Kate Chopin And The Producers Of Mandingo - 892 Words

Social customs are what shape’s a culture, and establishes the attitude and behavior expected by the community, deviation from the norm creates what can later be known as a taboo. Kate Chopin and the producers of Mandingo decided to break the taboo of miscegenation and address the problem honestly in both the story and the film. By doing so, I had an insight to better understand the complexities of racial equality, history, gender, status and not delude myself into thinking these issues are not expressed in present time. Furthermore, my approach in this essay is to juxtapose between the movie and story and discuss themes, female protagonists and social issues that have occurred. To commence, Chopin’s depiction on miscegenation is fairly similar to that of Mandingo, both the film and the story emphasize on gender, status, as well as power in order to better understand the gravity of the inequality shown. The white man represents supremacy, he could act as he pleased, consequently many white masters would prey on the slave women and conduct in sexual intercourse. In addition, many babies were born mixed, children born from the affair were overlooked, treated as cattle ready to be sold or worked. For example, in Mandingo when Hammond and Dite were together in his bedroom, Dite voiced her concern on her expected child being sold from her; having no remorse, Hammond expressed his carelessness and believed it was best to sell the â€Å"sucker† (Perry King). Similarly to Hammond, Armand