Othello's Thoughts by Nasya King

Othello's jealous rage did not all come at once, rather it was more of a descent into madness. In the beginning of the play it is revealed to the audience that Othello is cool headed and wise. HIs experiences as a soldier have created a sense of peace within him even in the presence of danger. When Brabantio called him out for bewitching his daughter, Othello could have been killed. However, he remained completely collected and simply told his story, which landed everyone on his side and left Brabantio alone in his entreat to punish Othello. When the Turkish attack was announced, fought, and won there was still no sign of extreme emotion from the brave soldier who’d fought cave cannibals and won many wars. However, all men have a weakness, and usually it is women and pride. When it came to Desdemona Othello became like a love sick puppy. He would always express his happiness at the sight of her, and through his words we see that Desdemona is one of the only people who does not judge or ask for favors from Othello. Their love for each other was pure and stronger than Brabantio’s anger, or the racist attitudes about Othello. However, this all changed once Iago began to advise Othello of Desdemona’s supposed disloyalty. With no proof (“yet”) whatsoever, Othello begins to not only believe Iago, but torment himself over those beliefs. AS stated above though, it didn’t happen all at once. In the beginning Othello Othello's jealous rage did not all come at once, rather it was more of a descent into madness. In the beginning of the play it is revealed to the audience that Othello is cool headed and wise. HIs experiences as a soldier have created a sense of peace within him even in the presence of danger. When Brabantio called him out for bewitching his daughter, Othello could have been killed. However, he remained completely collected and calmly explained how it was his bravery, and smooth voice that enchanted her. That and a sense of loneliness that was kind of sad. This supports why Othello felt so betrayed by Desdemona; he was able to keep everyone out of his personal life and his out of everyone’s. Desdemona was invited to share his hearts desires, pains, and grief; yet still she betrayed him. In Othello’s eyes this betrayal was evidence of the reason he didn’t let many people too close. He started out an introverted, calculated soldier, and ended up an aggressive, murderer.

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A Beloved Slave - Nasya King

The film Twelve Years a Slave is actually an adaptation of the book written by the man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The book version is a lot more detailed and matter of fact, but the movie, like most movies, is about the images and the emotions they evoke, not the facts. That is not to say the facts are not all there, but there tends to be a new bulk of slave movies coming out. This most people find pleasing because the movies raise awareness of what happened during times of slavery. However, that idea does not always materialize because people go see the movie and think that is where black people belong. (no not in slavery) They belong in a constant state of remembering and acknowledging their past as slaves and how to come up from that past. Most see the movie as a way to come up from the past and influence everyone to treat each other equally. The issue is that black people were around way before slavery, and any other people for that matter. They were kings and queens, genius inventors, doctors, scientists, and artists before those words were even created. In the article “Twelve Years a Slave”: Analyzing Slave Narratives on http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/twelve-years-slave-analyzing-slave-narrativesTwelve years a slave had one scene in the beginning and one in the end of Solomon with his family, then a mother getting her children sold. The movie actually just highlighted the known facts about slavery, and what does that accomplish? Those who see how terrible it is will think "I would never do that," or "it's a good tthing they're free now!" But the current state of black people is not better than the conditions of slavery. Maybe physically less tortuous. Instead the minds of black people are being either brainwashed or denied any initial stimulation at all. That is worse than physical slavery because in the mind of that black man he is not enslaved. That mental barrier is a factor Beloved holds to be somewhat true of slavery and post slavery. Morrison focuses more on the actual humanness of her characters which allows people to see real human struggles rather than one blanket of oppression that blacks were once under, but aren't anymore.

In Beloved, Morrison uses Sethe’s resistance to remember the bad things that occurred at Sweet Home as the mental block. Without thinking about such things as her milk being stolen or the bodies hanging from the beautiful trees. The prevention of these thoughts create a constant inner battle in Sethe. She wants her children to know about life and the world, but can’t tell them about her personal experiences with one of the most dangerous institutions in the world for her children to encounter. As a result, Sethe can never really nurture and help her children develop because repressing those memories daily only makes them pop back up at the most emotionally heightened times such as when your child is crying and needs advice. In Twelve Years, however, it was the opposite. Solomon was a very smart slave because, we assume, he was a freeman, and they are allowed to learn how to read and write. The issue with that is, all of that is mostly common knowledge or common sense. The Twelve Years a Slave characterization of slavery is surface level. It was basically a series of scenes where there was whipping, some type of abuse, or the great white shark (the white man that seeks out a black man who has skills and talents that exceed his own so he devotes his entire life to that black man to seemingly help him, but is really just riding on their hard work while they keep up appearances and make sure no other white people kill him) was hunting or had already captured the talented little dolphin that is Solomon. SO basically, slavery was bad because people got hurt, and then; oh now we can all be happy because one black man is getting out of the situation with the help of an amazing white angel. This almost happens three times in Twelve Years and it kept failing because the great white shark who gave Solomon help by way of privileges and the one who told him he’d send his letter were just using him. At least in Beloved Toni Morrison makes it clear that although Sweet Home was somewhat of a good life for a slave, it was far from a good life. Film directors should take advice from Morrison about how to portray the real depth of the lives of black people during and post slavery, instead of just slapping a bunch of gory scenes about physical pain together; which is only the surface of slaves suffered. Physical oppression couldn’t stop a lot of them, definitely not a pregnant and scarred Sethe.