The Symbolism Of Silas Trip In The Movie Glory

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Silas Trip was a Private in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry introduced to us in the movie Glory. He is one of the main characters in the movie. He was part of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry which at the time was one of the first regiments to be composed of African Americans during the Civil War. We first meet Trip when the troops are settling into their tents and he tries to start something like he always does. Trip was stated to be a runaway slave at the young age of 12 and was shown to have a very distrust and disliking to white folk making jokes and comments about them and trying to start something with his fellow black soldiers. After a while we see that he is angry at how he and his fellow black soldiers have to do drills with no proper …show more content…

James Island. He is shown shooting and ending many men. When the battle raged on it is shown that Trip would’ve been bayoneted if not for the efforts of Corporal. Thomas Searles who then saved him. Robert then offers Trip the chance to hold up the flag into battle, but Trip declines stating he isn’t fighting the war for him. Trip then goes into how the war won’t end and how nobody wins even if it does since many will lose their lives. Then during the Battle of Fort Wagner, Trip sees Robert's valiant attempt of rallying the troops which ultimately results in Robert’s death by the hand of gunfire. After witnessing this Trip picks up the flag and rally’s the remaining soldiers with this being successful they are charged where Trip is later shot dead in battle. Before this happened there was an event where the soldiers' pay was being distributed, but the money was less than the white man’s pay so Trip started a riot. With this Robert decided to not allow anyone to receive pay due to the unfairness of the situation. In the end both Trip and Robert were killed in battle and were buried together, this was supposedly a way of dishonoring Robert for commanding black soldiers this was not the case however. Trip was a selfish and ignorant person, but then developed into a strong willed, inspiring figure in the regiment during the Battle of Fort