Effects Of D. W. Griffith's Birth Of A Nation

Effects of Birth of a Nation In 1915, D. W. Griffith released Birth of a Nation. Birth of a Nation was a technological feat because nothing on this scale had ever been filmed before. The motion picture was divided into three parts: before the war, during the war, and after the war (Wallace 89). Many people believe that “Birth of a Nation has always been and always will be, an important American film because of its aesthetic legacy (Wallace 88).” Although this film showed the advancement of technology during this time period, one must not forget about its content. The film portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as knights and the freed Negroes as animals. When viewing Birth of a Nation, people should not think of the motion picture as art; rather, people

D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation was based on Thomas Dixon’s novel The Clansmen. Dixon was a white supremacist whose ideology reflected in his novel. In the introduction of The Clansmen, Dixon described his theme as: “How the young South, led by the reincarnated souls of the Clansmen of Old Scotland, went forth under this cover and against overwhelming odds, daring exile, imprisonment, and a felon’s death, and save the life of a people, forms one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of the Aryan race (Carter 348).” In Dixon’s novel, he glorified the Ku Klux Klan. For example, Dixon would describe the Ku Klux Klan as, “… the world had not seen since the Knights of the Middle Ages rode on their Holy Crusades (Carter 349).” He also wrote about how the Ku Klux Klan saved civilization and redeemed the south from shame. This aspect of Thomas Dixon’s novel was propagandistic. He made the Ku Klux Klan heroes that preserved white women chastity and restored white supremacy. In reality, the Clansmen were not heroes;

Many scholars can agree that the motion picture was far more destructive than the novel. The film caused more damage because people saw a visualization of what “African Americans” were rather than having to imagine from reading The Clansmen. Birth of a Nation was the first film to “color, influence, and constitute so large a part of the nation thinking about African Americans (Lawrence and Walker 2).” The film played a momentous role in developing popular misconception and perception of blacks. Griffith created a false representation of African American males by amplifying the “brutal buck” stereotype through characters such as Silas Lynch and