Viola Davis 'Strength In The Play 12 Years A Slave'

Black women’s strength has long been criticized as being inhuman and existing outside of the male female dichotomy. This is evident in the historical drama 12 Years a Slave where the female character Patsey assumes the persona of being a survivor, black, and a woman simultaneously. One such instance where she shows survival despite her slave master Epps sudden display of brutality is when she tells him that she will be clean after picking cotton. Even though her defiance of her slave master led to her being whipped, the strength that she displays makes her human. Many black women in slave narratives, movies or in literature written by black authors are viewed as supernatural due to their strength being seen as inferior. Although black women …show more content…
In the beginning of Viola Davis’ speech, she gave a quote once spoken by Harriet Tubman: “In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me, over that line. But I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line” (Gold 2015). This demonstrates black women celebrities’ survival in a Hollywood that doesn’t give their black bodies a lead role in movies. Patsey and Viola who are both dark-skinned African American women are forced to be thrown aside, similar to how Patsey was by her mistress and how Viola’s body is by white culture. Both Patsey and Viola, whose bodies are killed by white culture, but idolized as a indicator of capital by Epps, is an indicator of the detriment that black women have to experience in their daily oppression by white patriarchy. As Viola Davis said, “The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is