Both ”12 years a slave” and “Planet of the apes” exhibit some similarities and differences in a way that portrays the human nature in the characters used. The literally devices used clearly manifest the implications on the humanity and how it affects them in the long run. Some scenes show unique clarity which no one can expect to fade off the mind through time since it shows the power that is strong enough to alter other memories for the sake of self-preservation. The two stories involve conflicts in ideological differences on how animals perceive the. The movies examine hearts of darkness of humans in a bid to fulfilling their selfish personal interests in pursuit of adventure.
In the “Planet of the apes” we see humans and the apes initially living in harmony before the inversion of the apes by the human beings in search of adventure. This at first seems not to cause any turbulence to either of the parties. However, things turn out to be nasty when the humans are perceived by the apes to be with ill motives of destroying them. This is also manifested in the “12 years a slave” when Solomon Northup initially lived his life together with his family as a free man in New York. However due to his adventurous life and excess curiosity, he is tricked by his close friends into travelling to Washington where he was convinced to getting good money for doing circus. This ended up to be none of his expectations as the friends went ahead to drug him and ultimately traded him to a slave owner in New Orleans where he would later spent the rest of his twelve years laboring as a slave in the sugar and cotton plantations of Louisiana.
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The beast nature of human beings comes into vision in the two movies where in “The planet of the apes” human beings fail to embrace the virtue of peace and begin to hunt the apes for the sake of their research about them. They kidnap some of the apes assuming that they are common animals like the others and tie them mercilessly so that they don’t escape little did they know that the apes had a conscious mind and senses that they used in determining the human nature and his characteristics too. For the apes, however unlike other animals they had lived in peace not hurting each other besides teaching themselves on survival tacts in the forests. The human beings hunting in the forest on the other side did not embrace their ability of having human dignity but fought among themselves without any concrete reason to do so. In “Twelve years a slave” we also see Solomon friends humiliating him without little consideration and go ahead to drug him despite being his friend and sell him to a slavery farm where he toils for 12 years they display the beast characteristics in them.
In the forest, the apes have vowed anonymously not to kill a fellow ape as per the rules set by their leader Caesar. However, mistrust creeps in created by the human beings in the sense that their existence in the apes group has influenced them to develop a tone apart mindset in which some feel like retaliating for what has been done by the human beings on their friends. That is jailing and bartering them to go and do research in back in city. They are in human to their fellow apes. Despite all these experience the apes keep calm reconsidering their strategy of retaliation. Since there was existence of ideological differences among them, their leader, Caesar had resolved for peaceful negotiation that seemed human to both parties. They were to hold a meeting with the leader of human beings to discuss on ways on how the two can co-exist together without spilling blood.
The above idea however, was compromised when one of the apes deliberately killed the other for the sake disrupting the peace that had been initiated between the humans and the apes. Their leader, as such, he was obligated to gang up with his fellow apes to compensate for their lost friend by fighting back. Only later to be revealed by one of their own that the dead ape had been killed by their fellow who was a rival to Caesar. In “Twelve years a slave” Solomon is sold to work in a cotton and sugar plantation where from the transaction the perpetrators managed to go away with a hundred dollars for committing their crime. Humans as such, can afford to loose their dignity for self-gain. On the farm, Solomon has limited amounts of freedom dictated by the restrictions imposed by the farm owner. He is also entitled to do whatever that he has been commanded to do despite his line of interest. Due to possession of some abilities and his talent at he was offered some amounts of freedom unlike his colleagues. He could attend ceremonies and social events where he could play a flute. The talented women in the slavery were exploited sexually by their masters with no shoulder to lean upon due to being helpless.
Solomon was forced to feign illiteracy so as to survive in the farm and gain some favor from his master. However he at times was obliged to make difficult decisions regarding the ideological differences he had with his master. Both movies stir up anger and shame in the recent history of the world. The novels emulate the silence that is shown by those that are not able to express whatever the feel. The setting of the two stories depicts a speechless and animalistic environment where humans in twelve years a slave and apes in the planet of the apes are hunted down by human beings. In both instances it is discovered that the humans in general regard themselves as special and superior beings that are destined to dominate over the other creatures they feel are inferior to them.
In their clashes with the humans later to show the beast nature in themselves, the apes have advanced courtesy of revenge to humans. They have taught themselves how to speak and gone an extra mile of using fire arms instead of the spears that they used initially though their leader Caesar had forbidden them. How they roar in the mornings they show their barbarian and ruthless nature to go into a battle however with the aim of defending humanity. Generally the movie portrays the humans as antagonists while the apes as antagonists, but does not completely show the good or evil of the two characters. We find that the apes are internally divided with some defecting on their culture. Caesar, their own leader, even goes to an extent of fighting a fellow ape and exterminating it.
In the “Twelve years a slave” we witness how slaves have failed to exist among themselves in peace, besides some of them being starved, entangled and being beaten up mercilessly for some reasons such as failing to do certain chores to completion. The stench of being flogged and hang by their masters brings out the true beast nature of human beings to their fellow besides the usual abuses and brutal handling they experience on a daily basis as life in the plantations continues to be unbearable.
The message conferred by the two stories is that the intelligence of the humans is not fixed in quality, but rather flexible in a way that it allows for complacency on various personal issues and interests that generate satisfaction whether on individual terms or in a group of those that think together. The two stories both revolve around oppression and victimization of parties that are perceived to be inferior by the others. Therefore, it is better for human beings to advocate for measures that deal with suppression of their rage and anger for co-existence. Whether either of the conflicting parties has no decision of entering into an agreement that enhances peace, neither of them should be ready to show the beast nature that will henceforth compromise the superiority of human nature as compared to other animals.
