Bob Dole

41754003
MINE 391
January 10, 2005

Pocohontos & Social Attitudes towards Mining

In the Disney version of Pocohontos there is a scene in which the new settlers of Virginia
start establishing themselves in the New World. Their priorities are to start growing food, to
construct dwellings, and the foremost in all their minds to mine for gold. In musical fashion, the
settlers proceed to start digging up the landscape and cutting down the trees while dancing and
singing in a choreographed manner to the accompaniment of the words Mine! Mine! Mine!.

There is a message about the current social attitudes towards mining that is hard to miss.
Mining is portrayed as a destructive industry fueled by greed. The songwriters made good use of
the two meanings of mine. In the aforementioned scene, it is obvious that while the singer is
exhorting his fellow settlers to mine for gold, he is also claiming all the gold for himself. It is
also greed that drives the settlers to start mining with such exuberance, and the animators do a
good job at showing the greedy gleam that comes to the eyes of the settlers.

One of the other images that appear in the scene is that of the old, long bearded
prospector. There is not a huge focus on this character, but it appears that he is a symbol for
mining in the public’s mind.

It is interesting to compare the attitudes displayed in the Pocohontos movie with those
displayed by another Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs mining was done by a group of cute little dwarfs who prized hard work in their
quest to mine the sparkling gems from their caves. In Snow White, the dwarfs were not
portrayed as being destructive or greedy, but as hard working and kindly little people. It is
important to note that Snow White was released in the 1930’s while Pocohontos was released in
the 1990’s. Each reflected to a degree the social attitudes towards mining in their time.

A question that may be asked is “So what? It’s just an innocent cartoon. It doesn’t mean
anything.” The response would be that though the subject may be portrayed in a childish
manner, and not have any serious intent it still plays on commonly held beliefs by larger society
towards mining. In order for the scene to be as amusing as it is, the viewer must agree to the
image of mining shown to a certain degree. Otherwise, the scene will not be funny at all and fall
flat. The audience must have some preconceived attitudes towards mining to make the joke
work, and a good comedian always needs to know their audience. Based on the success of
Disney, they know their audience, which can allow one to conclude that the stereotype of miners
as being environmentally destructive and greedy is an image held by a large portion of the
public.