There is a famous Chinese proverb: A picture is worth a thousand words.

To my way of
thinking, I totally agree with the message that this sentence carries, especially after watching the
movie Twelve years a slave. No matter how much I read from the textbook about slavery, no
matter how many stories about their endurance and experience that I heard from my lecturers, I
could not truly understand and sympathize with the slaves miserable lives until I saw this film.
Twelve years a slave has excellently reflected the reality and provided a remarkable insight
about slavery for the cinema audiences.
The film was based on a true story of Solomon, a free man living in Saratoga but later was
kidnapped and sold as a slave. Since then, he could not maintain his personal identity anymore;
he had to change his name into Platt, and admit that he was a runaway slave from Georgia.
During twelve years being a slave, he worked for William Ford at first, then served under Epps
and also had a short time playing violin for Judge Turner. He did attempt to escape by asking
other people to help him deliver a letter to a friend in New York. He failed the first time because
Armsby, who initially agreed to help, betrayed him. The second time, he turned to Samuel Bass,
and luckily, Samuel fulfilled his promise. Later, Parker, Solomons friend, came to show
Solomons free black paper and rescue him from slavery. The film ended when Solomon came
back to his family and exploded from happiness when he met again his wife and children after
more than a decade of separation.
As Terry Pratchett once said: This is Art holding a mirror up to life, art in general and movie
in particular both play an important role in reflecting the nature, imitating the society. Twelve
years a slave is not an exception. Steve McQueen, the director of the film, spendidly brought the
slaves lives, as well as the American South society in antebellum period into the silver screen,
mostly remaining loyal to the truth. What we have learned about the South can be easily seen

through some of the scenes. First, South America appeared exactly as a King Cotton, where there
was a row of slaves picking cotton by hand in a vast field. The task system was also clearly
demonstrated when workers at Epps plantation had to cultivate at least 200 pounds of cotton per
day. Slaves who completed their daily work and exceeded the production target could have time
to do other things. For example, Patsey, who was able to pick about 500 pounds of cotton a day,
could make and play with dolls in the daytime after finishing work. On the contrary, those who
were unable to reach the target, such as Platt, would suffer harsh whip punishment. Second, the
slave trade was made clearer during the film. What I only thought about slave trade before seeing
this movie was a simple transaction between selling and buying slaves, but in fact, it was far
more than that. Undeniably, slaves were no way considered as human being, they were just
property that could be easy to quantify the value. What surprised me the most was the way that
the seller tried to show how valuable his slaves were by removing their clothes and leaving them
naked. To me, it was totally the worst way to dehumanize the slaves. Buying a slave was of no
difference from buying a dog, when you tried to evaluate the worth of your wealth by testing
them physically under no clothing protection.
Besides, what made me feel impressed was the ability to portray accurately the slaves lives of
the film. It showed how slaves were terribly dehumanized. Insult, rape, battering, name-calling
and so on were what they had to endure for a very long time. Women slaves had no resistance
but to satisfy sexual arousal of their masters, then later bore the hatred and love jealousy of the
white mistresses, such as the case of Patsey. Slaves were called as nigger, a brute dog,
Nergo very offensive words to describe black person, as well as were spit and bloodily
battered as a way to emphasize their inferiority towards white masters. Furthermore, they could
not keep anything belonged to them, from the tangible shirt that acted as a memory reminder to

Solomon, to intangible things such as slaves names, homeland, and their status of free men. By
changing slaves identitites, masteres not only wanted to show their possessions on their
properties but also wanted to kill slaves consciences of being a human, which would make it
easy for masters to control their slaves. Whats more, slaves were also not respected and their
talents were not recognized. It was not coincidental that a white overseer repeatedly rhetorically
asked: Are you an engineer or a nigger? when Platt came up with an idea of building
something new. And even later it proved to be efficient and effective, his overseer still kept
frustration and tried to abuse Platt many times as long as possible rather than congratulating and
encouraging his slave. These things just showed a thin slice of life that slaves had lived before
the Civil War, however, they partially showed the brutality and violence that slaves had to suffer
from during the slavery.
Although the film mainly reflected reality, I also found that something may be wrong or it went
into opposition with what we have learnt. To begin with, as far as I concern, free blacks in the
North were able to lead a simple rather than a luxurious and privileged lives. However, in this
film, we saw that actually Solomons family was somehow wealthy, based on the clothes they
wore, as well as the beginning scene when they bought the suitcase without caring about the
price. One thing more, they had to sing and dance because it was order of their master, rather
than their own interest that they voluntarily did to save their souls.
However, in general, the film has done an excellent job in reflecting the society in the South
America before the Civil War. Two hours watching this film gave me an overview as well as
sympathy towards slaves, who were always at the bottom of the social pyramid. Fortunately,
slavery was already abolished, otherwise, I cannot stand the idea that human can treat bitterly
and inhumanely with our black fellow until this 21st century the era of civilization.