johnny appleseed

The story of Johnny Appleseed is best know to most people in the way Disney's version tells the story: A religious and patriotic man, living his life to help others with an almost childlike innocence. Johnny is portrayed as a man who has devoted his life not only to the growing and cultivation of apples, but also to the earth in general, the first man who the animals need not fear, who respects nature and everything about it. This American hero is a friend to all, and his name is known by many, in the video because he uses his apple trees to help feed the pioneers, who would be lost without his apples, which they show being used in things like apple pie. The Disney version is pretty different form the Pollen's version of Johnny Appleseed, a man who made quite a profit from his apple trees, and who planted them mostly to gain posession of the land. Different, too, is the portrayal of the actual apple. Pollen insists that the only thing the apple would have been used for before grafting ( or without it, at least) was alcoholic cider, not exactly the wholesome apple pie shown in the Disney version. Absent from Disney's version, in addition to the bits about the alcoholic cider and the profiteering is any mention of the rumors that Johnny Appleseed had a child bride ( or intended to have). Obviously, Disney's audience ( young children) would certainly limit the amount of torrid facts or insinuations they could mention. Pollen, on the other hand, is writing for a much older and less naive audience, so facts and even rumors make the cut. Obviously the two versions are very different, but they both show Johnny Appleseed as someone who, intentions aside, helped make the apple what it is today.