12 Years a Slave is dominated by the culture of slavery and racism. Right from his capture, Solomon Northup is molested, sedated and captured. Master slaves and discrimination are the main themes in the entire story as African American descents are captivated and used forcefully to provide unpaid labor in New Jersey. Born of New York, and African American, Northup is a subject representation of racism, which results in a more devastating impact. It involves the use of coercion. People are brutalized; especially those who do not want to conform to the forced labor mandates. Some even attempt to escape while some slaves try to object to the bully nature of their masters.
The story narrative shows how racism culture is a crucial instrument for acts of wickedness. The masters are cruel and unrelenting masters who unjustifiably use their slaves. The 12 Years a Slave points out the racism as behavior, which is adopted, and that it is not something that people are born with. In some way, the role of the movie is to show the heartbreaking realities that were present in slavery culture to strengthen attitude of anti-slavery. Northup then rose to condemn the acts of slavery by revitalizing abolitionist movement ( Fatmawati, 2015). While delving on the culture racism, the whites’ masters believed that African American is inferior to the white people and as a result, they are supposed to work for them. In contrast, African Americans, herein represented by Northup, believed that racism is a sin and violates the doctrines of Christianity.
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Notably, racism provided a recipe for slavery. Northup deliberately denoted some dealers such as Goodin had a “complexion almost as dark as some of his own negros” he was selling to Edwin Epps. In the same token, Northup quotes that some slaves were even whiter than their masters to mean that slavery was a culture learned by a section of people. The difference existed in a manner that some people rejected this kind of custom while those who were in power to acquire slaves, were okay with the whole thing. Also, adoption of racism created the room for the strengthening of slavery.
There is a total disparity in perception between the masters and slaves. The former thinks that it is the right thing to do while the latter revolts and says it is sinful. At a point, Northup asserts to Epp that “thou shalt answer for this sin!” something that does not seem viable to Epp. At the time it is a norm to people who get benefits from slaves, the victims see it as a mockery to humanity. However, racism and slavery have a close link as each supplement the other in one way. However, racism is less brutal as compared to slavery, which involves using coercion to make people work by force.
On the whole, racism and slavery are the primary two cultures in the film. The former acts as a background upon which the latter practice thrives as people are made to believe that it is a norm. The wealthy minority see it as a reasonable thing to do to enslave people and let them work as forced laborers. On the other hand, slaves view it as a sinful act to be racist, and use people in a manner that is not good. The similarity is eminent in the two cultures as each act to supplement the other. Specifically, racism is a healthy recipe upon which slavery is developed.
References
Fatmawati, S. N. K. (2015). A Pragmatic Analysis of Maxim Flouting Performed by Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave Movie. Sastra Inggris-Quill , 4 (1), 1-10.
