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Beloved and 12 years a Slave: Slavery




Slavery. This is a word that is still controversial to this day. In the dictionary Slavery means “submission to a dominating influence or the state of a person who is a chattel of another. This basically means that there is a person that you have to listen to and do as they say, and not like a “if you feel like it manner.” When you first think of slavery we automatically think of the chattel slavery that took place in the foundation era of the United States. But there are many forms of Slavery. Mental, Physical, and Emotional….these are also the many different forms of abuse in relationships if you didn’t notice, but I am not a certified psychologist so let us move forward.

 

Beloved follows a group of people whose lives revolve around slavery and the trials that they have to face while in slavery and the repercussions that they make while trying to gain their freedom. The first setting that we are introduced to is the plantation Sweet Home. The plantation owners are Mr. and Mrs. Garner. They are considered to be a nice master and mistress in more common terms. Mr. Garner treats his slaves like “men,” I guess that that is supposed to make up for the fact that you know they are working like animals, but you know I’m just going out on a limb. Slavery is such a force that it drives people, human beings, to do some crazy things. An example of a crazy thing is killing your child so that she wouldn’t have to go through the same things that you had to go through while you were enslaved. Selflessness is a major theme in slavery. You may have had to go through it, but you will try to help the next person not have to go through it.

 

Slavery is also prevalent in the movie 12 years a Slave (shocking isn’t it). This is a movie that was adapted from a memoir of Solomon Northup, who was a free man that was kidnapped into slavery. I am sure that this was a major change for him, because of the fact that his whole life was being changed. The common theme of death being a better alternative than that of being a slave was also reinforced when Patsy (played oh so amazingly by Lupita Nyong'o), who would rather Solomon kill her than have to continuously be raped by the slave master and beaten by the slave mistress. In the article on npr [Here is the article] there is an interview with the director Steve McQueen and the best thing he said was pretty early on in the interview, “African diaspora — of a sense of unity amongst African people and people of African heritage.” This is definitely a commonality between slaves at this time. There is a sense that we need to all help each other make it through or at least help someone make it through.

 

Overall slavery is and was an act of dehumanization as mentioned in the following article [Dehumanization is not good], and it is something that doesn’t just affect the right now of a person’s psyche. It is something that affects you, your children, and your children’s children. It affects the trust level of certain races and is very damaging. This was proven in both Beloved with Sethe and her daughters, and with Patsy and Solomon in 12 years a slave.

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