The Rebirth of Southern Honor Essays - , Term Papers

Wesley Prude 12/07/15 History 4990 Joe Perry The Rebirth of Southern Honor: What Birth of a Nation says about Southern Honor? Since its introduction cinema has been influential in shaping the culture of society, but what has now recently been discovered are the other adverse effects film can create. For example films can create emotion for causes, define honor and even inspire crimes. Films in general have been noted as having the ability to rewrite history and influence societal norms The latter of these effects, society is just now recognizing as an adverse effect of the power of cinema, to move citizens to commit crimes. Modern classics like Clockwork Orange, Natural Born Killers and American Psycho has been linked to numerous violent acts and mass homicide, but what society has failed to realize is that this phenomena had been present from cinemas very induction. It can even be speculated that during the birth of American cinema films were significantly more influential on the mass population than ever. The motives of mass shootings like Columbine have been traced back to the lines of the film NBK, but the death and destruction inspired by that film and others fails in comparison to the devastation that would follow in the wake of the film Birth of a Nation (1915). In the conclusion of this work I will draw a correlation between the cultural effects of this film and its portrayal of past concepts of southern masculinity. Further research has discovered that upon witnessing the film the second-generation founder of the KKK William J Simmons became so inspired by the film and its depiction of the Southern struggle for honor and its representation of the Klan that he would go on to found the second reiteration of the KKK atop Stone Mountain several months later. The films propaganda plus the Franks case are cited as the two main causes of the Klans revival. Evidence of this can be seen in the use of burning crosses by the new Klan which had never been used previously as a ritual of the original KKK, but is instead a artistic liberty taken by Griffith in the film. Before then the conc ept of burning crosses had never been used outside of a few literary works. This essay will be divided into three distinct sections in an attempt to dissect this topic. The first section of this exposition will be the breakdown of the film. It will summarize the film breaking down key scenes and overarching themes of the film. This will be an opportunity to examine the plot for all three sections of the film. This section will also examine the examples of the illustration of masculinity and honor in the film for both representation of white male honor and masculinity as well as those examples for African American men. The examination of stereotypes created from the film will also be discussed. The key focus of this section of the exposition is in conveying the means in which this film use its misc-en-sence and other cinematic tools to create a new culture of manliness in post-war America. The following section of the film will be restricted to the examination of the film by contemporaries and citizens of the era during the films release, limiting this section to secondary sources like reviews, anecdotes and newspaper articles. The reception of the film by the people that watched it during its initial release will be crucial in providing context and understanding of the consensus of the masses. This section will also include how this film was marketed to viewers. For this section there will be a synopsis of reviews from three different individuals; one black male, one white male, and a female. This will be significant because it will provide to readers the varying spectrum of responses to the film from viewers across racial and gender lines. The third and final section of this essay will encompass the effects and response to the films on a national scale both short term and long term. Issues of racial violence influenced by the film will be covered in this section of the essay. For example the rebirth of the Klu Klux Klan and the rise of lynching will be thoroughly