I found the part about the Jefferson affair very interesting. Why are the modern depictions of Jefferson distorted, what do we gain by hiding the affair? Bradford Vivian's view on the Jefferson affair, that it has been framed as a romance to satisfy our desire to humanize and cleanse his memory (cited in Trenholm, pg 377) was something to think about. Why is the affair kept in mystery, is this because Hemings was a slave? The media have portrayed a different Jefferson, a rhetorical act that has influenced what the public have come to believe.
In my opinion, the media have played on the public’s memory by twisting the story to their advantage. I think we need to look back at the time this happened and the context. It may have been the norm for a white slave owner to have affairs with the slaves he owned. Our fascination with such sensational stories is what keeps the media going in producing films, novels and documentaries!!
I also find the lengths that Hollywood will go to romanticize history very amusing. Jefferson’s relationship with Hemings is not the only piece of history that has gotten the Hollywood treatment. In the movie “The Patriot”, with Mel Gibson, Mel plays a hero of the Revolutionary War. To soften the blow regarding Gibson’s plantation employing slaves, they dress it up as a sort of co-op. Also, in the movie “Pearl Harbor,” starring Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale, the entire movie was set in the 1940’s during WWII, but not one cigarette is smoked in the entire movie, even though a huge percentage of the population (let alone the military) were smokers at that time.
ReplyDeleteI also found the part about Jefferson and his affair with Hemings interesting. It is funny how people in modern times feel as if they can do really portray the image of what life was like in previous times, such as this case. Nobody today really knows, like you said, the context of relationship or the times. I agree with you that the media has twisted the story for their advantage. The entertainment industry is a business, so of course they feel as if they can twist stories to make better entertainment for their viewers. But I do find it a shame that people will watch these films and truly believe what they are watching is real. And things were the way they are depicted in the films.
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