Literary Essay of the American Precolonial Relationship

Early colonial history has the tendency to proclaim only one perspective: the superiority of the Englishmen and the preconceived notion of Native American ineptitude. This exact premise is clearly presented in Captain John Smith's "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, And The Summer Isles". The themes of fortitude and dominion of the English settlers are as evident in the text as savagery and ignorance are credited to the Native Americans. Paula Gunn Allen, however, directly challenges this perspective with her poem "Pocahontas To Her English Husband, John Rolfe".

Allen offers a literary commentary contending the set belief of the white man's innate knowledge coupled with the native's innate underdevelopment. The grievance of the exceptional and wise by the folly of the juvenile and ignorant is a tension manifested in Smith's account, which is flipped and retold in Allen's poem. By altering the power of wisdom, presenting a modern genre of free form poetry, and shifting the point of view to a personal one, Allen rectifies the intuitive thoughts of the Native American voice.

Allen's poem acknowledges the intersubjectivity of different values silence has in the two opposing cultures: one associates it with inarticulacy, the other with noble stoicism. Smith's description of Pocahontas renders her as dear and compassionate (118), never under the same severity of hatred applied to the other Native Americans. She is characterized as quaint and docile as a child and therefore perceived as easily molded and corrected as one as well. However the poem, spoken in the voice of Pocahontas as she addresses her husband John Rolfe, is presented in a tone of maternal disdain and frustration of a child who cannot account for his own impulsive actions. Constant images of Pocahontas' obligation to cradle, rescue, and to have a protecting gaze over her husband implies her to have the silent yet exhausting role of a mother who cannot help nor condone the materialistic pursuits Rolfe chooses to engage himself (line 39).

Just as a child has little cognition of anything else outside of its own desires, her husband--symbolic of her English oppressors-- cannot account for his own actions as they affect the life of his wife as long he "reaps wealth greater than any could ever dream" (line 48). By being told in the standpoint of a Native American woman- a status that is immediately under the scrutiny of two accounts of inferiority- Allen provides a knowledgeable voice to the antithesis of Smith's idea of intelligence and eloquence. This piece then advocates that the Native American's silence does not denote undeveloped thinking, but rather a discipline of refined thoughts.

With the usage of her new wave of literary form she essentially advocates a new interpretation of history that is encouraged to be revisited and heard. By being consciously told in the contemporary form of poetry, Allen presents a modern form of articulacy apart from the narratives of the pre-colonial era. It renders a literary representation to the nuanced thoughts of the Native Americans. Smith's narrative is abundant with grandiose language and epic details that tell of his experiences in the New World. By having it told in the third person perspective, he implicates a supposed objective truth that overtly states English supremacy over the Native Americans. The natives are observed as having animalistic forms of communication such as barbarous shouts (Smith 117) and their demonic rattles of ceremonial song (116).

On the other hand, although Pocahontas admits to speaking very little (line 37), the evidence of the entire poem validates her voice as capable and deeply complex. Poetry, in its essence, is crafted in a manner that conveys nuances with very few words. Thus the poet appropriately mirrors the circumstance of Pocahontas and puts merit to her sparse words by associating them with careful discernment and competence. Furthermore, the way the author utilizes both elongated and truncated sentence structures signifies the tension between her outer docile composure and her internal grievances of things she finds unfair.

She expresses disdain for her husband's naïve lifestyle as she constantly "plucks him from certain deaths in the wilderness" (line 5) while he insists on reigning superior over her with "firm guidance and husbandly rule" (line35). This irony of the superior actually being under the complete mercy of his inferior supports the notion of how the positions of wisdom, and ultimately power, have altered. By Allen's poem, former thoughts of the childish ineptitude of Native Americans are challenged. It promotes careful retrospect and the consideration that the savages who were in complete rapture of the simple mechanics of a compass (Smith 114) and the violent technology of canons (Smith 117) were actually very capable in understanding the ploys and agendas of the English (line 44).

Paula Gunn Allen, in her poem, has successfully and justly mended the ill-conceived impressions of Native American inferiority by reallocating to a personal perspective, utilizing a modern genre of free form poetry, adjusting the power of wisdom. She tackles the same tension of grievance, but at an opposing angle. It is no longer the settlers looking down on the natives, but a native standing equally with a settler. No longer is their silence characterized in inability to speak, but rather with a noble stoic behavior.

Citation and Credit:

Allen, Paula Gunn. "Pocahontas To Her English Husband, John Rolfe". The Bedford Anthology
of American Literature. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 122-123. Print.

Smith, John. "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles." The
Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.
110-19. Print.

& D.P. Felipe for proofreading