The Reality Of Slavery In The Movie: 12 Years A Slave

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In the film 12 Years a Slave, director Steve McQueen does a wonderful job of communicating to his audience the reality of slavery by portraying a true story in the form of movie scenes. Through the main actor Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance, who plays the character Solomon Northup, we witness a complete change in a man’s life as Solomon becomes a slave, when he was once originally a free man (12 Years a Slave). Solomon was deceived by two white men name Hamilton (Taran Killam) and Brown (Scoot McNairy), who betrayed him by convincing Solomon to come to Washington for a temporary sufficient paying job as a violinist(12 Years a Slave). However, instead of landing the job, Solomon was forced into slavery (12 Years a Slave). This particular film reveals Solomon’s experiences struggling to live peacefully as a slave due to constant humiliation, which is a hardship common for nearly all the slaves he encountered. Furthermore, the movie also emphasizes the experiences and journey of another main actor name Lupita Nyong’o, who plays the role of Patsey. In the movie, Patsey was born into slavery and faces hardships as a female slave, mainly dealing with oppression from her male owner Edwin Epps (Micheal Fassbender) (12 Years a Slave). Personally, I found this movie extremely heartbreaking because it was sad watching white owners treat their black slaves horribly due to the ideals of racism. Racism is portrayed throughout the entire film in order for McQueen to successfully share this true story and allow his audience to understand how inhumane slavery really was through Solomon and Patsey’s experiences. When trying to understand these particular characters’ experiences, it is very important to consider their worldviews, which promote “[th... ... middle of paper ... ...ept wondering what Patsey would’ve done next as Solomon strode away (12 Years a Slave), but McQueen decided to end the focus on Patsey while all my questions still revolved around this innocent slave, who will never be free. Although unsettling, this decision to leave the ends loose and open-ended keeps the conversation of slavery and its cruelty open for audience members to reflect on and think about even after the movie has ended. Perhaps the decision to lead one man to his family and leave another girl in the hands of her slave owners reinforces the idea that the practice of slavery and the experiences of each individual slave are personalized and their worldviews shaped by their unique upbringing. McQueen challenges us to question an institution and practice that people assume they understand already through the two characters’ Solomon and Patsey’s experiences.

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