Notes 2 & 3

“You can own the earth and still,

 All you’ll own is earth until

You can paint with all the colors of the wind.”

            In the clip and song “Colors of the Wind” from the Disney movie “Pocahontas”, the soft whispering wind blends with vibrant brushstroke illustrations to symbolize the intangible beauty of nature. As Pocahontas  tries to convince John Smith to treat the Earth properly, she sings about the wonders of nature. Accompanied by a gentle murmuring wind, she mellifluously sings of images of nature such as “hidden pine trails of the forest” and “sun sweet berries of the earth.” With these literal images, the movie illustrates colorful landscapes and vivid environments. However, Pocahontas not only describes visual images, but also imperceptible concepts of nature such as “the voices of the mountains” and  “the colors of the wind.” Because wind lacks visual color and mountains do not speak, she suggests that the wind and the mountains exemplify a greater theme  that not everything beautiful can be seen. By expressing wind as a force of nature both magnificent and invisible, Pocahontas conveys the idea that nature is complicated and not simply something humans can manipulate and use.

“No one can tell me,

Nobody knows,

Where the wind comes from,

Where the wind goes.”

          A. A. Milne’s “Wind on the Hill” depicts wind as a mysterious force that is impossible to capture.  The repeated phrase “where the wind goes” demonstrates alliteration that emphasizes the wispy nature of the quiet wind blowing over the hill. At the same time, when the wind “flying…as fast as it can” is described with the use of alliteration, a sense of urgency emerges. The narrator’s incapability to keep up with the wind emphasizes it’s intangibility, while the conflicting tones of quiet and hurried contribute to the mystery of the wind itself. The narrator’s confusion toward where the wind comes from and why he can not keep up with it establishes his inferiority to the greater forces of nature.