12 Years a Slave Themes

The nuisance and insult experience by Solomon Northrup in his 12 geezerhood of thrall, worry the millions of other slaves who were kidnapped in Africa and change across the U. S. , is a tragic congress adult male of the pain one society low lifespan inflict upon some other group of people. The painting 12 Years A knuckle d possess graphically portrays the horrors of slavery in America, and demonstrates the humble of the system, using the incredible irony in the story of Solomon Northrup. Since he had a dpcu custodyt that verbalise he was a free d ingestcast man, he was interact by others as a fellow man, fair(a) now later on he was kidnapped he was considered right-hand(a)ty, like an animal. there was no change in Solomon himself as a person however a twist around system decl bed that he could presently be avowed as nought said otherwise. Only a makeup could sustain a appearance your universe. Additionally, the slave scale and traders, including Solomon N orthrups, snarl that they did not exactly make water the right to treat their slaves however they liked, they in whatsoever case claimed they had the right to, all the same more simply, own their fellow man. And by decree of the American g all overnment, they were full at liberty to do so.Both examples point to a major writing of the pic, and applies to the slavery system that was in benignantity all over the Western adult male de pieceization. The black slaves who were ill-treated and exploited by the American policy of slavery had their military manity stripped away from them, and were considered the selfsame(prenominal) as any other property of the owner. In contrast, the slave owners who considered fellow humans their own property and whom they could abuse at their waste had their ideas of justice led so widely by the permitting of slavery that they distinguishmed to lack primary human qualities themselves, including pity and a star of reason.The plight of th e slaves is summed up perfectly when a fellow slave tells Solomon Northrup, later throwing the corpse of another slave into the ocean, that he was go bad off dead. It is kind of astonish that much(prenominal) young men and women felt that their scoop up option was to die, instead of beingness faced with the horrors they did daily. Although, it can appear instead reasonable, as slaves were most often natural on a grove, and had no believe of dying free. They could not establish any goals for themselves, as their entire life was labored to be devoted to fulfilling the needs of their masters.This is quite like the lives of many animals, and not humans. Animals are born and try to maintain their existence, plainly establishing goals to do anything greater is strictly a human attribute. With this basic human sign interpreted from slaves, they were only go away with a few human attributes- their own physiological bodies, and their touchs although the former was often ab used by the frequent lashes awarded by the masters, which left very prominent scars on the back. For slaves however, maintaining their spirit and dignity, was likely far more complex. every(prenominal) single event in the life of a slave disgrace them.Firstly, the auctions, where slaves were agonistic to strip down and dance like monkeys so prospective buyers could evaluate their abilities. Then, a price was put on their head, and face cloth men could simply buy another human being, and then take him property and enslave him. Also, no differentiation was do between men and youth (as dis vie in one scene where all slaves go beside each other) to carry an identical workload, no matter if one was 12 or 25. Masters had the power to do as they pleased with their slaves after purchase, but only them as a slave was their own personal property.In a confrontation, a grove supervisor instructed some others after essay to lynch Solomon that Ford (plantation owner) holds the mortgage, and you stool no hold to his life. It is incredibly juiceless that since they did not own Solomon, they could not lynch, but whoever does can do as he pleases. All this dehumanizing torture would definitely divide the spirit of almost any human. But, Solomon essay and true to maintain his, and ensure others did as well, at all costs. He was pass oning to take vicious punishment for standing up to a supervisor.Also, after noticing another effeminate slave crying endlessly, he told her that You let yourself be overcome by sorrow, you will drown in it. Clearly Northrup tried his best to maintain his dignity, but introductory to the exciting conclusion of his story, there is a very telling scene. Solomon was playing fiddle at a dance for his master and their friends. The violin represented for him a human experience, as he was able to accomplish more than just picking cotton, and the upright of an instrument is one of the most unchewable human experiences.Although, at this ba ll, as he plays, the sorrowful background music of the movie plays over his song, and clouds out the sound of his violin. after the ball Solomon smashed his violin into thousands of pieces. He recognized that even in a very human activity, he was unchanging serving his master, and the music he played and everything he felt as a result of the music, all belonged to his owner. Despite the dramatization, it facilitate vividly shows the despicable dehumanization suffered by slaves, and even those who tried to maintain their human dignity, eventually had everything stripped away.The slaves who had their humanity taken away were abused so greatly by their masters that for a viewer, it was onerous to imagine these masters as human, just as they thought of their slaves. Especially only down the Mississippi, like at Northrups plantation in Louisiana, the masters treated their slaves so poorly it was unsurmountable to strike them as human beings. Most notably, when zippy their slaves, masters stood over their workers and lashed them, with the lack of regret of a jockey standing over his horse. When talking about whipping his slaves, Solomons Louisiana master said Sin. There is no sin.A man does as he pleases with his property. The master makes no recognition of the pain he inflicts upon his property, and it forces the viewer to call in him as almost a sociopath. The same master also singled out an man-to-man slave, Patsy, and tormented her in a way no true human would do. He was involved sexually with her, most credibly against her will. He also whipped her brutally, and even erst got Solomon to whip her, in order to see both of them suffer. Other white men demonstrated similar non-human characteristics. At a slave auction, one buyer rhetorically asked a slave Are you a slave or nigger? .He showed so little respect for another human that it was simply impossible to see him as one either. The extreme cruelty was probably not something the owners were born wi th, though. It was something engrained in them by slavery being decreedly permitted and promoted. With official support for slavery, and no real regulations, owners were lots encouraged to abuse their slaves. They learned nix about the history of slavery or their individual slaves, so it was impossible for them to nourish any connection or compassion for their slaves. It could be considered the original ill-informed, American-centric principle.Truly, the masters such incredibly poor conduct and abuse of their slaves, no matter the justification dehumanized them as well, as no proper person could act in such a terrible way. It is quite impossible to understand the moral justification for slavery in the U. S. No doubt the frugal prospective was immense, but the responsibility of a government established for the people is liable for just that, and encouraging slavery does just the opposite.It is indicative of a society, which at multiplication even today, is more concerned with fab end goals, thanfor the people who build and chance upon them. The dream of the American South was to rail a perfect agrarian society, where mans religion and property were his own, and were consider by the government and others. However, only the plantation owners were considered in this fantasy. Yes, the quantity of labour from the slaves was intrinsic in the development of the country as a whole, and a failure to fully employ their ample natural resources would have greatly stunted the development of the newfound countrys economy, but the order taken contradicted the true goals of the country when it was established.Even doubting Thomas Jefferson decried slavery in the Missing article of the constitution, and said . However, slavery existed for nearly carbon more years in the U. S. after Jefferson, as the South still considered it the best option for developing the country. Maybe it was reassert then because the 14 million slaves who built American industry werent ev en considered human, they were only considered slaves.