Birth of a Nation:

In Douglass’ autobiography it mentions a few instances of women being silenced and not having a voice. An event that really sticks with Douglas is watching the beating of his dear Aunt. It is described as her being stripped naked and beat hard being told she cant scream. This really disgusted Douglas and is something that he will never forget, all the blood and tears. In the New York Times article it goes more into depth with women in slavery. They had absolutely no voice, they would get raped and not be able to do anything about it. These women would be forced to carry their rapists (typically the slave owner) baby and after the birth be ripped apart from each other before a few months. In the film A Birth of A Nation a woman named Esther had to leave her husband and go inside the slave owners house, knowing what was going to happen.  She walks out and doesn’t say a word you can just see it in her face of what is described as the final blow to her dignity.

The Metamorphosis:

In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor a traveling salesman wakes up one morning to find himself turned into an insect. I found the whole story pretty confusing and was unclear of the message. In the beginning you see Gregor waking up unclear about what was going on with his body and going into great detail about trying to get out of bed. He also talks a lot about where he works and how much worse his boss is than everyone else’s. When he is able to open the door, to greet his mother father and manager. They are all terrified his mom starts crying and his dad covers his eyes, his manager is utterly confused. Eventually Gregor and his family realize this is their new life, and Gregor can no longer leave his room, scared that he will terrify his family. His sister begins to bring him his food. You can tell that his father is done with him when one day he throws apples at him and one permanently gets stuck in his back. The ending of the story comes with Gregor leaving his room while wanting to hear his sister play the violin. The family has boarders staying with them and they get a sight of Gregor, and leave without paying. Gregors family eventually decides that they can no longer handle this “creature” living with them and realize they have to get rid of him, Gregor over hears this and becomes severely depressed which eventually leads to his death.