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.
