The Butler
RR: Lee Daniel’s The Butler
Sara Crocker
For this reader response, I chose to see the movie, Lee Daniel’s The Butler. I was really surprised at how I took the movie. It was almost as if the rest of the day, I continued to see parts of the movie in my head and be disgusted with my ethnicity and the history of white people’s actions. It was sickening to see how black people were treated, and the extremes that white people would enforce in order to inhibit their freedom. Throughout the life of Cecil Gaines, the movie showed how his life started from the traumatic bottom, and how his actions turned him into a somewhat “respected” butler. The first part of the movie was what really hit me as disturbing, and really made me try to put myself in Cecil’s shoes. His mother was raped and his father was shot for opening his mouth to the owner. I mean, I have seen different movies that show some traumatic event such as this as to how hard black people had it back then, but after all of the readings I have read in class, I just really felt emotional and bothered after this movie. At this point, Cecil’s life did improve, as little as it may seem, but working as a butler would be far better than working in the cotton fields. Once Cecil decided to leave the plantation and try things on his own, things didn’t go exactly as he thought in the sense of having a place to live, as well as food in his belly. I personally, couldn’t imagine having to worry about being killed by another race. We are born the color we are, and we are not given the choice to decide our gender, skin color, class, etc. I can’t even imagine how worthless I would feel if I were a woman of color back in this time. They didn’t have any right other than the ones in which their owner would give them. Cecil only wanted what was best for his sons. Louis didn’t always make the best decisions, but he had that urge in his heart to fight for what he believed in. The youngest son, Charlie, didn’t always get
Sara Crocker
For this reader response, I chose to see the movie, Lee Daniel’s The Butler. I was really surprised at how I took the movie. It was almost as if the rest of the day, I continued to see parts of the movie in my head and be disgusted with my ethnicity and the history of white people’s actions. It was sickening to see how black people were treated, and the extremes that white people would enforce in order to inhibit their freedom. Throughout the life of Cecil Gaines, the movie showed how his life started from the traumatic bottom, and how his actions turned him into a somewhat “respected” butler. The first part of the movie was what really hit me as disturbing, and really made me try to put myself in Cecil’s shoes. His mother was raped and his father was shot for opening his mouth to the owner. I mean, I have seen different movies that show some traumatic event such as this as to how hard black people had it back then, but after all of the readings I have read in class, I just really felt emotional and bothered after this movie. At this point, Cecil’s life did improve, as little as it may seem, but working as a butler would be far better than working in the cotton fields. Once Cecil decided to leave the plantation and try things on his own, things didn’t go exactly as he thought in the sense of having a place to live, as well as food in his belly. I personally, couldn’t imagine having to worry about being killed by another race. We are born the color we are, and we are not given the choice to decide our gender, skin color, class, etc. I can’t even imagine how worthless I would feel if I were a woman of color back in this time. They didn’t have any right other than the ones in which their owner would give them. Cecil only wanted what was best for his sons. Louis didn’t always make the best decisions, but he had that urge in his heart to fight for what he believed in. The youngest son, Charlie, didn’t always get