preview

12 Years a Slave movie-analysis Essay

Decent Essays

12 Years a Slave

The movie «12 Years a slave» is based on the book «12 Years a Slave» by Soloman Northup. It's his life story of how he got lured in a trap and kidnapped in 1841. It's about how he was sold into slavery in the south, and what happened during those 12 years a slave .
The movie was released in 2013, but the book was first published in 1853. The setting of the movie was in the US, mostly in the states New York and Louisiana.
The film was directed by Steve McQueen, he's also known for directing the movies «Hunger»(2008) and «Shame»(2011).
I would say that this movie is an example of the genre drama. It's a historical drama film. That is a genre which examines a spesific time in history or group of people. In this case …show more content…

He and others are then put on a boat to Louisiana where they're sold. Soloman is sold to a plantation owner for 1000$, and is sent with him to his home. He works there for quite a while, but there's a conflict between him and one of the «Masters» there, which makes him have to leave to another plantation to work. There's a lot of complications, and he's in the middle of a lot of it. He meets different persons, and one of them is the savior to his 12 year lasting hell. There is a man who helps free Soloman from slavery, who helps him become a free man again.
The movie takes up a lot of subjects. One obvious is slavery. There is also discrimination of women and human trafficking.
When one of the plantation owners talk down to his wife, and treats her like she has nothing to say about stuff, it shows how he thinks of her as less than himself. He discriminates her infront of the slaves.
Human trafficking is because that's what they've did when they kidnapped Soloman and brought him somewhere else to sell him as a slave.
The plot is not presented in a chonological way. It starts off with him as a slave, and then it goes back to how he actually became one.

I found to symbols that I remember most. The first one is when he breaks the violin that he's written his familys name on. I take that as a symbol of him loosing hope. Giving up. He no longer believes he'll get home again, safe with his family.
The second symbol is

Get Access