Assignment about Analysis on Twelve Years a Slave

Running head: ENGLISH
English
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Twelve Years a Slave is a remarkable movie which is based on 1853 slave memoir of
Solomon Northup as he accounts for his own experiences through his writing. He was a free
African American man who was born in New York but was kidnapped by two Conmen in
Washington, who sold him to the slave traders (Alfred, Natsir & Setyowati, 2017). The film is
directed by Steve McQueen while John Ridley has written the screen play. In this paper, the
movie would be analyzed with respect to various nuances which have been depicted
cinematographically as well as symbolically, through the phenomenal movie.
The movie is a moving piece of account for how Solomon’s life changes after he was
sold to the slave owners. The narrative of the movie has been developed meticulously since he
was kidnapped in Antebellum (Astiantih, 2018). The life that follows is very barbaric as he lives
a life of a nigger who is harshly treated by the owners. The length and the composition of the
movie are noteworthy for what the movie depicts. From the very beginnings, the audience are
mesmerized and intimidates as the slaves gather in the sugarcane field who are tired of their
horrific experiences yet resolute while they look right at the camera, and the audience is already
aware that the movie has a different story to tell.
The movie depicts lives of the slaves, alongside Solomon, who, much like him are
kidnapped and sold to the slave traders. These slaves are made to serve not only on ships but also
at homes of the while people, who are owners of the slave traders or belong to high society and
owned slaves who worked for them and also at their household. A very harrowing picture of the
slave trade is shown, as the slaves are checked for their fitness and health, whether or not they
are appropriate for being sold as they would be made to perform various harsh activities
(Simanjuntak, 2015). Men and women alike were checked thoroughly without any closing to
decide prices of each slaves so that buyers could engage in the negotiation to bargain for the

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slave of their choice. It even shows how children were also sold, as Randall and Emily Berry are
put on sale, along with their own mother. The slave trade shows the merciless and tormenting
side of the business which continued for centuries. The theme of separation has been depicted
very hauntingly as the children are separated from the mother despite kindness of the owner as a
slave trader purposely done the deed to assert his power. The cries disturb the audience as the
mother is separated.
The movie accounts for the barbaric practice of slave trade which continued for centuries
as the white men thought themselves to be superior from the blacks and thus, they could assert
their power over them and civilize them too (Jones, 2015). The slave trades exploited the African
Americans and denied them humility and humanity reducing them to commodity to be traded.
The slaves were traded like consumer items, of which, prices were determined on the basis of the
worth and purpose it would serve and then be traded for utilization. It is tragic as the haunting
depiction in the movie is not dystopic, unreal or fictional, but very real. It depicted the real life
picture of the contemporary times when Solomon was too a slave and were subjected to
merciless torture and treated like commodities by the slave traders. The narrative and depiction
preserves the haunting reality which the slaves were made to live through. The audience
recognize the practices to be human and barbaric and yet they know how real all of the accounts
are. The Africans were sold for their servitude, which they owed to the white men, for their
whiteness and superiority while the blacks were treated like animals or inanimate objects (Jones,
2015). Slave trades tore families apart and even erased thousands of family and their existence
from history with the barbarism which they were subjected to.
The scenes of the movie demonstrate the practices in a very convincing manner as the
slaves suffered not just physically but mentally too, as their identities were scrapped off too.