Seminar paper from the yr 2014 within the topic American stories - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, Johannes Gutenberg collage Mainz, language: English, summary: The awesome yet arguable movie "The start of a Nation", written in 1915 and directed via a white supremacist D.W. Griffith, was once “hailed as an image with no peer” and praised for being probably the most winning silent motion pictures through the viewers of its time (Rylance 1). whilst, besides the fact that, it turned the topic of a very good dispute over its racial politics. Griffith, for instance, partially denies evaluations of racial implications in his movie. utilizing black stereotypes within the delivery, his major objective was once to depict the old truth of the yankee previous. His target was once printed within the following assertion from the movie: “This is an historic presentation of the Civil warfare and Reconstruction interval, and isn't intended to mirror on any race or buyers” (1:28:13). relating the Jim Crow interval, whilst blacks have been subordinated and exploited, Griffith meant “partly to teach the undeserved and unearned prosperity of blacks in the course of Reconstruction” (Wallace 87). In different phrases, Griffith’s function was once to stress the supremacy and restored rule of the whites within the antebellum South.
This paper analyzes the black stereotypes within the delivery of a kingdom. particularly, it really is interested by the characters performed in blackface comparable to the Uncle Tom, the Mammy, the Jezebel (Lydia Brown) and the Brutal Black greenback (Sylas Lynch). it is going to learn how those personality kinds healthy to the black stereotypes which existed considering slavery and have become well known in American existence. via an research of the characters, this paper also will exhibit Griffith’s place towards racial justice and American identity.