Little Big Man challenges typical American narratives of history through the inclusion of numerous Natives American characters with multidimensional roles in order to help promote the idea that they were merely the victims by European settlers during the colonial days, the real “savages.” The film’s main character, a white man who plays plays the role of both a European settler and a disguised Native, helps expose the brutal realities of the frontier, by his own people against the Natives who take him in at a young age and treat him as one of their own, despite stereotypes that depict them as ‘uncivilized.”
The film posits the Natives in a positive light despite their usual depiction as “savages,” the aggressors, and perpetrators of violence, …show more content…
The positive portrayals in this film, contribute to American’s claims of ceased racial attitudes and discrimination towards the Native community. However, they merely serve as a facade, because Native American still continue to endure colonial violence, through governmental institutions that permit the stealing of their land, and destroying it, in order to promote a capitalist agenda, such as the case with the Dakota Access Pipeline. However, there are some problematic and perhaps stereotypical ideas promoted in this film about Native Americans, such as they possess mystical powers, like the ability to predict events, such as when the Grandfather in the film dreamed about a certain fountain from the soda ship Jack was in when he discovered Mrs. Pendrake having an affair. The film also includes an innuendo that assumes Native men enjoy raping white women, such as when Grandfather is asking Jack about his wife and is surprised that they have a healthy sex life because when he had sex with a white woman, she “didn’t show any enthusiasm at all.” The stereotype of Native women as hypersexual, and always attracted to white men may have also been enforced because Jack’s Native wife …show more content…
This man is essentially appropriating Indian culture, through redface, which continues to be a prevalent issue even today, such as during the 70s when hippie style copied many Native American garb. Once again, it is a white man in a Native American film, who the film, including its characters and plot, is centered around, while the Native actors are merely present to support this character. This ultimately, denies the audience the opportunity to learn about specific Native characters’, because while the Native group in the film may be presented with more human characteristics and depth, the audience is not introduced to any other individual characters who the film follows throughout its entirety because “conflict that disrupts tribal norms is given a cultural context, and when whites are involved, the Indian version contradicts the standard white telling (O’Connor & Rollins, 1998, pg. 133).Only because of this narrative, the audience is only granted the opportunity to empathize with the Native characters through the character of Jack, because “the consciousness of a white protagonist is raised by his exposure to an indigenous culture” (O’Connor & Rollins, 1998, pg. 134). Real Native Americans’ lives and experiences are thus, exploited and
The film posits the Natives in a positive light despite their usual depiction as “savages,” the aggressors, and perpetrators of violence, …show more content…
The positive portrayals in this film, contribute to American’s claims of ceased racial attitudes and discrimination towards the Native community. However, they merely serve as a facade, because Native American still continue to endure colonial violence, through governmental institutions that permit the stealing of their land, and destroying it, in order to promote a capitalist agenda, such as the case with the Dakota Access Pipeline. However, there are some problematic and perhaps stereotypical ideas promoted in this film about Native Americans, such as they possess mystical powers, like the ability to predict events, such as when the Grandfather in the film dreamed about a certain fountain from the soda ship Jack was in when he discovered Mrs. Pendrake having an affair. The film also includes an innuendo that assumes Native men enjoy raping white women, such as when Grandfather is asking Jack about his wife and is surprised that they have a healthy sex life because when he had sex with a white woman, she “didn’t show any enthusiasm at all.” The stereotype of Native women as hypersexual, and always attracted to white men may have also been enforced because Jack’s Native wife …show more content…
This man is essentially appropriating Indian culture, through redface, which continues to be a prevalent issue even today, such as during the 70s when hippie style copied many Native American garb. Once again, it is a white man in a Native American film, who the film, including its characters and plot, is centered around, while the Native actors are merely present to support this character. This ultimately, denies the audience the opportunity to learn about specific Native characters’, because while the Native group in the film may be presented with more human characteristics and depth, the audience is not introduced to any other individual characters who the film follows throughout its entirety because “conflict that disrupts tribal norms is given a cultural context, and when whites are involved, the Indian version contradicts the standard white telling (O’Connor & Rollins, 1998, pg. 133).Only because of this narrative, the audience is only granted the opportunity to empathize with the Native characters through the character of Jack, because “the consciousness of a white protagonist is raised by his exposure to an indigenous culture” (O’Connor & Rollins, 1998, pg. 134). Real Native Americans’ lives and experiences are thus, exploited and