What is the central message of dances with wolves?

Answer 1

The central message of Dances with Wolves is more ineffable than many films of the 1990s. While it has to do with many themes such as the encroachment of civilization upon nature or a romanticized look at native Americans at its pure core the film is teaching that the only way to truly understand something, with its faults and all, is to become that thing. The most similar film I've ever seen to Dances is probably the towering epic Lawrence of Arabia. Neither Dunbar or Lawrence seems to really fit into their respective societies. But they also do not fit into the new societies they find themselves in even though they greatly appreciate and become deeply involved in these new societies. Lawrence never finds consolation, partly because he doesn't really want to. Dunbar does but not in the society itself, he finds it in a person who like him does not belong to one world in particular. Stands with a Fist is also white like him and even though she has spent most of her life with the tribe of Indians she does not really belong to them. She and Dunbar create a sort of tribe within the tribe together. And this is where the film's true profoundness lies. Because what we see is that in order to understand you have to become the thing you seek to understand but you will never be that thing. Everybody is different. Even the people within the tribe. They are individuals living in a communal society. Nobody is exactly like anybody else. And this is where much of the beauty of humanity resides in a connected uniqueness. We are all connected and we are all unique. Which is one of reasons why Lawrence fails in the end. Even though he becomes a part of the Arab world he never connects to anyone in it, not really anyway. He never connects to anyone really. But Dunbar becomes Dances with Wolves and marries stands with a fist all while wearing some of his old calvary clothes. He never completely gives up his U.S. identity and never entirely embraces his new found Native American identity. But he has understood this new world and remains connected to it.