Llegos, Jheves Anne L.

December 12, 2018

BSA-5101

12 YEARS A SLAVE REACTION PAPER

1.) Provide a brief summary of the movie.

Enslavement and racial prejudice of the black race, these are the points that the movie is
mainly centered. These are by far some of the biggest issues that were faced by the United
States of America and did actually hinder for some time the fostering amity in the country. “12
Years a Slave” is a film made in 2013 based on the adaptation of the true to life memoir of
Solomon Northup.

The protagonist, Solomon Northup is an African-American violinist that lives in Saratoga,

New York. He lived in those times that slavery is still widespread however he was one of the few
black people that are kind of exempted in it because he is a declared free man. One day, two
men approached him offering him work as a violinist however they tricked Solomon, drugged
him, and then sold him in a state called Louisiana as a slave. He was given a new identity in the
form of Mr. Platt, a Georgia runaway slave. This has been the start of his 12 years long suffering.

He came and go from one master to another. His first master, Mr. Ford, was a master
under circumstances and treated him fine. However due to some commotion he was transferred
to Mr. Epps an owner of a cotton plantation who unlike Mr. Ford, treated him badly and thus
known as a slave breaker. Through the years, a lot of sufferings were faced by Solomon in the
hands of Mr. Epps. Until one day, a Canadian worker in the plantation helped him in sending a
letter to Mr. Parker, Solomon’s friend in Georgia. This friend along with a police has brought his
papers to where the plantation is located and brought Solomon back safely in his home in New
York.

2.) Cite relevant events/situation/scenes that are uncommon in the Philippine society or culture.

The scene that got most to me is the scene where Solomon is hanged at a tree while the
others are just doing their normal day to day routine as if he isn’t on a life and death situation. I
think that is uncommon in the Philippine culture in the sense that we Filipinos at times can’t
mind our own business.
 Scenes were the slaves are being mistreated such as if they don’t go at par or beyond
the quota of the harvested cottons in the plantation, they will be whipped is a significant scene
for me. And I think that it is kind of different as compared to the Philippine culture though we do
a lot of things that were showed as those done by the slaves. Because we, Filipinos, are
commonly known as domestic helpers abroad, we treat this as a very decent job.

When there are death scenes, the people around them seem to be better off as dead.
Such as the first death scene in the film where there was a slave who tried to stop a white man
raping the slave and was stabbed to death. When Solomon and the other slave threw the body
bag in the ocean, the other slave stated that it is better off. This is viewed differently in the
Philippine society where a death is considered a loss and mourned for a very long time.

3.) Provide your own comment/opinion/view of the scenes you have cited at.

The scene where Solomon is hanged really stayed as one of the most memorable
scenes in the movie for me because it just showed the amount of passiveness that they have
with what they are experiencing. For me, it seems as if that they’ve already given up and would
just accept their fate for their whole life. When the kids behind him continued playing while he
was hanged, I realized that they really don’t have any hope left in their blood that urges them to
fight. And that they are too afraid to do new things that might get them in trouble. Whereas we
Filipinos, even if we are in the midst of many troubles and bad events, we continue to smile and
don’t’ lose hope and thus we always have the “may bukas pa” motto.

Though I can’t assure that the mistreatment doesn’t actually happen to our fellow Filipino
domestic helpers, I can say that here in the Philippines we try to make the helpers as a part of
the family unlike in the movie where they treat them as property. I’m not sure if these doesn’t
happen during the old times but our country has come a long way with this issue.

Death seems to be the very escape of the slaves in their miserable life. Since they’ve
already lose hope in the society where they live, death is the only solution left for them to be
free from being treated as slaves and properties.