Paper Topic 1
After reading Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) in the course packet, and watching the film Birth of a Nation (2016) I was able to notice some key takeaways and differences between the two.
The film Birth of a Nation was directed by Nate Parker, he also played the main role in the film acting as Nat Turner. After watching this movie I took a few minutes to reflect on the story and its main points. As Nate Parkers job as a filmmaker I believe that he wanted portray Nat Turner as a hero that acted with honor and dignity to serve what he believed to be the lord 's purpose. Throughout the whole movie Nat turner can be seen as a right and just slave. Whether it was going from plantation to plantation with his drunken master to preach or serving a group for dinner, he did what he was told no questions asked. The film leads up to the mass murder by showing what Nat Turner experienced and why he lead the revolt. Nate Parker includes terrible scenes to create pathos with the audience such as Nat being beaten for baptizing a man(1:08) and his wife being beaten and raped(55). He adds these scenes to provide justification for the acts of murder Nat commits. The movie also shows his visions from the spirits and lord to give depth and show how much Nat Turner believed in
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In the reading Nat Turner is not portrayed as a hero, but as a crazy slave. As Nat Turner describes the acts he committed he explains them very matter of factly with almost no emotion or remorse. He was an extremely religious man in both the reading and the movie, but in the reading he seems crazy talking about “visions” one included “I discovered drops of blood on the corn as though it were dew from heaven”(10) another being “I then found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters”(10).Nat Turner believed those were signs that from God that his “purpose” would soon be