ipl-logo

12 Years A Slave Scene Analysis

1318 Words6 Pages

‘12 Years a Slave’ is an eye-opening film that displays incredible themes and ideas throughout it. As the movie follows a man named Solomon, who is captured as a slave, the director, Steve Mcqueen uses an array of camera techniques, dialogue and fascinating characters to make these themes come to life. In two particular scenes, the idea that males feel they have the right to use women however they desire attracts the attention of the audience. This is because the female slaves have to endure not only difficult labour tasks for their masters, but also being used as sexual objects frequently. One of the techniques the director uses in the scene, in which Master Epps is counting up how much cotton each slave has picked, is dialogue. The audience …show more content…

The scene begins with a wide shot of all the slaves standing in a line with their heads hung low whilst their master roams freely. This shot is used to give the audience an initial idea of the dominance Epps feels and the haggard nature of the slaves. The director then uses a strategic panning shot of the slave's faces as Epps strides behind them criticizing the males work efforts like a drill sergeant disciplining his soldiers. This shot accompanies his first quote to make him appear intimidating to a greater extent and to radiate the feeling of disdain towards the slaves. Furthermore, as Epps moves on to admire Patsey’s work the director complements this controversial statement concerning Epps owning Patsey by using an uncomfortable two shot of Epps standing behind Patsey. In this shot, he strokes Patsey’s neck. Effectively, this emphasizes the message that Epps sees Patsey as nothing more than a body that he owns despite the distressed look on her face. Accordingly, this particular shot highlights the idea of males in power using women however they desire. The shot does this by outlining the fact that Patsey does not need to reciprocate signs of affection for Epps to touch her body and make suggestive gestures to her as he pleases, as he feels he owns her in every sense and sees her as an object of his pleasure rather than a human being. The uneasy feeling of this scene is then enhanced as the director uses yet another panning shot of the slaves looking at their feet and Patsey looking straight forward with a shameful expression plastered across her face and body language to end the scene. The audience views as Patsey must succumb to Epps’ sexual harassment. Consequently, the viewer is left in painful suspense as they have now viewed the brutal disregard for the female slave's

Show More
Related

  • Women In Kindred

    990 Words  | 4 Pages

    It’s globally known that the relationship between slaves and owners were abusive and unbalanced. Both male and female slaves endured horrible conditions and punishments brought on by their masters, but a woman’s slave-experience proves to be very different than a man’s. While women had to experience the abuse that came with their race, they also had to experience the oppression that came along with their gender. Regardless of viewing and treating them as animals, many male slave owners still had a sexual attraction and sense of protection over the female slave- sometimes even developing feelings for them. This creates a dangerous situation where not only the men have control over how the women work, but they have control over their body and emotions.

    Read More

  • Antebellum Louisiana Slavery

    1095 Words  | 5 Pages

    The writer does not hide his contempt for those slaveholders characterized as “blood-seeking wretches.” (Twelve Years a Slave 125) Such slaveholders as Tibeats and Edwin Epps, another ruthless plantation owner, who buys Solomon from Mr. Williams, fall exactly into such a category. Nonetheless, soon Northup admits that his life on Epp’s plantation proves to be even worse than working with Tibeats. The writer notes that Epps never spares his whip to extract obedience from the “niggers.” Moreover, “being fond of the bottle” and various violent amusements, Epps repeatedly makes his slaves dance for him in the middle of the night or lashes them around his yard with his whip “just for the pleasure of hearing them screech and scream.”

    Read More

  • The Abolitionists Film Analysis

    804 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Abolitionists Growing up as a Christian I never could understand how people claimed to be saved or god’s servant but yet can discriminate against skin color. I was taught God is of love regardless of skin color, size or how the person looks. Such as Caucasians with African Americans and even so how could they attend church but yet have slave servants in their home? As shown in the documentary most of the film was a conflict about slavery and the few whites that was against it. Such as “Angelina Grimké” a Caucasians female Christian who despised slavery and watch her parents live with it with no moral or self-respected.

    Read More

  • Slavery In Miss Pat's Git On Board

    195 Words  | 1 Pages

    Beginning with “Git on Board,” begins with describing the aspects of slavery. Miss Pat the flight attendant explains the demands and expectation from the flight crew. Involvement of the audience is included by addressing them as the slaves on board. Miss Pat reminds the fastening seat beats, refraining from call and response, and use of drums. Fastening seats belts correlates to use of chains on slaves and at the end of the flight the words “we value you here on celebrity slave ship” shows another way of white ownership by pricing and selling their lives.

    Read More

  • The Nightjohn: Comparing The Book And Movie

    636 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Nightjohn movie was very different from the book. One reason that it was so different is because of how much the Wallers are talked about. In the book they only talk about the Wallers when slaves are being punished. In the movie, they were shown much more. The Wallers don’t have kids in the book.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Se Habla Espanol By Barrientos

    678 Words  | 3 Pages

    The imagery showed her behavior and how it changed throughout the narrative. “They were peered at cautiously from behind curtains by the timid. In the end of her narrative, Huston goes to that she doesn’t have separate feelings about being an American citizen and colored. “I belong to no race or time.”

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass An American Slave Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    732 Words  | 3 Pages

    Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out Of Carolina

    1513 Words  | 7 Pages

    What men did was just what men did. Some days I would grind my teeth, wishing I had been born a boy” (2.25). In Bastard Out of Carolina, Bone experiences segregation on account of her financial status continued by the discrimination of her sex. Her sexual orientation shapes her experience of different and many types of abuses, and her regular working basics shape her way the life as a lady.

    Read More

  • Gone With The Wind Mise En Scene Analysis

    748 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gone with the Wind Analysis While watching the film Gone with the Wind most people would pay little to no attention to details like camera angle or lighting. However, Gone with the Wind is a great example of mise-en-scene ,what is physically being shot in the scene without editing and can include, but is not limited to camera movement, lighting, focus and scenery, in many different ways. Mise-en-scene actually appears during the first scene when Scarlett is sitting on the steps of Tara, her family’s plantation, along with her two of her male companions. Scarlett is sitting on the top stair while the twins are sitting on stairs below hers almost as if they were worshipping her. Scarlett is also looking down upon the twins as if she were superior to them.

    Read More

  • Violence In Solomon Northup's Twelve Years A Slave

    729 Words  | 3 Pages

    Documenting not only the fear that the slaves faced but also the violence of both physical and sexual abuse, the most ghastly account was towards a slave women he was imprisoned with named Patsey. She was a slave who had the misfortune of

    Read More

  • Social Stratification In The Movie The Help

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Rape And Sexual Assault In Beloved By Toni Morrison

    1970 Words  | 8 Pages

    Slaves faced extreme brutality and Morrison focuses on rape and sexual assault as the most terrifying form of abuse. It is because of this abuse that Morrison’s characters are trapped in their pasts, unable to move on from the psychological damages that they have endured. “Morrison revises the conventional slave narrative by insisting on the primacy of sexual assault over other experiences of brutality” (Barnett 420). For telling Mrs. Garner what they had done, she was badly beaten by them, leaving a “chokecherry tree” (16) on her back. But that was not the overriding issue.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Ignorance In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1186 Words  | 5 Pages

    In addition, the juxtaposition between what Marlow sees as irritating for himself and the slave’s difficult work demonstrates the different perspectives of the white and black people working for The Company. Conrad’s comment displays how humanity and society have different expectations of different people and how those expectations change the way people are treated. Marlow also struggles to find an appropriate name to call the

    Read More

  • 12 Years A Slave Film Analysis

    1731 Words  | 7 Pages

    In the film 12 Years a Slave the editor, Joe Walker, makes use of a couple of techniques and styles that adds to the film in its own way. Long shots – Joe kept the long shots as long as he thought was necessary to add to the subject matter and the feeling he wanted to bind with the story. At the end of the film there’s this extremely long shot where Solomon is practically staring at the camera for about a minute and a half. The timing of that shot is so perfect because it’s not too short so you don’t have enough time to think about what just happened or too much time to overthink the situation. Closer to the end of the shot he lets the sound fade slowly and rapidly gives you a wakeup call when the next shot starts off where Solomon and the rest of the slaves are busy working in the field.

    Read More

  • The Help Movie Analysis

    3436 Words  | 14 Pages

    The movie clearly exposes the many ways that the human dignity of African- American maids was ignored. They had suffered daily embarrassment but were able to claim their own way dignity. The film described about empowerment of individuals as well as about social justice for a group. It is a moving story depicting dehumanization in a racist culture but also the ability to move beyond the unjust structures of society and to declare the value of every human being.

    Read More

More about 12 Years A Slave Scene Analysis

Open Document