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12 years a slave analysis
12 years a slave analysis
12 years a slave analysis
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12 Years a Slave The movie 12 Years a Slave, is an exceptional film. It shows how brutal and inhumane American Slavery is. The movie itself is shockingly truthful as to the events that actually happened. There were many scenes that made it hard to not look away from the screen. Along with numerous scenes of trying to hold back tears. This movie is filled with heartache, sorrow, pure utter violence, but also love. There were many amazing actors and actress’ in this movie. Altogether, this film was brilliant. In fact, it has won many awards. Including, an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, and many more outstanding awards. This movie is brutally honest, but well deserved. A free-man was …show more content…
She also frequently told her husband to whip Patsy. As mentioned earlier, Patsy was a slave for Edwin Epps. She was actually one of his best and most effective cotton pickers. At one point, Patsy bribed and begged for Solomon to end her life. She also gave birth to Edwin Epps’ child, from one of his many rapes. Armsby worked along the slaves for a short period of time, because he was a poor alcoholic. Northup entrusted Armsby with a secret in which he gave Armsby money, but proved to be too naïve. Later, Mr. Bass came along to work on the house for Edwin Epps. He was the savoir for Northup, because he held to his word and helped Solomon. The movie really begins when Northup is kidnapped by Merrill Brown, who pretends to be a talented entrepreneur. Merrill Brown and his accomplice, Abram Hamilton, drug Northup and sell him to James H. Burch. Northup, expecting to wake up in his hotel room for the circus show, is sadly mistaken. He immediately tells Burch, that he is a free-slave and that there has been a mistake, but Burch corrects him with his first beating. Afterwards, Northup is then sent on his to Theophilus Freeman. As it was stated earlier, Freeman changes Northup’s name to Platt. William Ford …show more content…
Although, Northup initially had two brutal encounters with Tibeats. The first, when Northup followed his orders, but somehow did not do it right. The second, being when Tibeats gave outrageous demands. This was when Northup fled the premise hoping to run away from his repercussions. Unfortunately, he had to return, because he was unable to survive in the swamp. (http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/17/_12_years_a_slave_true_story_fact_and_fiction_in_mostly_accurate_movie_about.html). The next tiny problem with the film, would be when Epps reads from the bible as to warn the slaves. This was actually from other books, not from Northup’s book. (http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/17/_12_years_a_slave_true_story_fact_and_fiction_in_mostly_accurate_movie_about.html). Patsy never actually asked Northup to take her life, that was completely from the movie. Although, Northup suggests, that she may have wanted to ask that, because she was deep depression, which only death could cure.
Of the given options of films to watch for the extra credit assignment, I chose to watch HBO’s documentary titled the Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives, a production I thought was excellently put together. I was initially apprehensive of the film, thinking it would be extremely boring, but I rather found it to be quite the accessible medium of history both available and appealing to a broad audience including myself. I found the readings of the many slave’s interviews and firsthand accounts to be such a clever way to understand more about the culture of slavery in an uncanted light and it broadened my knowledge of what slavery entailed. The credibility of this film finds its foundations cemented in the undeniable and indisputable
For example, Northup introduces the reader to a slave named Eliza Berry, who was forced to become her master’s lover, as well as to live with him on the condition that she and her children would be emancipated (25). This exemplifies how white men would use their status to sexually harass their female slaves, while avoiding the consequences because no one would believe them, and they were threatened with being whipped if they uttered a word. In addition, Northup introduces another female slave named Patsey, and he states, “Her back bore the scars of a thousand stripes; not because she was backward in her work, nor because she was of an unmindful and rebellious spirit, but because it had fallen to her lot to be the slave of a licentious master…” (116). Overall, this quote corroborates how severe their masters would penalize them both physically and mentally, as well as how unfair they were to
Solomon Northup was one of the few that escaped the grasps of slavery. He wrote his own book, 12 Years a Slave, and even had a movie crea...
The film 12 Years a Slave takes us into a twelve-year window of Solomon Northup’s life. Its origin comes from Solomon Northup’s book, with the same title, that recounts one fragment of America’s most embarrassing exploits. The film was directed by Steve McQueen and was released in the year 2013. The director chose 12 Years a Slave to work with after much searching for non-fictional story that featured a man who was ripped from his family and forced into slavery. Solomon’s story was just that. Many critics have been praised the film and particularly single out Chiwetel Ekiofor’s performance as the best acting of the year (Solomon Northup).
There were some ups and downs to Solomon’s bondage. Northup met many friends along the years, including Eliza and Patsey. Eliza had been with Solomon since nearly the beginning of his trip, and they shared somewhat similar stories. Unfortunately, Eliza passed away due to grief over her children at Ford’s plantation. William Ford had the kindest heart of any of Solomon’s owners, however, due to the dangers of Mr. John Tibeats, Solomon was sold to Master Edwin Epps. At Epps’ plantation, Solomon met Patsey, “queen of the fields.” Epps was a mean spirited man, however there was some happiness to his plantation: it was the last one Solomon would work at in his twelve years of slavery. Mr. Bass, a Canadian carpenter, helped Solomon out of bondage by writing to Northup’s family in the North. After twelve years of hard labor, scarce food, sleepless nights, and fierce punishments, Solomon Northup was once again a free man.
In his true-life narrative "Twelve Years a Slave," Solomon Northup is a free man who is deceived into a situation that brings about his capture and ultimate misfortune to become a slave in the south. Solomon is a husband and father. Northup writes:
In a world where slavery existed, enslaved men and women were becoming more aware of the injustice inflicted upon them because of their skin color. In that world, black people were being forced to migrate, sold, kidnapped and traded in the name of slavery. Slavery was the ultimate business that condemned black men and women’s humanity and freedom. The slaves became the reliable pathway for people of white skin to obtain power and prosperity. Obtaining freedom was not an option but more of a necessity not only for the slaves but also for all their descendants. The enslaved men were put in a situation where their pride of masculinity was taken away from them. Eventually, there came a time when rebellious slaves strived to conquer what white men had stolen from them, what made them true men, their virility. With no rights, the enslaved men were completely being stripped of their masculinity, which was to men the main factor of being a true man. The white men impertinently build a sense of self-esteem by keeping their masculinity and thriving from the slaves’ pain. The movie “12 years a slave” portrays the idea that manhood was a concept important
This move talks about Sulaiman Northup. He was a black freeman who worked as a carpenter and violinist. He had a wife and two daughters in Saratoga in New York in 1841. One day tow men offered to Sulaiman job as a musician for tow weeks. The was working in circus in Washington for 1$ per day and 3$ every show. He was eating dinner with the two men, but they put anesthetic in his drink. The next day he week up and he has tied with chains. They gave him another name is Platt and he was fugitive from Georgia. He was sold by Theophilus to the owner of a farm named William Ford. Sulaiman was able to have a good relationship with Ford, but Joe Pitts was upset by Sulaiman and he begins to harassed him.
The topic of slavery in the United States has always been controversial, as many people living in the South were supportive of it and many people living in the North were against it. Even though it was abolished by the Civil War before the start of the 20th century, there are still different views on the subject today. Written in 1853, the book Twelve Years a Slave is a first person account of what it was like for Solomon Northup to be taken captive from his free life in the North and sold to a plantation as a slave in the South, and his struggle to regain his freedom. Through writing about themes of namelessness, inhumanity, suffering, distrust, defiance, and the desire for freedom, Northup was able to expose the experiences and realities of slavery.
In Solomon Northup’s narrative, 12 years a slave, he shares a story of the horrors of his past that was a lifelong reality to many African Americans throughout American history. Northup, being a free man of Saratoga, New York, was stripped of his freedom and sold ‘down the river’ to the Bayou Boeuf of Louisiana and was bound to slavery for twelve years. Along with recounting the gruesome hardships and labor that he had to endure, Northup also gives detailed accounts of the lives of fellow slaves that he comes across, primarily, women. Northup’s narrative allows readers to see that the hardships that slave women experienced by far surpassed anything that a slave man could endure. Stripped of their families, beaten relentlessly and forever victims
The term “The Help” according to dictionary.com means the action of helping someone to do something. Which refers to the duty of a person that helps keep a household clean and organized. Back when racism was still openly accepted by society, black women were the only candidates available for this type of job, because it was very difficult for them to find jobs. The job of being “The Help” in the house for rich white folks includes taking care of the kids, the house, and worry about preparing 3 meals a day for the white family they work for. The term of “The Help” doesn’t exist anymore in today’s world, well at least nobody uses that team for it anymore, instead in today’s society it is refer to as a Nanny. And instead of it being just an occupation for just one race, it has taken a turn and now it could be any race.
Throughout this course we learned about slavery and it's effects on our country and on African Americans. Slavery and racism is prevalent throughout the Americas before during and after Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Some people say that Jefferson did not really help stop any of the slavery in the United States. I feel very differently and I will explain why throughout this essay. Throughout this essay I will be explaining how views of race were changed in the United States after the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, and how the events of the Jeffersonian Era set the stage for race relations for the nineteenth century.
War and political strife will always leave a mark, no matter who, what, or where it makes contact with. In the novel, “When the Emperor was Divine”, the family depicted were heavily affected by Executive Order 9066 and the prejudice of Japanese-Americans, and were sent to internment camps for the remainder of the war. When they were finally released from their dreadful camp, their lives had profoundly changed, and their situation became something that could not be reversed nor forgotten. In the pre-Civil War days of America, many African-Americans were victims of the legalization of slavery in the South. They were often abused and mistreated, and forced to work without pay. In the film “12 Years a Slave”, a free man, Solomon Northup, was kidnapped and sold into slavery. His life took a change for the worst as he
Slavery was an exceedingly common practice in American society throughout the Nineteenth century. Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and former slave, writes of the dehumanization and cruelty toward slaves in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. As a slave, Douglass endured intolerable levels of cruelty from his slaveholders, as well as white society as a whole. (one more sentence?). Douglass utilizes simile, anaphora, irony, juxtaposition and antithesis to present his hardships and experiences as a slave to clarify how the system of slavery has corrupted slaves, slaveholders, and Christianity.
...e he missed in hardship. Throughout the book, the author Solomon Northup created Solomon Northup, the main character as a very friendly person. The way he described Northup’s journey, the reader can feel sympathy for him. Solomon Northup race, being black, an important role. He is mistreated because he was black. His narrative served as an important cultural symbol of slave life on southern plantations during antebellum America. There is not much described about his physical appearance, but readers can definitely say that he has a beautiful heart. If you ask me, I think Solomon Northup is not less a hero.