ipl-logo

The Character Analysis Of Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave

787 Words4 Pages

“12 Years a Slave” recounts the incredible true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold into slavery. In his years as a slave, Northup was forced to endure barbaric conditions, suffering both physically and mentally. The movie focuses not only on Northup 's ordeal, but also the many horrifying realities of slavery, including gruesome whippings, sexual abuse, and families being torn apart through the sale of slaves. Northup survives and eventually returns home to his wife and children in 1853 with the help of a Canadian abolitionist by the name of Samuel Bass. Solomon Northup was one of the few victims of kidnapping to regain freedom from slavery, and his attempts to bring the men responsible for his abduction to justice were unsuccessful. In 1853 he published the book “12 Years a Slave” upon which the film was based, and …show more content…

Although the movie focuses on Northup 's story, there are a number of other notable characters featured throughout the film, all of whom were real people described by Northup in his book. Perhaps the most prominent supporting character is Patsey, a female slave working alongside Northup on Epps ' plantation. Patsey routinely picks over 500 pounds of cotton per day – more than twice as much as any male slave – and finds herself the target of Epps ' sexual assaults. However, she did not receive preferential treatment as a result, and was frequently tormented by a spiteful Mary Epps, who was quietly aware of her husband 's infatuation with the slave. Patsey despised her life as a slave even more fervently than any of her companions, at one point pleading Northup, her closest friend, to mercifully end her life. In Patsey 's final scene of the movie, when Northup is proven free and rescued from the plantation, she embraces him and tearfully watches as he rides away to freedom. Although little is known about Patsey 's fate after Northup 's departure, she was eventually freed from Epps by the Union

Show More
Related

  • Frederick Douglass: The Myth Of Slavery

    133 Words  | 1 Pages

    Overall, Douglass' narrative addresses the serious problems and misconceptions of slavery and it reveals the truths. Douglass urges his readers to not believe in the so-called romanticism of slavery, or that blacks are intellectually inferior, or inferior at all, or that their prospects are better as slaves. He begs that his readers discover the truths, by reading about them through his own life experiences. Within Douglass' experiences, he successfully debunks the mythology of slavery by disproving that there is anything positive about. Because Douglass reached freedom, he knows that it can never be attained unless it is fought for.

    Read More

  • Janie Crawford's Character Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1575 Words  | 7 Pages

    She use many women to represent these roles, but Janie Crawford, the main character and Mrs. Turner, one of Janie's friends in the town play two of the biggest roles of this portrayal. Although there is many different roles of women in the novel, the main one is that they are supposed to stay within their boundaries and not speak out for or against any other male. Hurston uses her unique portrayal of these two characters to illuminate how poorly they are treated by males and how they feel the need to place themselves above the negroes. This novel was set in a time where it was acceptable for a women to be treated as a possession. There are many instances in the novel where Janie is perceived as a prize or a “trophy wife”.

    Read More

  • Prince Among Slaves Character Analysis

    1573 Words  | 7 Pages

    In Terry Alford’s novel “Prince Among Slaves” there were many people that strived to bring Ibrahima back to Africa, during this time he also worked to free his children. The role of letter writing had an impact on the course of the book and each person connected the direction of Ibrahima’s journey. A former prince, Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima, was captured through an ambush due to his lost to the Hebohs and is now a slave (23).

    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

  • Slavery In 12 Years A Slave By Solomon Northup

    782 Words  | 4 Pages

    Northup goes into great depth when explaining the daily tasks of enslaved people, which slows down the narrative and forces audiences to give their attention to this section of the novel. “The fears and labors of another day begin; and until its close there is no such thing as rest,” Northup explains to the audience, using a cyclical pattern while describing the constant fears. The sentences in this section flow into each other creating a sense of repetition and endlessness, which reflects the constant pain and fear running in the veins of enslaved people. Northup includes this image and description of the daily lives of enslaved people in juxtaposition to Ford’s direction of treating enslaved people kindly in order to get the most profit and labor out of them. On the one hand, Northup focuses on Ford’s kind treatment towards his slaves and Ford’s nonviolent beliefs regarding the institution of slavery, which makes a respectable argument for slave owners to treat their slaves better.

    Read More

  • Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass: Corruption Of Slavery

    325 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1830’s an American slave Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. Douglass soon after embarked on a mission to end slavery. The best way to end slavery were to “shine a light” on slavery and to tell a story to people that did not know. Northerners who read “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” were either against slavery or supportive of slavery. Douglass argues that slavery corrupted slave owners, and slavery was terrible for slaves.

    Read More

  • Slaveholders In The Narrative Life Of Frederick Douglass

    492 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass” Frederick Douglass talks about his life as a slave ,and the challenges that he went through ,but he also tells how slaveholders were affected during slavery. Frederick Douglass talks about how slaveholders have great powers over their slaves. Being the slaveholder can enforce that you are above the slave ,and that you are allowed to do what you please to you “property” ,and that could corrupt your humanity. One example of this is Sophie Auld. Sophie Auld was a kind and generous slaveholder ”I was utterly astonished at her goodness”(Douglass 45); she even helped teach Frederick Douglass to write, but after she had been the master of Douglass for a while she started to become inhumane, cruel, and malice.

    Read More

  • Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

    274 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the excerpt from "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave", I thought it was interesting how Douglass so easily conveyed many tones and emotions at once. I noticed quickly how he seems so distant (giving the passage a reflective feel), but at the same time, inspiring fierce emotion in the reader. It 's wonderful how he intertwines and fuses passion and formality so well. He finds a way to reflect on the events taking place without getting too emotional, which somehow makes a greater effect on the readers and reveals his strong feelings on the subject without overwhelming the writer.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Django Unchained And 12 Years A Slave

    1489 Words  | 6 Pages

    It tells the tale of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York. Solomon is abducted and spends the next 12 years working as a slave. In this essay I will be talking about the similarities and differences between the text, as well as the significance of the text, the audience, purpose and stylistic and formal features (filmic devices). First of all, the similarities between the two films. There are a number of components that are similar.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Narrative Of Solomon Northup 12 Years A Slave

    714 Words  | 3 Pages

    Two examples of slave narratives that I had found strikingly similar was an interview with a Mr. James Monroe Abbot who was a documented slave born in 1854 and an excerpt from the narrative of Solomon Northup called “12 Years A Slave”. These both had shared a large resemblance by how much pain both had felt physically whether it be through traditional working in the fields as a slave on a plantation, or through means of torture and constant cruelty. “Dat night mah feet cracked open un’, when I had to take de fires I left a trick o’ blood across de flo.” “Burch commenced beating me. Blow after blow was inflicted upon my naked body.

    Read More

  • Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Literary Analysis

    258 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting in the novel Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass American Slave changes multiple times throughout the story. The first setting takes place in Maryland where Frederick was born. “I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland” (Douglass 19). Frederick was born in Maryland on a huge slave plantation because that was one of the states that slavery was legal. Then Frederick got lucky and moved in with Mrs. and Mr. Auld in Baltimore.

    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

  • My Bondage And My Freedom Frederick Douglass Literary Analysis

    616 Words  | 3 Pages

    What common themes bond together the literary works of the 1800’s? Frederick Douglass and Kate Chopin both realized that people were not being treated fairly and thus it influenced their writing. Through personal experiences and observations Frederick Douglass conveyed how African Americans in My Bondage and My Freedom were treated unfairly. Kate Chopin used the plot to show how women were treated unfairly in “The Story of an Hour”. My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass tells of some of the experiences he went through as a slave.

    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

  • Analysis Of Up From Slavery: An Autobiography Of Booker T. Washington

    1088 Words  | 5 Pages

    Up From Slavery, Novel is An autobiography of Booker T Washington. He has expressed and showcased his struggles for the freedom of blacks in the society. The opening chapters deals primarily with Booker T. Washington's childhood and his atrocious days in slavery. He sets the tone for his memoir with vivid descriptions of the conditions of his domestic life, the conditions under which he lived from the time of his birth till the end of the civil war. The civil war was over and gave them happiness of being free.

    Read More

More about The Character Analysis Of Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave

Open Document