12 Years A Slave Film Analysis

Twelve Years a Slave
Sex and Gender Class

Twelve Years a Slave, a movie directed by Steve McQueen, tells many issues in its films. It is a story telling about Solomon Northup who was kidnapped by two white men and then sold as a slave in the South. As we know that South was pro-slavery. The all issues in the movie, of course, was started with slavery. Slavery also became center plot in this movie. However, this film did not only show about how Black male live as slave, but also show about Black female live as slave.
The differences between black people who live in the South and black people who live in the North can be really different. Black people who live in the North could live as free people by having ‘document of freedom’. They could
Moreover, living as black woman is harder than living as black man. Like has been mentioned by Gloria Watkins (1981), black woman got two oppressions. Those oppressions are racism and sexism. Racist oppression can be gotten from White male and female, whereas sexist oppression can be gotten from black and white male.
The treatment for white woman and black woman was really different in this movie, though they were both woman. Without doubt, the reason behind that was because they are from different race and status. How white woman treat black woman was also different with how black woman treat white woman. Their interactions also are portrayed in this movie.
First, I am going to show how a white woman treat a black woman in this movie. The character I am going to explain is Eliza. As we know that Eliza was a black woman who became a slave with her two children. However, before she was sold as a slave, she had been lived in the good condition with her two children. ¬¬For nine years, Eliza lived in comfortable life by wearing silk clothes and being served. Eliza got those all from Mr. Burry. However, after Mr. Burry was sick, all things changed. His daughter who didn’t like Eliza got all control over Mr. Burry’s household. She made false claim toward Eliza that made Eliza lost her freedom. Therefore, she and her children became a slave because of false claim made by Mr. Burry’s daughter. The story from Eliza shows that when
We know that Mr. Apps was interested on Patsy. There is also a scene when Mr. Apps raped Patsy. This shows that a black female slave was only an object of sexual desire of her master and property. Sometimes rape was kind of torture to make the slaves obey their master. According to Watkins, “Rape was a common method of torture salvers used to subdue recalcitrant black women”. That’s right that a white woman also the victim of sexist oppression by a white man. It shows when Mrs. Apps threatened Mr. Apps that she would go from the house if Mr. Apps still had eyes on Patsy. However, Mr. Apps didn’t care about that. He also said that she ‘should go back where she was picked by Mr. Apps. Mr. Apps even called her ‘pig’. However, the treatment gotten from a white male for a black slave female was even harsher that a white female got. When Patsy went to Mr. Massa’s house to get a soap, she was whipped violently by Mr.