The Unacknowledged Legacy of 19 th Century Slave Narratives
Grosse ) is shot and killed execution-style , no matter the variation . In Maeve ’ s flashbacks to her pre-Mariposa life , viewers continually see her and her daughter in life-threatening situations . The repeated image viewers have of them is one where they are huddled together against a wall watching as the Man in Black advances on them knife or gun in hand . If that flashback death is never fully realized for Maeve , audiences do see her die repeatedly on-screen only to awaken in the park ’ s labs , where her Black body is subject to torturous treatment and is on full display for viewers . Westworld ’ s white female protagonist — and articulate hero — is treated differently . Dolores , too , is subjected to repeated trauma . In the first episode , she is beaten and dragged into her barn to be raped by the Man in Black . Viewers soon learn that this scene is a typical occurrence for Dolores : she often returns home to find her parents killed and then is forced to watch her love interest Teddy die as the perpetrators complete their night by raping her . This realization of Dolores ’ s collective trauma and the possibility of more than 30 years of nightly sexual assaults is not unlike the one shared by Douglass and his haunting childhood experiences . However , it is important to note that Dolores ’ s assaults happen off-screen . Unlike Douglass ’ s accounts or the repeated deaths of Deputy Foss and Maeve , audiences do not see her white body torn apart like her counterparts ’ Black bodies .
In The Handmaid ’ s Tale , white and Black bodies are repeatedly subject to torture and disfigurement . Early in the first episode , Janine Lindo ( played by Madeline Brewer ) loses an eye for talking back to Aunt Lydia upon her arrival to the Red Center . In the sixth episode , disfigured handmaids like Janine are removed from a celebration of their service because Serena Joy Waterford ( played by Yvonne Strahovski ) does not want any “ bruised apples ” to mar the curated image
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