"Twelve Years of Slave"

The following sample essay on “Twelve Years of Slave”: after watching Twelve Years of Slave, I was overwhelmed with Solomon/Platt, the main character experience. The opening of the movie was not something I imagined, seeing Platt and his family in a good shape, well dressed and have a good living as a african american at that time was just so surprising to me. He was also well respected by the white people around him which I found very good because he earn it for himself.

Moving on to that stage when Solomon got tricked by his own white companions to be sold by other whites that really broke my heart.

How can they be so cruel and heartless, by doing such thing just for money that won’t last them? The most heartbreaking scene on the movie was how they treated women, because those scenes really hit home because as a black woman I felt their pain. The first scene I will discuss about is mother Eliza, seeing her forcibly being separated from her children was so hard to watch as she begged her master to not do such thing.

That’s the worst nightmare that could happen to any mother, and the master did not have any sympathy for them. The second scene that also touched me the most was the slave girl named Patsey, her case surprised me because she seemed so quiet, she didn’t bother nobody but her master sees her as someone she could sleep with and which brought tension between her and the master’s wife.

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I felt so bad for her because not only she was being raped by a man who she call a master also she did not have no feelings for him. As a woman I felt discussed, I personally think they should’ve get rid of the rap scenes because it brung more anger to the people thats watching it which would create more tension among races. I can’t imagine myself being in that situation I would rather die then sleep or let someone touch me that way and which I don’t have any feelings for. She was also dealing with the master’s jealous wife, which I kinda understand because it’s not fun seeing your husband messing with your slaves but I think she went too far. If I was her I would deal with my husband because I know the slaves don’t have no say to what their masters want, but I am guessing she herself didn’t have no say over her husband so the only revenge she could get was from the poor girl. Also I hated the fact that her husband was playing double role with both of them, because he knew what he was doing was not right and his wife would not like him doing that but he just did it and on top of that he was beating the girl because her wife didn’t like the fact that he slept with him. Patsey was in such a depressing situation that when she made the suicidal decision I was not surprise because I felt her pain. When she ask Solomon to end her life that part got me the most because she really wanted to skip her reality, she wanted to take a risk to go to the other world not knowing what was waiting for her on the other side because of how desperate she was. As I mentioned earlier I would choose to end my life too because I would find peace hopefully. The movie did a very good job by putting history into a standpoint, by giving people an overview of how slavery was like by putting the detailed scene to force it into people to watch which I don’t condone at all because we all need the see the reality of the lives of the slaves. Yes it was hard to sit through and watch but at the same time it is something that people needed to see to learn and understand. The movie was also able to bring out different type of feeling of me, I was sad, angry, depressed, discussed, but mostly bring me back to reality, and not to take my life and freedom for granted because I would never imagine living that life as the brave slaves did. I am just glad slavery ended and that history did not repeat itself because if it was the case most of us wouldn’t be in the aspect of life we live in right now.

Overall the whole film was so hard to watch, I was crying in silent during the whole movie, I went back to my room still it was in my mind. I was not able to sit through the day knowing these scenes was reality for the poor slaves and they lived their everyday lives hoping and silently praying for their freedom.