was the usage of the 3 rd person singular instead 1st person to refer to himself. Thus, there is no "I" but "Captain Smith", as if the chronicle had been written by a scribe. Esta crnica tiene que parecer heroica (primer hroe Americano) y para escribir una crnica heroica tena que sufrir con los indgenas (p.10) aunque despus estos se arrepientan, lo que lo hace an ms heroico. Un grupo de investigadores interesados en colonizar las zonas inglesas de Norteamrica. Smith estuvo a punto de ser ejecutado por insubordinacin. Negoci con los nativos americanos para comida y otros suplementos. Las relaciones diplomticas con los nativos fueron necesarias para la supervivencia de la colonia. Fue captivado por los indios pero se gana su admiracin por su tecnologa. The real story of Pocahontas is that she was a king's daughter, she married an English soldier who went with John Smith, she converted to Protestantism, she traveled to England with her husband, she was received by Queen Anne, had a baby and died when she was 21. She died in 1617, seven years before John Smith rewrote his General History of Virginia

[LIBRO] Pgina 21 Pocahontas, the daughter of the King, saved Smith from dead. She recognizes the superiority of the colonizer, the heroic qualities of the invader. Her act is an act of betrayal too to her own people because she disobeys her father (who is also de tribe chief). What Pocahontas represents when she submits to the heroic conqueror attitude is the destruction of the Indian masculinity and the possibility for the conqueror to describe Indian men as either cruel savages or child-like creatures (feminized). Pocahontas symbolized the land that is feminized; thus, it could be taken by European conquerors as a woman expecting a man to be completed. That destroyed the native masculinity. We get the impression that Indian native men were lazy; they did not fulfill male activities, unable of standing face to face with a white male.

He portrays Pocahontas as alone among her tribe in her possession of civilized graces and insinuates that she welcomed European colonization.