Pocahontas: affective detachment and transformation

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Pocahontas is a fairy tale different from the standard one, with a more human and mature heroine. This Indian woman is the symbol of the woman who started in her individuation process: that of becoming herself. Having been a real character, her trajectory gave origin to many legends. Everything that is known about her was transmitted orally from generation to generation, so that her real story is controversial untilHer life became a romantic myth in the centuries following her death, a myth that was made into a Disney cartoon with the Indian's own name in the title.

In the original legend, according to Wikipedia, she was a Powhatan Indian woman who married the Englishman John Rolfe, becoming a celebrity at the end of her life. She was the daughter of Wahunsunacock (also known as Powhatan), who ruled over an area that encompassed almost all the tribes of the coastal state of Virginia. Her real names were Matoaka and Amonute; "Pocahontas" was a childhood nickname.

According to the story, she saved the Englishman John Smith, who was to be executed by his father in 1607. At the time, Pocahontas was only ten to eleven years old, at the time Smith was a middle-aged man with long brown hair and a beard. He was one of the leading colonists and at the time had been kidnapped by Powhatan hunters. He was possibly going to be killed, but Pocahontas intervened,managing to convince his father that John Smith's death would draw the hatred of the colonists.

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Internal conflicts and projection of the unconscious

The 1995 Disney film chronicles the embarkation of a ship of British colonists from the Virginia Company to the "New World" in 1607. On board it are Captain John Smith and the leader Governor Ratcliffe, who believes that the Native Americans are hiding a vast collection of gold and therefore seeks to gain this treasure on his own. Among these local native tribesmen, we meetPocahontas, the daughter of the Powhatan chief, who discusses the possibility of the heroine marrying Kocoum. This young man is a brave warrior who, however, she sees as too "serious" in comparison to his cheerful and spirited personality.

Thus, right at the beginning of the film, Pocahontas appears already questioning the meaning of her own life and which path she should follow: the arranged marriage with Kocoum or waiting for true love. This doubt between following the traditions of her parents and society or obeying the yearnings of her soul unleashes a real internal conflict for the Indian woman, unlike what happens with most heroinesclassic fairy tales.

This doubt between following the traditions of her parents and society or obeying the longings of her soul unleashes a real internal conflict for the Indian woman, unlike most of the classical fairy tale heroines.

In the course of the plot, the desire to understand a recurring dream leads the girl, together with her friends - the raccoon Meeko and the hummingbird Flit - to visit the ancestral spirit of Grandmother Willow, who inhabits a willow tree. In response, the tree advises her precisely to listen to the spirits, that is, to listen to what the unconscious is telling her. The tree has a phallic shape, but also has inAnd Grandma Willow, as an ancestral spirit, symbolizes the aspect of the collective unconscious that unites all the dilemmas and conflicts ever experienced by human beings.

Pocahontas and John Smith: opposites that complement each other

The British ship arrives in the new world bringing the Englishman John Smith. The boy and Pocahontas meet, and an uncontrollable passion is kindled between them. But despite this passion, the worlds of the two are very different from each other: Pocahontas is a woman connected to nature, while John belongs to civilization and wishes to explore nature in search of gold and precious stones.

In Carl Jung's analytical psychology, this love connection exists and drives us towards union with the external other - in this case, another person - and the internal one, which would be our "inner self".

We fall in love and live with this other, who has complementary characteristics to our personality, but who is also waiting, within us, for an expression in the external world. It is a union with our deepest essence, and Pocahontas longs for this encounter.

In the film, we observe the development of what Jung called the conjunction archetype - an archetype that refers to the union and separation of the opposite polarities. In the union, there is the desire and incessant search for what one wants most, and the Indian woman ardently desires a love that will take her to transcendence, to a path different from the usual and that will expand her horizons. John Smith, in fact, shows her aHe traveled and visited other places, without getting attached to anything, bringing to her some of his experiences. The same happens to him - Pocahontas brings him a dimension of feeling that was not there before in his personality, a sensitivity that leads him to observe and value nature. Thus, John begins to feel a strong need to establish a bondHe has so much affection for her that he wants to give up going back to his land to live in the tribe.

At the same time that the conflictive love between the two begins, hostility arises and leads to war between the Indians and the British, culminating in the death of the warrior Kocoum, Pocahontas' suitor. This death can be interpreted symbolically, showing that now the charactercan free himself from the weight of the obligation to follow the traditions of the tribe and of his ancestors, and thus follow the path that his soul indicates to him.

Moreover, the war and the aggressive atmosphere between the two peoples show how difficult the dilemma experienced by Pocahontas is. She is sure she wants to stay with John Smith, but an event in which he is shot makes it necessary for her to return to her land in order not to die.father dies.

She is sure that she wants to stay with John Smith, but an event in which he is shot causes her to have to return to her land in order not to die, and so the young woman must choose whether to go on with her love or to stay with the tribe, since she will be the leader when her father passes away.

It is love fulfilling its role as a catalyst in the process of personality development, alternating between union and separation as stages for transformation.

Symbolic presence of the mother dissociates her from Pocahontas

It is important to note that Pocahontas has no mother, but she carries with her a necklace that belonged to her.The death of the mother in fairy tales means that the girl becomes aware that she should no longer identify with her, even if the relationship is positive. It is the beginning of the individuation process. The artifact that replaces her symbolizes the deepest essence of the mother figure.

Overcoming an impossible love

Pocahontas then realizes that this deep love for John Smith would not survive, for there is an abyss between their reality. This love can only remain alive in separation, which represents a necessary contradiction - being together but apart. When faced with this dilemma, she makes an inevitable sacrifice to allow the search for something that lies beyond and to show what is to come later.In doing so, she values her land, her tribe, and also the love she has developed for John. She does not deny, nor does she repress what she feels, she just faces the situation.

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With this, the tale inspires us to follow the path of understanding, when the differences between two lovers seem to speak louder. By accepting the impossibility of a love relationship, we confirm how much this love has transformed us, to the point of opening ourselves to everything more extraordinary that is to come.

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