Exploring Social Phenomenon in the Movie of Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino

Group Members:
Muhammad Iqbal (2211421151)
Haqiqi Ranu Antariksa Saputra (2211421146)
Muhammad Al Fatih Mahyuzar (2211421144)
Muhammad Pasha (2211421143)

Language and Identity

In the film or in the movie we can see that Django will change the way he speaks according
to who he is speaking to. He has 2 dialects, “black” and “white”. When speaking with fellow
black skinned people he will adopt “black” dialects that are more casual and still have a
touch of their own culture, identity and their own way to speak. And he will adopt a more
submissive, respectful tone and use “white” dialect when speaking to white skinned people.
He did this to adapt and survive in the especially brutal, grueling, discriminate years of the
1850s against people with darker skin. However after many years of speaking, dressing and
act such as the white people do and being a freed man, he started to see the african
american who still being a slave to be beneath him and even didn’t care when his fellow
african american is dead bitten by dogs in the scene where he rode to candyland - slowly
losing his identity as a former slave african american.

Slavery as an Economic System

During the antebellum period, slavery was the very backbone of the southern economy, The
movie explained how slave treated as an object to trade who being sold and purchased, they
became the commodities of the region, they were used to picking cotton and working on
other plantation that is profitable and the slave have no option than to follow their master’s
order. The slavery in this movie is very well and accurately portrayed, enslaved people are
being exploited by their master to generate a lot of money for their master and increase the
economy of the south, that's why enslaved people became very valuable assets of the
southern people.

White people as superior

Physical abuse of black slaves is depicted as occurring between white characters, especially
plantation owners and overseers. The film contains scenes that include whipping, beatings,
and other acts of physical control and punishment. The film features many examples of
racial epithets and verbal abuse directed at black characters by white characters as shown
in the film when the employer calls a black person "nigger." The racism and dehumanization
that occurred during this period is reflected in this vocal slander. Black people were exploited
by plantation owners like Calvin Candie for their entertainment. These included mandingo
fights, in which male slaves were forced to engage in life-or-death combat for the
entertainment of white elites. From here we can see a lot of evidence that white people are
rulers or superior.
Black People Trade

According to the movie exposure, we can see there was a slave transaction. Since slaves
were seen as property, it was common that property had its price to buy and to be owned.
There, slave trade was needed to conduct. Illustrated in the movie like when Dr. Schultz and
Django attempted to buy Django’s wife and finally bought her in expensive cost, it was one
of the slave trade evidence. This slave trade was firstly created in Atlantic Slave Trade since
around the beginning of 15th century. There was a huge transoceanic migration of Africans,
who moved to the Middle East, Europe, and then America from the 17th century until the
19th century. In the beginning of the Atlantic Trade period, Europeans prioritized the sought
og gold rather than laborers. But because demand for labor kept increasing, Europeans
conducted a deal with African traders and political leaders to sell their laborers, with the
prestiges goods such as cloth and alcohols as the promised exchange. Unfortunately,
because the Europeans held the control of these goods, they could also control the slave
trade cycle as well. The Atlantic Slave Trade just moved slaves from one continent to
another, in the eyes of Europeans, who saw Africa as "no more than a great reservoir of
slavery." West African monarchs and merchants, on the other hand, responded to the
demand using economic logic and exploited it to reinforce streams of political and economic
growth that were already underway when the Atlantic slave trade started (Foster, 1976).

References

Foster, H. J. (1976). Partners or Captives in Commerce?: The Role of Africans in the Slave
Trade. In Source: Journal of Black Studies (Vol. 6, Issue 4).
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2783771http://about.jstor.org/terms

PREVIEW COPY INCLUDING THE COMPLETE FIRST LESSON The Atlantic Slave Trade.
(2000). http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/