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Impressions of 12 Years a Slave

1340801301 白钰

After sweeping the award season for best picture titles, 12 Years a

Slavewon at the 86th academy awards on march 2 ,which was certainly

one of the most unsurprising moments of that night.And Iwas deeply

touched by this movie.

This movie was an adaptation of the 1853 slave narrative memoir 12

Years a Slave. The main character- Solomon Northup ,was a free African

American man, working as a violinist and having his family .He was

kidnapped and sold into a slave,then worked on plantations for twelve

years . This movie mainly told the story about his miserable experiences

as a slave.

This movie actually provides notes for the reason of the Civil War.At

that time,the social thought has been fairly split between North and

South.The civilized North,in fact,has entered the stage of industrial

civilization.It represents the advanced productive forces,and also

represents the advanced ideology of civil rights and equality.In the movie

Solomon can live with dignity in New York,and drink with the whites at

the same table,even also play the violin in the advanced social

occasions.At that time,the south still was immersed in lagging economic

and social background.The accumulation point in the Civil War wasslavery,but it was actually a confrontation between progressive and

backwardcivilization.The Northern-victory is a historical necessity.The

historical process has its owndirection.Only toward an inevitable

direction will history accumulate positive energy to defeat all the

backward,unruly,ugly and antihuman forces.

Just as Emily West said,“The film starkly and powerfully unveiled the

sights and sounds of enslavement – from slaves picking cotton as they

sang in the fields, to the crack of the lash down people’s backs. We also

heard a lot about the ideology behind enslavement. Masters such as

William Ford and Edwin Epps, although very different characters, both

used an interpretation of Christianity to justify their ownership of slaves.

They believed the Bible sanctioned slavery, and that it was their

‘Christian duty’ to preach the scriptures to their slaves.”

“I don’t want to survive ,I want to live”. When the imprisoned

Solomon Northup said this sentence,I guess he must be very

desperate.However, situated in a desperate situation does not mean

hopelss.Transformed from a free man to a slave,,he has never given up

the hope of regaining freedom during the long twelve years. Although

this process is filled with desperation and has no end in sight,the free day

will finally be able to come if we never give up hope and never abandon

ourselves. This is the black version of the Shawshank Redemption, but

Solomon’s situation isworser than Andy .Because Andy in prison at

least was able to earn respect according to his skills and friends.

Although Solomon was not in prison, his conditions were more

severe.The existence of social systems was a more stubborn barrier than

the Shawshank’s. Also, Solomon can’t find a place to run , needs to

hide his literacy skills and does not trust people easily.What he can only

do is to bear lonely.

Under the system of slavery, a slave firstly needs to survive ,and

then to live his own life. Survival and life constitutes a conflict in this

situation. Maybe we can not experience their differences due to different

backgrounds. However, Solomon sharply honed our nerves by using his

own harsh experience.

As for the survival and life, Socrates said: "people eat to live while I

live to eat". The United Kingdom also said:" eat to live, don't live to eat.

"The two sentences interprete the differences between the survival and

life from the perspective of eating , embodying the meaning of life.

While Solomon uses his own story to prove that everything is not easy.

He uses a circle to finish the pursuit of living life. 12 years has witnessted

his change from black hair to grey hair. Although time and suffering may

chang a person, it is unable to change his heart to pursue the freedom. Being a freemen in the northern America, but suddenly he was

abducted into a slave in the South, and then he took 12 years to become

a free people again. This was happened in the legal existence of slavery,

and many people were forced to become slaves like Solomon. But very

few people were eventually rescued .Solomon’success has great

significance because of its rarity . So, his experiences were more

legendary and fantastic more than ever. It is difficult to imagine the

efforts and hardships that the individual like Solomon resists the whole

social environment .

In conclusion ,Iapprecitate this movie very much.It gives me a chance