Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma

by

Camilla Townsend

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma makes teaching easy.

Simon Van de Passe Character Analysis

A Dutch-German engraver of some renown who was commissioned to sketch Pocahontas for an engraving. The portrait was used to create a collectible piece of memorabilia—essentially propaganda and recruiting material for the Virginia Company. Townsend alleges that Van de Passe worked with Pocahontas to create a portrait of herself that she felt reflected who she was and what she valued rather than paint her as an inhuman object or marvel to gawk at—or worse, erase the truth of who she was by Anglicizing her features or dressing her in ridiculous outfits.

Simon Van de Passe Quotes in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma

The Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma quotes below are all either spoken by Simon Van de Passe or refer to Simon Van de Passe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cultural Myth vs. Historical Fact Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Attanoughskomouck? It was always a struggle to capture an Indian word phonetically, but the word that the English represented elsewhere as “Tsenacomoc(o)”—that is, the Indians’ name for their own country—clearly peeps out of the confusion. […] This rendition was obviously the result of Matoaka’s sound­ing it out for a Dutchman, just as it was undoubtedly the woman herself who insisted on using the name Matoaka rather than her more famous and attention-grabbing nickname, which everyone else was using. She knew Pocahontas was a name for a child; they did not.

Related Characters: Camilla Townsend (speaker), Pocahontas/Amonute/Matoaka/Rebecca , Simon Van de Passe
Related Symbols: Names
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma LitChart as a printable PDF.
Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma PDF

Simon Van de Passe Quotes in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma

The Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma quotes below are all either spoken by Simon Van de Passe or refer to Simon Van de Passe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cultural Myth vs. Historical Fact Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Attanoughskomouck? It was always a struggle to capture an Indian word phonetically, but the word that the English represented elsewhere as “Tsenacomoc(o)”—that is, the Indians’ name for their own country—clearly peeps out of the confusion. […] This rendition was obviously the result of Matoaka’s sound­ing it out for a Dutchman, just as it was undoubtedly the woman herself who insisted on using the name Matoaka rather than her more famous and attention-grabbing nickname, which everyone else was using. She knew Pocahontas was a name for a child; they did not.

Related Characters: Camilla Townsend (speaker), Pocahontas/Amonute/Matoaka/Rebecca , Simon Van de Passe
Related Symbols: Names
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis: