POST 1:THE MYTH OF THE NOBLE/GOOD SAVAGE

                 

                                     THE MYTH OF THE NOBLE/GOOD SAVAGE

1) A noble savage is a literary stock character( stereotypical), 
who embodies the concept of the indigene,  who has not been corrupted by civilization.
 In English, the phrase first appeared in the 17th century in John Drynden's heroic play The Conquest of Granada. Wherein it was used in reference to newly created man. "Savage" at that time could mean "wild beast" as well as "wild man".The phrase later became identified with the idealized picture of "nature's gentleman", which was an aspect of 18th-century sentimentalism. He visual trappings and associations change depending on the culture, but the underlying idea is constant. The noble savage is portrayed as ignorant and simple-minded but simultaneously uncorrupted by any of the moral failings of modern civilization and possessing an innate wisdom and connection to nature.





Idealized Native Canadian portrayed in
 The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West. 
                                                                                                              Victor Hugo’s novel Bug-Jargal (1826)
                                                                                                                                                     used the ‘nobel savage’ trope

3. Pocahontas:
This is the Disney animated tale of the romance between a young steller Indian woman named Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith, who journeyed to the New World with other settlers to begin fresh lives. Her powerful father, Chief Powhatan, disapproves of their relationship and wants her to marry a native warrior.

  But to illustrate the case of the novel savage, we should focus on the case of the English stellers, who went to this new land and colonize it and took all the minerals and benefices without taking care of the natives. This text criticizes the capitalism, and value the habitants of the new land, because they are peacefull, and lovers of the nature, they take care of the earth.

Before the film, Susan Donnell  writes a novel telling the true novel story of that character that many believe that's just fiction. Pocahontas existed. And she did it at a crucial moment in the history of the United States. Thanks to her and others like her, the English were able to settle in America and survive.

When Pocahontas,  meets Captain John Smith, she is eleven or twelve years old, being fifteen years older. The author recounts the love and relationship between them, even when she was engaged to another man.

Donnell's version describes how the girl saves the captain's life and takes him to his village, being adopted by the head of the Powhatan and admitted as one more in the tribe.