Hollywood has used history itself for its own benefit. We all know how Hollywood exaggerates certain moments to make a big impact on the viewers and gain popularity. It’s because Hollywood typically changes things that today, I will be using as a thesis argument based on how Hollywood portraits slavery in the modern era and the effects power had on people. Morals change as time passes by, things that are alright now might be straight outrages in the future, but history ways stays the same. It’s because of this fact that we can learn of the actions we have taken during the ages.
Today we consider that slavery was a horrible and sick act but we didn’t always view it that way, at least the majority didn’t. To understand how exactly the movies from Hollywood have presented slavery to the viewers; we must watch and analyze different blockbusters from them. For this reason, the movies such as, “The Help”, “12 Years a Slave” and “Django unchained” are going to be used to analyze the representation of slavery in the modern day.
To begin with, slavery is something that has existed throughout the ages. If we look back on time, slavery is as old as time itself. We have had slavery for over ten thousand years. It dates back as far as agriculture started and they needed manual labor to work the fields. Other huge empires like Greece, Rome and Egypt used slaves to work, fight to the death, or to make them do anything that pleased them, even in a sexual way. Let it be stated that those eras, Greece and Roman eras, go back to 8th century BC.
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The reason that the date of those empires matters is because the way that they used slaves, is exactly the same as it was used by Americans in the United States. It’s astonishing to see how something so pre-historic, so barbarian, so uncivilized was approved and socially, politically and morally accepted until barely 150 years ago, after the civil war ended. Slavery itself is the act in which a person is owned by someone. A human being is literally seen as nothing more than a piece of property which is replaceable by anyone.
First of all, in the movies presented by Hollywood, it wasn’t just once or twice, but an uncountable amount of times that “Negros” were told that they were owned, that they were properties. In both movies, Django Unchained and 12 Years a Slave, people were sold like animals. In 12 Years a Slave, we were presented with the scene of a mother and her daughter being sold separately because the whites didn’t even permit for the family to be sold together, even if the buyer was willing to pay for both. This shows how cruel people with power were in those times. The mother begged and cried for them to not separate her daughter from her and even though selling them together was going to bring no harm, this still wasn’t permitted by the seller.
It also can’t go unmentioned that in 12 Years a Slave, Solomon, the main character, was tricked and sold into slavery knowing well that he was a free man. The act of selling Solomon just goes to show how greedy people could be, to go to the extent of tricking and selling an innocent and free person just for a few extra bucks. In only the first 35 minutes of this movie, 12 Years a Slave, Hollywood presented to us how slaves were treated as nothing more than animals and were sold as such. The act of separating the mother from her daughter is the same as taking away a baby chicken from her mother, we have no remorse whatsoever. Power made the whites slave owners and sellers selfish, greedy, monster with no sympathy towards “Negros.”
At the same time, it has to be acknowledged that Hollywood doesn’t just present the bad and the evil. On the contrary, the movies show how there is always good people who don’t judge or treat someone differently because of their skin color. In 12 Years a Slave, even though Solomon had being treated horribly, we also had the chance to see how Ford, his first owner, is a good and kind person. Mr. Ford reads the bible to his slaves and helped Solomon by selling him to another person, so that he wouldn’t be killed after causing problems with some whites. Not only him, but also Bass, a Canadian abolitionist, listened to Solomon’s amazing and horrifying story and believed him. Bass went through the danger of getting caught and probably killed, by getting Solomon’s letter to the people that he asked. Bass didn’t have any obligation of doing Solomon this favor, but by doing so, he managed to get the word out and get Solomon his rightfully deserved liberty back.
Likewise, we could also observed how in the movie Django Unchained, the same act is presented. In Django, Dr. King Schultz rescues Django by buying him and promises to give him his freedom after helping him hunt down some people. After the deed was done, the Dr had the option of killing or turning in Django, but he never even thought of it. On the contrary, he trained Django and offered his help to look for his slaved wife so they could be together again. This man, who barely knew Django, went out of his way, looking for nothing in return, and offered to help a “Negro” look for his wife. This shows us, that even though the era of slavery was a horrifying one, good people always existed. Hollywood is sending a message, telling us that whenever there’s darkness, there will also be light. There was never absolute evil, good people existed and also tried to help the slaves.
Furthermore, moving 100 years into the near present, in The Help, we are showed both realities again. In the movie, slavery has been abolished, but this doesn’t mean equal treatment, it was quite the contrary. Even though people of dark skin were not slaves anymore, they were still seemed as inferior humans compared to whites. The unequal treatment went to such an extent that in the first 5 minutes, when one of the maids couldn’t hold it anymore and went to use the bathroom, she was fired. To me, that is something so unfair and ridicules, to fire someone simply because she or he is of black skin and is using the same bathroom that you use. The mentality that people had was unbelievable. Again, we can see the corruption of the human soul and mind, to treat someone so differently, simply because you have more “power.” However, just like Hollywood did with its other movies, in “The Help” it also managed to show both sides of the coin.
Opposite from the stuck up white people, that though they were superior to blacks, Skeeter, in the movie, saw them as normal human beings and even got mad when she saw such unfair acts towards blacks. Skeeter runs the chance of putting her life in danger, when she decides to write about how the whites treat the black maids. Even knowing that once she publishes her work, she will be judged, criticized, hated and even in danger, Skeeter still isn’t afraid and never thinks twice about writing her story and helping blacks by making their voices be heard. She is being their mean of communication. By showing such a heroic character, Hollywood again reminds us that there is always good in people. No matter how bad some people are, there will always be those with a kind heart and willing to help. That’s how Hollywood represents whites during and after slavery.
Netherless, this wouldn’t be a complete analysis of Hollywood movies on slavery and their psychological effects on people if the actions of the slaves themselves weren’t taken into consideration. For this matter, the three movies we have been using until now demonstrate perfectly what I want to talk about. Slavery wasn’t only on a physical level, but it went as far as a psychological way. Slavery effected blacks in a psychological way, but that is to be expected. For instance, in 12 Years a Slave, when Patsy had been sexual assaulted numerous times by Edwin Epps, her master and owner, she couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to die. It got to the point that Patsy asked Solomon to kill her. She felt so bad and hated her life so much that wanted to die already. The psychological effects slavery had on her were so big and heavy that she couldn’t take it.
Moreover, in Django, something completely different happened. Stephen, Mr. Candie’s helper, was a black servant with power over other servants; he was given power like any other white person. Just like whites were consumed with power and lost their sanity, so did Stephen, he became cold blooded like the rest of them. Stephen, being black himself and probably having gone through slavery, treated other slaves just like whites did, like a piece of property, without a second thought about it. When he noticed that Django was trying to buy her liberty, he immediately intervened. A character like such makes us analyze and think about what type of person could be like this. It’s hard to imagine someone that has experience the pain of being a slave treat other slaves so cold hearted. Again, we can see what power does to people. Slavery affected those in power in a way that it made them cold hearted, ruthless and selfish. Hollywood presented to us the truth behind slavery.
It’s very easy to not notice small details in movies. Scenes pass so quick that the audience doesn’t give much thought to it apart from the usual, “That’s mean” or “How could they do that” type of reactions. It’s not until we dig deeper, we analyze the situation and the action that people took that we realize how important something small might be. The psychological aspects of the movies, in my opinion, are something somewhat fascinating. Try to think for a second, what is the psychological state of mind of a person, when they are able to sell someone who is innocent and legally free, as a slave.
In the same way, what goes through the mind of a person, when they deliberately separate a mother from her child, causing such unimaginable pain to another human being. Physical pain is something that goes away after healing, but emotional pain, on another hand, is something that can take years to heal, if it does at all. Even if selling slaves was morally accepted on those times, it was in no way necessary to separate a family, this was only done, because a human being was consumed by power and it affected his judgment, morality and sympathy for another human.
Slavery was indeed a horrible act. It’s something that should have stayed in the past but didn’t, it somehow was allowed to prevail in the “modern” times until people couldn’t take it anymore. What made slavery such a horrible thing was psychological effect that it had on people. It affected those in power and also those that were controlled by power. For those that had all the power and money, they became corrupted, evil, cold blooded and almost non-human. Likewise, those that were controlled by power also suffered consequences. Those slaves, that were under strict government, sometimes felt like their only way out was death.
The effects of slavery lasted even after it was abolished, like it was pointed out in The Help. When Celia Foote sat down to eat with her black maid, she almost lost her mind. The maid kept telling Celia that she shouldn’t be seated there, that that table was the maids table, in other words, the blacks table. Slavery affected blacks, to the point that they themselves started thinking less of themselves. They seemed whites as superiors and blacks as inferiors, because it was what had been taught to them for years. It was something that was psychologically there, it was an unconscious idea. Hollywood does present exaggeration on its movies so that they make it to the big screen but in these cases, it presented slavery as it was, a sad moment of our history. It showed history in a deeper way than one would first think. It showed the true colors of slavery and how nasty it was. Hollywood presented the effects of slavery; Hollywood showed us the effects power has on humanity.
