Theme Of Stereotypes In The Birth Of A Nation

D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation,” initially titled “The Clansmen,” did little to refute the prejudice undertone of post civil war america. Constructed from a novel by Thomas Dixon Jr., the film nearly deemed the emancipation of slavery a mistake which displaced the construction of society ­ a mistake that could only be corrected by stainless sheet wearing vigilantes born of the film who bore the name, the Klu Klux Klan. The civil war was thought to start the momentum of a turned leaf in the United States; however, “The Birth of Nation” brought reconstruction to a screeching halt, revealing the hatred present in America and reverting American opinion back more than fifty years to antebellum times. Whilst doing so, the film

Character within the film exemplify many stereotypical roles. One being the happy slave. The jolly slave has no formal name, but it does portray the false contentedness of plantation life that was abruptly taken from Southerners during the Civil War. However, where the happy slave stereotype differentiates from conventional belief in this film is how the African Americans are not slaves. They are separated into two groups, one being the “faithful blacks” and the other being the “ancestral enemy.” The faithful blacks were “The Birth of the Nation’s” version of the happy slaves. These were the African Americans who supported the white regime of power. Everett Carter speaks of this praised stereotype present in antebellum times in Cultural History Written with

The film also successfully creates a significant racial disparity within the United States that, at the time, was hoped for. Many people claim that the makes of the film were ruthless racist and devoted white supremacists, which contributed to the success of the film; however, in order for any opinion to be as successful as, “The Birth of a Nation”, it has to