Step One

Compare and contrast four of the depictions of Pocahontas available in the Lehigh University Pocahontas Archive, http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/pocahontas/images.php (Links to an external site.).

Step Two

Write a 2+ page paper (500 words) in which you answer the following:

• How you believe the people who produced these images and depictions want you to see and understand Pocahontas? Do they want you to see her as a hero or a villain?  Powerful or weak?  Masculine or feminine?  Independent or subservient?  Is her depiction an attempt to accurately portray her culture or to stylize or caricature her culture?   
• If you were tasked with the responsibility of creating an image or depicting Pocahontas today, how would you approach the task? Would it be a painting or a poem or a play or a movie or a statue or something else?  Describe what your image(s) or depiction of her would look like, and what understanding of Pocahontas would you want the viewer to have.  When doing so, remember that Pocahontas was Powhatan, and thus Algonquian–so the “life cycle” of the Algonquian we discussed in class (and is in the PPT) describes the life she experienced. 

Make the analysis about what is specifically in the images; do not go to the internet to find general content about who Pocahontas was, or what her life was like, or how she is depicted in other media like movies, and then simply write that down as an answer–that is not the assignment asked here and that kind of effort will receive a failing grade.