Book Review #4

Book Review on Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup

Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup is germane today since it consists events that are significant to our society. This novel is about the life of a black man, who was enslaved even though he was born a free man. This novel gives readers a different perspective in the fact it is written from a view of a freed man who was abducted and sold into slavery. The author provides us with an interesting perspective into slave life so as to reveal the readers what it felt like to be a slave based on how they were being treated. The events in this book are still relevant today as slavery still prevails in some parts of the world and people's rights being violated by the wealthy people based on their economic status and race. Besides, there are situations that still occur daily where a person is being abased by a wealthy or upper class men. Correspondingly, an event in the book which can be related is when two white men offers Solomon a beneficial work for a circus. Then, he approved the offer without even thinking and knowing that he was being tricked into becoming a slave. Likewise, there are a lot of people who gets scammed and are unaware of the fact that they are being tricked by offering big amounts or other new methods. Thus, I learned that I should always question myself to why I am being offered money and not be avaricious. Also, this will help me hinder from getting scammed or tricked, and being able to handle such situations. 

Moreover, according to the events in the novel, Solomon was kept bondage for 12 years. During that time, he had met a lot of black captives who had been abducted and sold into slavery just like him. This event can be related to our society today, since there is still a presence of sex trafficking which is very similar to the situation that the author mentions. Besides, the way the sex slaves are being treated are similar to how the black slaves in the past were treated. Hence, this is imperative to our society because it shows us how difficult it was for black slaves to achieve their freedom and justice. With that said, this starts to make me think of how some people's rights are consistently being violated in a daily basis. Yet, some people tend to complain about little superfluous things. This novel has also enhanced the way I view things and convinced me to be grateful of not being in these type of situations nor during that time period where there was a lot of ruthless cruelty occurrence.