Analysis Of 12 Years A Slave

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In 2013, McQueen1released his movie 12 Years a Slave, which was based on the life of a 19th-century slave Solomon Northup’s. Nonetheless, despite overwhelming response from the public, the movie has elicited trivial attention within academia and is not yet declared as a subject of critical scholarship. The movie presents accounts of common experience by slaves in the United States in the pre-Civil War era. It incorporates basic facts about peoples’ experience, the living conditions, and daily practices in an excessively detailed way. Northup’s details the abuse endured by the slaves ranging from beating, hanging and whipping. Notably, the core value of the movie 12 Years a Slave serves as a warning to all generations that slavery adversely affects all parties involved. While the slave suffers from physical, spiritual and …show more content…

12 Years a Slave is an indication power within human spirit and enduring hope. Notwithstanding the fact that Solomon Northup is kidnapped, beaten and denied his rights, he was still hopeful that one day he would become a free man. He was hopeful that if his friends in the North new about his ordeal will definitely come to his rescue. Ultimately, based on his testimony, it is indeed true that hope, faith and determination can lead to jubilation at the end. However, McQueen’s movie split fundamentally by attempting to create and replicate slaves’ trauma and violence through what is termed as “realistic images”. Framed by what is no there using realistic images, the movie 12 Years of a Slave portrays instability of representation and impossibly recreates lived ordeal of the slaves and their traumatization. In light to this, the paper endeavors to analyze paradoxical ambiguity on use of realist images in McQueen’s movie, 12 Years a Slave in representation of trauma and violence of slaves and prevailing discourses concerning the

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