Glory Essay Example

Glory The movie Glory was a wonderful depiction of the group of men involved in the 54th Massachusetts colored regiment. The men of the 54th regiment were part of the first black regiment to serve in the U.S. military and were all volunteers. Lead by twenty-three year old Robert Gould Shaw these men were held a high amount of pride, enthusiasm, and bravery as they willingly fought against all of the racial harshness of the U.S. military system. The men of the 54th regiment put up with stereotypes and unacceptable training conditions - while being consistently being challenged to actually stay in the military and not desert. Glory depicts all of the issues that surrounded the 54th regiments black solders and white captions with amazing character portrayals. Commanding leader of the 54th regiment was Robert Gould Shaw, a twenty-three year old man who is consistently impressed with the men of the 54th regiment but faces the hard task of getting the rest of the military to take his men seriously as solders. Major Cabot Forbes was a childhood friend of both commander shaw and solder Thomas Searles. Throughout the movie Forbes is shown as being the most lenient on black troops and questions Shaw’s commanding decisions often. Sargent John Rawlins is the first black solder given the honor of becoming a Sargent due to the boycott of pay by him and the men of the 54th regiment. Throughout the movie Rawlins is portrayed as a mature voice of reason for both the black troops and the white officers. In fact Shaw asked Rawlins to be a communicator between him and the black troops. Thomas Searles is a black childhood friend of both Shaw and Forbes. Searles was the first to sign up as a volunteer to the 54th regiment, but is encouraged through out the movie to quit due to his lack of ability as a solder. Jupiter Sharts is a black man solder who encourages a positive attitude through out the movie, but seems to be faced with the challenge of being socially and worldly