There is always the question of how someone can make a film out of a real true story. For some film makers they would embellish a good key parts of the story in order to have film goers become excited or shocked, an example would be probably any ‘this is a true story’ tag that comes up with horror films that when examining the real facts aren’t as scary or as real as the film is. With Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, it takes the true story of a freeman who was captured and as the title suggests, kept as a slave for twelve years. The core concepts of this narrative are the same although there are things that are added to the film that weren’t in the novel in order to illustrate the aftermaths of slavery and the small conflict of male white owners and female black slaves, which is a small section of the white masters as a whole in the film. The relationship or lack there of between Epps and Patsey is the important section that is included in the white master and black slave conflict.
From the interview between McQueen and Gates they do talk about Patsey and the rape scene that has her and Epps together. What is stated in this interview is that the portrayal of Epps is to illustrate the complexity of white masters in the South, the main point of this complexity is in the situation of both people being the victims the one who is the perpetrator and the other the victim. McQueen does mention on the character of Epps while “he’s horrible, disgusting, but - why is he in love
Slavery is a very immoral act that started in 1692. Everyone in this current day of age knows it is completely wrong. The people were treated unfairly and were viewed as unintelligent animals. The Slave Narrative of Frederick Douglass and 12 Years a Slave are very precise on how people were treated and what really happened at that time. The Slave Narrative of Frederick Douglass is about a slave that lives his life a slave and goes through many horrific acts. Throughout his life he teaches himself how to read and write, also to educate himself to become an intelligent human being that lived most of his life as a slave. The move 12 Years a Slave is about free black man in the North who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. So he was an intelligent man that became a slave. For 12 years he lived a life as a slave and worked for many different masters. After 12 years of being
It was a hard scene to watch, and was hard to watch Edwin repeatedly whoop a naked Patsey and see her crying and in a lot of pain. It was even harder to see Edwin’s face and to see how much strength he was putting into whipping Patsey. The website U.S. History Scene said that, “Patsey’s story represented the brutality of slavery experienced by bondswomen” (Lieblich 1). The film portrayed the “brutality of slavery” in a historically accurate way by showing the slave owners beating their slaves and treating them terribly. “At the hands of white men, Northup made clear, black women were sexually and physically exploited with impunity during slavery. The normalization of sexual exploitation of slave women reflected the racist perceptions and stigmatization of black women” (Lieblich, 1). This shows the realism of the film during the scene where Edwin rapes Patsey. It was not an easy scene to watch, but it depicted the historical accuracy of the times by showing the “sexual exploitation of slave women” especially black slave women (Lieblich,
“Men and women can't be friends, because sex always gets in the way”, is the main theme of the movie “When Harry met Sally”. The script is a good example of the interpersonal communication ten stage model by Mark Knapp. This developmental model entails the stages of a relationship from it’s infancy to an ending. In the movie we can clearly identify all ten stages of this model.
The film, “the Power of One,” followed the life of a boy named P.K. from a small child to a handsome young man. It showed all the hardship and tragedy he had to endure throughout his life. Although the movie could have focused more on the apartheid, it instead portrayed the vulgarity of those times through the eyes of an English boy. As time went on, P.K. slowly began to realize the full severity of the apartheid. It was difficult for a child to comprehend how horribly people could treat one another for no apparent reason.
Solomon Northup describes Patsy, as, “excoriated. 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 and a jealous mistress.”( 189, Northup) The ordeals that Patsey endured were heart wrenching, things that she went through should have drove her insane. In fact, the horrors and heartbreak drove Pastey to endure no
The film 12 Years is an accurate and verifiable account of the common slave experience in the United States in the antebellum South. 12 Years a Slave is set in the mid to late 1800s and tells a true life story of the life of Solomon Northup a free Black man sold south into slavery. He was the son of an emancipated slave. Northup was from upstate New York, and was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Northup lived, worked, and was married in upstate New York, where his family resided. He was a multifaceted laborer and also an accomplished violin player. He was subjected to the cruelty for the next twelve years while he survived as the human property of several different slave masters, He continually struggled to survive and maintain some of his dignity. Then in the 12th year of the disheartening ordeal, a chance meeting with an abolitionist from Canada he was was finally freed and is taken home. After being unsuccessful in prosecuting his kidnappers, Northup continues upriver to New York, where he is finally reunited with his family and where he meets his grandson, Solomon Northup Staunton, for the first time. In the end, Northup gives one final, powerful argument against the evils of the slave industry, pointing not to rhetoric or debates, but lifting up his own life story as a vivid commentary for viewers to consider. The main idea of the book was to share with the reader and give
In the novel, 12 years a slave, Bass's friendly conversation with Epps leads to his opinion
The first movie to discuss is 12 Years A Slave. Three details to be discussed for this film are: Solomon being captured as a free black man and being sold back into slavery, harsh treatment of slaves, and Solomon finally being rescued by his friends proving he was a free man and bringing him back to his New York home. These details reflect multiple social contexts such as: race relations and social inequality. As for race relations, the relations between whites and blacks during this time of slavery were very corrupt. Whites marginalized African Americans in a way whites believed that they were insignificant or not as important as them, hence the reasoning for having them as slaves. Slavery also depicted social inequality as the whites viewed
The slave owner was in charge of everything when Epps was gone, his wife would take over and would tell Solomon to wipe her but Solomon could use epps name to refuse by him saying “I would refuse, saying that I feared my master’s displeasure, and several times ventured to remonstrate (vigorously object) with her against the treatment Patsey received. “ even if the wife wanted to beat patsy there was limitation to what she can do to her.When Patsey came back from seeing Harriet, Epps went a full rage on her and demanded Solomon to wipe her and even if her flesh was showing Epps was not satisfied and his wife was standing on the piazza watching with her kid.The other slaves nor solomon could not stop Epps from whipping her.This kind of gender
Not that any kind of slave owner was morally correct, but 12 Years a Slave shows the different kind of slave owners and interesting relationships they had with slaves while some were treated not as poorly as others. A slave owner named Ford brings up a different side of slave ownership and shows a substantial contrast between how he treats his slaves and how master Epps treats his. He’s a slave master, but he doesn’t personally beat anyone, and he has some sympathy for the plight of the lead character, Solomon Northup. Even more interestingly, Ford is seen as 'good' in Northup's eyes because he doesn't practice any of the cruelties and physical abuses quite usual and even acceptable in that time and place and because he is genuinely devout and sees his slaves as his equals before God. Not only did some slave owners treat their slaves better than others, but some men who owned slaves used them as sexual partners. For example, Eliza in the film is a female slave who is sexually abused by her master Edwin Epps and becomes his mistress. The most disturbing part is that Eliza becomes the mistress of her master because she is promised freedom for herself and her children if she will live Epps after his separation from his wife. Another female slave named Harriet is kept also kept as a mistress, of Master Shaw, a nearby farm owner. She plays along with the master’s affection as long as it continues to help her
12 Years a Slave was an outstanding representation of the lives of a slave. It was accurate, heartfelt, and detailed. It portrays the feelings of Solomon and the other slaves perfectly. The film really makes you think about the people and the situation back in the 1840’s. It is an exceptional historical film that teaches you the slavery times and the life of Solomon Northup. A freeman turned to a slave and put through a terrible life experience that no one should ever have to go
There are several personal slavery narratives that account of all the horrors of slavery. An example is Solomon Northup’s autobiography, 12 Years a Slave, which provides a personal account of slavery, all the violent and gory aspects that enslavement holds, and the terrible acts of people who dishonored the attributes of a true American. Northup describes in vivid detail the dreadful actions committed against him. Published in 1853, the autobiography has lost momentum over the years, but was recently revived by Steve McQueen’s 2013 film adaptation.
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 .
“We cannot solve our problem with the same thinking, we used when we created them”. ‘Proof’ the play and movie is all about love, trust and relation. Catherin was very close to her father Robert and after his death she is missing her father in every bit of second. Another daughter Claire who lived in New York and not close to her father so she didn’t have much feeling for her father as Catherin. In Chicago, on the day of her twenty-seventh birthday, Catherine receives her sister Claire from New York for the funeral of their father Robert, who passed away a couple of days before. Robert was a brilliant mathematician that became bughouse, and Catherine had lived with him for the last five years, inclusive quitting her studies in the faculty, and she is concerned about having inherited his insanity. Catherin the main character of this film who is a mathematical genius but her talent was hidden. She is very frustrated and hopeless due to her recently father’s death. She adjusts to his father death with the help of one of her father's former mathematical students, who
Before the Reconstruction which took place after the Civil War, many slaves began to acquire their freedom by many things, including escaping plantations, buying their freedom, or being granted freedom from their former owners. Once slaves entered the North, they were able to finally be seen as a free African American. The thing that scared African Americans the most, frequently happened, being sent back to the South into slavery. 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup gives a recap of how his life, filled with joy and freedom one day, became a living nightmare the next. Northup, a self-taught, master violin player is fooled into traveling with “gentlemen” to share his talents for a small fortune. Leaving his family behind, he decides to go with the men and once he reaches New York City, the men convince Northup to travel to Washington D.C. Solomon soon began feeling sick and one day wakes up chained in a cell. Next thing he knows, he is being sold into slavery. He lives a life of a slave for twelve years until he is rescued by Henry B. Northup, who saves Solomon while he was working in the field. Once back in his own home, Solomon writes an autobiography of his experiences. After many decades, a historical movie retelling Solomon’s autobiography was released. Throughout the movie, many differences are present. For example, the wife of Solomon’s master was portrayed to be an evil woman in the movie, but in the book not so evil. Another example is while slaves did not fight back