What it be vs. what we see … Johnny Appleseed.

Disney aims to tell a great story of a real American hero and role model, Johnny (Appleseed) Chapman, to young children with the hope to inspire them (to maybe appreciate nature). Although Mr. Chapman was real, and his apple trees were real, Disney doesn’t mention some truths Michael Pollan retrieved through his journey when researching the story of the Apple. People along the frontier (as it moved west) did appreciate and know of Johnny Appleseed, but for different reasons. We learn that most of Johnny’s apples went into a bottle of cider, and not served in those yummy foods Disney describes such as apple pies, fritters, cakes, and etc. So people really appreciated the apples because of the alcohol it provided, and some people even deemed it healthier than water. They took Johnny Appleseed in and we want to see it from Johnny’s eyes to see the difference between Pollan’s and Disney’s perceptions. From Disney’s perception, Johnny did stumble across small communities, but he was modest about it. He told his animal friends that he didn’t have the time to receive gratitude from the people because he has to go off planting more trees. In real life, I would presume that Johnny was welcomed into people’s home to sleep and relax. Basically, it wasn’t all about the apples in real life. It was also about the “privileges” that came along with being a hero such as free meals here and there and a place to stay for the night.

Pollan also mentions a rather interesting fact about the apples and humans co-evolving with each other. It is true that we only see it as a one way thing where we benefit from the apples (and everything else we favor to grow), but we are really helping them out big time too. The apples “know” that they need to be on our good side to survive, so generations pass by and they adapt, according to Darwin, to our needs. This is because mankind basically controls the world and we say what grows or what gets chopped down, so in a sense, apples adapted their genes in the way that we would favor them. And not only do we favor them, but we also help continue to distribute their seeds and keep their species alive.

Pollan uses his story of traveling to Ohio to persuade us into reconsidering the world’s view of Johnny Appleseed as a hero, to Johnny Chapman as another guy who saw a profit in growing apples. He has that advantage because he did actually go and find the real Johnny Chapman. He also tells us truthfully that he’s not saying that he’s right, but we can judge ourselves that what he found out was more right than what Disney tells us. After analyzing and pondering about Pollan’s trip, and reconsidering what Disney has to show about Mr. Chapman, I think that Pollan’s assumption is truer than Disney. This is because Pollan can back his facts up and I now see Disney as another Bill Jones in Pollan’s book. (Bill Jones is just someone who wants to make money off of Appleseed by giving people what they want to hear, just another great story.)