Work Vs Leisure - Ragged Dick Presentation

• Alger implements various themes to show secret to success 
• Work vs leisure, key to Dicks way of life/ Rags to Riches
• American Dream link to work and leisure 
• Hard work centralised, what you attain from it 
• Work reoccurring theme in not only ragged dick but Algers other novels
• Working hard and it's benefits vs indolence 
• Luck vs work
• Child falling in water, dick rescuing, luck or benefits of being selfless?
• Leisure - self education and its importance 
• Leisure intrinsically linked with work
• How leisure is involved 
• Dicks friendship with Henry Fosdick
• Becoming more literate and its importance, accepting Mr Whitneys advice
• Ragged Dick emphasises important underlying message through leisure and work. 

Friendship vs. Rivalry

• Friendship:
• Frank and Mr Whitney
• Henry Fosdick
• Mr Greyson
• How frienships help
• Rivalry:
• Micky Maguire
• Roswell Crawford
• Mr Travis
• Alger's meaning
• Appearance of friends vs. Rivals
• positives and negatives of friendship and rivalry 

Youth vs Experience

• Introduction - importance of Youth vs Experience
• Dick - presents aspects of both? Young & talented. Rags to riches. Putnam's quote.
• Youth - pos & neg. Pos- youthful & full of energy, lack of responsibilities - true for Dick? Neg- nicknames, lazy stereotype.
• Other hand: lazy characters e.g. Johnny Nolan - quotes?
• Maturity in experience: Dick being mature for his age.
• Maturity in age: Mr. Greyson and Mr. Whitney - mature, responsible figures.
• Other hand: Irresponsible adults - Mr Nolan, store clerk.
• Dick acting older than he is: Quotes?
• Street smarts as experience: Quotes? Experience as a boot-black. Dick vs Frank in street smarts & common sense.
• Appearances: Younger characters- dirty and ragged, except for Frank, and later Dick. Older characters- well-dressed and hygienic e.g. Greyson and Whitney, except for Mr. Nolan, presumably. Suggests experience is superior to youth.
• How characters are treated by how they look: When filthy, Dick is judged and the clerk tries to con him and threatens to arrest him. Whereas when cleaned up, he is treated with more respect, except for by Micky, who bullies him. 
• Experience as negative: Micky being experienced but mean, bullying Dick and being a "leader of a gang of young ruffians", contrasting Dick.
• Fosdick: Like Dick, he is both young yet experienced, but not in the same way. He can read and write, whereas Dick is a good boot-black and is street smart. 
• Conclude: pos and negs of both, youth and experience as separate, but can be overlapped by the likes of Dick and Fosdick. 

12 Years a Slave Review

The story begins with Solomon living with wife and children in New York as a free man and respected member of his community. After being lured to Washington by a couple of con-artists who promised him work, he was subsequently drugged, locked in chains, viciously beaten, stripped of his identity and shipped to New Orleans to be sold into slavery. Over the next twelve years, he was owned by two men who treated him in contrasting ways. The first was relatively civilized, but the plantation's half-witted manager was threatened by Northup's superior intelligence. Their mutual dislike produced a dangerously volatile situation where we see Solomon moments away from being lynched. This scene is perhaps one of the most powerful, as a continual shot it leaves the audience uncomfortable as Solomon struggles in the mud on his tip-toes to keep his balance with the  noose still around his neck while other slaves continue on in the background, unable to help. Unwilling to lose his investment, Northup's owner re-sold him to a neighbour. This unbalanced individual regarded his slaves as property to be used for pleasure and profit, which caused them to live in perpetual fear that his capricious moods would flare into sadistic lust or rage at any moment. He often punishes his slaves, with his worst behaviour reserved for his 'favourite' slave Patsey, regularly raping and beating her. This leads to his wife's increasingly hostility for her through jealousy, culminating in her throwing a glass bottle at her head and encouraging her husband to beat her until her flesh is exposed; all for borrowing a bar of soap. The slave owner even gets Solomon to take part in the whipping of Patsey.This shows how no remorse is shown to people considered nothing but property.

 Their dramatisation of Northup's experiences is both powerful and uncomfortable to watch, as the film depicts the perverse nature of a society that permitted such a barbaric system and successfully manages to show how a privileged Southern elite cruelly exploited their fellow humans in order to acquire greater wealth for themselves.

The film does often rely on shock tactics to keep the story moving and does not delve particularly deeply into the psychological side of how slavery effected both the slaves and the slave owners. These factors are shown however in the scenes where Solomon carves his wife and children's names into the side of his violin only to smash in later on, or the despair when he is almost found out for trying to get a letter sent up north with the help of a White man who ultimately double crosses him. Another powerful scene is where a fellow slave is buried, while the slaves sing, a close-up of Solomon's face reveals his impending realisation that unless someone saves him his fate is to die as a a slave- the fate of so many black people in the South at this time.

12 Years A Slave Review

Woodrow Wilson once stated in the wake up 'Birth of a Nation' in 1915 that the film was "history written with lightening". However, in 2013 Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave set the record straight and thus many people have come to argue that finally, history has truly been written with lightening. Very few films have depicted slavery which is perhaps the most profoundly abiding shame in America's Hollywood. No film before 12 Years A Slave truly addressed the reality of slavery at such a personal level whereby we can truly see what life was like as a slave, not to mention the brutality and rape, but also the mental destruction that comes with it and a generation of people who are brought up in slavery and thus internalised. Numerous films in Hollywood seem to have followed the trend of black people or history being improved and saved by white people, notably, such as Taratino's Django Unchained which ultimately ends up as a revenge fantasy and doesn't really show any empathy towards the slaves or what their lives were like. Returning back to the idea of internalisation of the slaves McQueen shows this effectively by showing how their movement around the plantations is not monitored in the slightest. Clearly you can begin to understand the mindset of slaves and how their attitudes to seek freedom is bereft not only out of fear through brutality which the film shows explicitly, but also there is no possible way of returning even if on the rare chance your family wasn't also put into slavery. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Solomon Northup, brilliantly empitomises the loss of hope through his facial expressions and expresses the despair of slavery to an extreme extent where he joins in singing the song ('Roll, Jordan, Roll')  which all the other slaves are also singing. It is at this point where Solomon accepts he's a slave and cannot change this; something which is every slave would have to be endure in 19th century America.

Review of 12 Years A Slave

After its 2013 release, 12 Year a Slave was nominated for 295 awards, winning 223 of these, including 3 Oscars, therefore is a world-renowned historical drama about slavery. Based on Solomon Northup’s memoirs, the film is an unapologetic account of the inhumane, brutal reality of slavery in the U.S, well-known for its difficulty to watch, due to the violence onscreen.

Previous to the release of 12 Years a Slave, actress Lupita Nyong’o was relatively unknown to the U.S. public, and the world, excluding her popularity in Kenya. However, after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, she gained worldwide recognition for her outstanding performance as Patsey.

During the film, we see Patsey as the object of Epps’ affections, as well as his best cotton picker. As the plot progresses, Patsey is seen being raped, beaten, whipped and begging for Solomon to kill her. This emphasises not only the physical abuse of slaves, but also the sexual abuse by their owners.

One of the most notable scenes in the film would be Patsey’s whipping, in which Solomon is forced to whip his comrade, due to Epps’ cowardice. Sean Bobbitt commented on this scene, stating “That was always going to be one continuous shot…the audience is given no relief…the complexity of the emotions and the violence going on, it really acts to heighten the drama and the performance of the actors”. In this way, we can see that McQueen, and the producers worked to make this scene as uncomfortable as possible for the viewers; the disproportion of Patsey’s mistake versus her punishment (defending Solomon), the shame in her being stripped from her clothes and tied to a post, and Solomon’s unease to hit her hard enough, are all elements which completely shock the audience into the realisation that this was reality during that time in America.

On the other hand, however many argue that the film relied almost entirely on shock tactics, and unthinkable violence. Several critics compare it to the book, in this way, as in the film, we see Patsey beg Solomon to kill her, and release her from her misery, whereas in the memoirs of the actual Solomon Northup, he claimed that Patsey believed there was goodness in the world, and hoped for freedom. In addition to this, many claim that within the book, Solomon has a very complex relationship with Epps, and isn’t as negative and brutal as Fassbender portrayed him.

Therefore, despite how well 12 Years A Slave depicts the slave trade, over 150 years after emancipation, to a generation who live long after these events, many argue that the film doesn’t remain entirely true to Solomon’s actual life events, with superfluous violence, and incorrect characters. However, I believe that said over exaggeration was deemed necessary, in order to convey the brutality of the slave trade, to an audience who may be uneducated on the subject. 

12 Years A Slave - Critical film review review

12 Years A Slave is without question, the most realistic and powerful portrayal of the brutal conditions 19th century slaves had to endure in the southern states. The film captures the process of dehumanisation these people endured at the hands of their oppressors in a startlingly frank fashion, making the film exceedingly uncomfortable to watch at many points, it's clear that this is Steve McQueen's intention throughout the film. The use of camera angles to highlight the power struggles Soloman and the others faced is very clever, even in the scenes where the characters are persecuted and assaulted in the most abhorrent ways the camera height and angle remains level whether the character is black or white showing that despite the circumstances these people are still equal. The concentration on Soloman's legal struggle to get release papers filed, explores the issue of slavery in never before seen detail, as well as this, the film shows a diverse array problems never seen in a major motion picture. One aspect of the film that may not be presented as much as it could be is the scale of the trade. The only slave ship shown in any great detail the film carried hardly a dozen slaves, this of course makes sense since Soloman was not on a huge trans-Atlantic boat yet, one feels that the scale of slavery wasn't quite done justice. Also, some criticise the film for it's overactive use of violence yet, as a film in needs to inform visually the pain suffered by the slaves in captivity. Apart from these points, 12 Years A Slave excels in its portrayal of the slave trade with sexual and physical assault in no way shied away from, even details like the greying of Soloman's hair or his features becoming more gaunt over time reinforce the justice that McQueen does in his presentation of the hardships endured by slaves in the 19th century American southern states.

Born in Slavery : An Interview with Charlie Williams

Interview with Charlie Williams

I found this interview shocking, but not because it was a graphic account of whipping and abuse by slave owners, but rather the opposite.
It was shocking for me, to see an account from a slave's perspective, in which we are told that Nat Williams, the land owner, didn't whip Charlie's parents. We also see him call Williams "nice", as after his wife's death, he lived with the former slaves, after they were freed.
Charlie's family seemed to have a good relationship with Williams, or as good as a relationship between a slave owner and slaves could be, as Charlie tells the interviewer that "Mr. Williams kept us well protected."
Another shocking truth is the fact that Charlie never encountered the Ku Klux Klan, which was incredibly fortunate.
The sad reality, however, is that Charlie, after 'escaping' slavery, he remains in poverty. He says "I have no home. I am a widower. I have no land."
This emphasises the hardships and disadvantages faced by black people, in 1936, over 70 years after they, and their families, escaped slavery.

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938

The initial response to this narrative is certainly the noticeability of the poor English that is used throughout. Undoubtedly, you can infer that the individual who wrote this was very illiterate and had most likely been raised as a child within the slavery culture just like his son. Clear spelling and grammar errors are made as he tries to express his recent activities initially stating, “we builds cribs and didn’ take long ‘fore we could buy some hosses and some mules and some good hogs.”. The fact that slaves were so illiterate is clearly shown in this narrative and supports the idea of a slave culture which had created clumsy, inept, non-critical learning and unassuming human beings. Whilst we cannot tell how old the writer of this was it is fairly likely he was a grown man that had been ‘infantilised’, therefore becoming so controlled and unaware of any other way of life.

 

         The narrative gives the reader an idea of what their day to day lives would be like with ‘building cribs’, ‘scrubbing dem wid lye soap’, ‘buildin’ better houses’. This suggests a fairly normal day’s work and even states his master was happy and perhaps is why there is a lack of brutality in this part of the narrative. This lifestyle traps the slaves into a very ordinary culture during this time and this person quite clearly doesn’t know any better as the narrative suggests so much normality. The lack of emotions shown also reveals another capability slaves had; or perhaps their illiteracy meant they couldn’t portray it with words.

Interview with Mr John W. Fields, ex-slave of civil war period. 1937

One of twelve children born into slavery, John W. Fields was sold when his master died and all twelve children were split up from their family to settle his estate. He was six years old and from then on he only saw his mother for one night a year. "my life prior to that time was filled with heartache and dispair". The slaves longed for education but teaching a ''negro slave" was a punishable crime, "our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us".  Even when the civil war broke out many slaves did not know that they were free after the emancipation act of 1863; Field's did not realise he himself was free until  1864.

Punishment as a slave was a constant, "one of the women slaves had been very sick and she was unable to work just as fast as he thought she ought to. He had driven her all day with no results. That night after completing our work he called us all together. He made me hold a light, while he whipped her and then made one of the slaves pour salt water on her bleeding back back. My innerds turn yet at that sight".

pro and anti gun control websites

Pro-gun control: http://smartgunlaws.org/

'To reduce the immense loss of life due to gun violence in this country, we need laws and policies that work.' It seeks to educate to help reduce the loss of life in the US while protecting peoples second amendment rights.

Anti-gun control: http://www.cato.org/research/gun-control

'not simply to stave off new gun-control proposals, but to begin restoring Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.' The website includes a map that plots where people have used guns successfully against criminals- 'The bottom line is that gun owners stop a lot of criminal mayhem every year.'

Pro/Anti Gun

Pro Gun Control: http://csgv.org

Anti Gun Control: https://home.nra.org

This first website shown is created by the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and 'seeks to secure freedom from gun violence through research, strategic engagement and effective advocacy.'  This organisation uses its contributions/funds to raise awareness of how dangerous guns are through social media, TV, radio and prints ads. Many of these awareness campaigns and their campaigners believe the NRA in particular and other organisations that are supportive of pro gun control are putting our loved ones in the line of fire. The CSGV want to educate people who are supporters of guns and make them realise why citizens must be free its violence through statistics and 'hard-hitting' stories about fatalities from gun violence. The organisation does not want to completely rid the country of the 2nd Amendment, however they advocate the idea of sensible and tighter gun laws.

On the other hand, the NRA, undoubtedly the most notorious and pro gun organisation in America believes in the traditional and founding principle of protecting the 'freedom' of individual gun owners. However, many people criticise the organisation and think it's actually working to protect the interests of the gun industry to manufacture and sell virtually any weapon or accessory to people who don't have the greatest training or understanding of safety. The NRA believes everyone should have the right to defend themselves against criminal intentions yet the irony is that these types of organisations suggest people need more guns to protect themselves from people who have guns. Moreover, the NRA argues "firearms helped define your life. Now, let them be your legacy.", which to an extent, is understandable as this was the ideology that secured American independence. Although, that was a time when guns were necessary to fight for independence. Nowadays the laws that are set in place are debatably outdated in a civilised society and it seems the US is the only super power nation that doesn't have a controlled, tighter and regulated process when purchasing weapons. There are countless statistics put forward by the CSGV which criticises all the NRA's beliefs. For example, no mass shooting in over 30 years has been stopped by an armed civilian thus proving the ineffectiveness of civilians having the right to defend themselves from criminals with guns.

Websites For and Against Guns in America

Pro Gun Website:
http://jpfo.org/

Anti Gun Website:
http://momsdemandaction.org/