12 years a slave - Book Report/Review Example

Q Ans. While the overall plot of the book is quite depressingly intriguing, the most striking feature of the book 12 Years a Slave is the brave depiction of the way white slaveholding women and black women relate to each other in America. Women serve as a measure for the nature of slavery through expression of their fury. The plot of 12 Years a Slave is so brutal and depressing that it does not make the audiences feel better about themselves being different from the victims of the story. Patsey is torn between “a licentious master and a jealous mistress” (Northup).

Her husband’s sexual obsession with Patsey results in humiliation for Mistress Epps. Not being in a position to punish the husband, she brutalizes the young lady. The role of women in inflicting brutality can be assessed from the fact that physical punishment between mistresses and slaves is much more frequent compared to that between masters and their slaves. Black men and white women and women in the slave era of America were all subject to the patriarchal authority of the whites. Nobody but the white women was able to vent their fury, but sadly upon the ones they had superiority over.

12 Years a Slave is a book that undoubtedly deserves to be read as well as appreciated. However, racial imbalance upon the academy stresses upon the fact that past legacies are not completely gone. The relationship of Mistress Epps and Patsey reflects the unrecognized bitterness which still poisons any progress attempts, and thus the women serve as a measure for the nature of slavery.Works Cited:Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years A Slave (Full Book and Comprehensive Reading Companion). BookCaps Study Guides, 2013. Print.