This document is a prewriting outline for a compare and contrast essay about the true story movies 12 Years a Slave and Milk. It outlines the essay's introduction discussing the movies' genres and main characters. It then plans to compare the genres, protagonists and antagonists, and endings of the two movies in separate paragraphs. The conclusion reflects on what was learned from writing the essay, focusing on the protagonists' dedication to overcoming challenges and fighting for justice.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: Patricia Kong Weng Yee
STUDENT ID NO: 0315837
FILMS SELECTED: Milk & 12 Years a Slave
WORD COUNT: 953 words
ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 18th
APRIL 2014

2. Prewriting
1st
paragraph (Intro)
◦ Details of the essay
▪ Explaination of the meaning of a true story
▪ Explaination of the meaning of a genre
▪ Explain how true stories can have different genre
◦ The chosen two true stories
▪ 12 Years a Slave & Milk
◦ Brief synopsis about 12 Years a Slave
◦ Brief synopsis about Milk
◦ The three parts
▪ the movie genre
▪ the characters – protagonist and antagonist
▪ the movie ending
2nd
paragraph
◦ The movie genre
▪ 1 historical drama, 1 biographical
• brief explaination of the genre difference
3rd
paragraph ( The characters )
◦ Protagonist - Milk & Solomon Northup
▪ Fights for their rights
• brief explaination with examples from movie
▪ Never gives up hope
• brief explaination
◦ Antagonist – Dan White & Mr. Edwin Epps
▪ stereotype attitude
• brief explaination
▪ the way they commit violence
• brief explaination with examples from movie
5th
paragraph ( The ending)
◦ mixed feeling ending
▪ Solomon was finally freed from slavery and is reunited with his family but the others
were still held captive as slaves
▪ Milk who finally became a member of the San Fransisco Board of Supervisors, was
assassinated by Dan White, a city supervisor.
6th
paragraph (Conclusion)
◦ what I've learnt/understood while writing/reading so far
◦ briefly describe the overall essay
▪ both character are dedicated in a smilar way and they showed great amount of pride
and justice towards the rights they have

4. What is a true story movie? What are movie genres? Can a true story movie have different
genre? Well, true story movies are movies directed and produced using the information based on
real life experience. Movie genre is the term used to categorize different types of movies. For
example, there are action movies, historical movies, sci-fi movies and so on. A true story movie can
have a different genre. This is because the movies are based on real life experience and not
everyone has or had experienced the same exact thing. The true story movie that I have chosen are
12 Years a Slave and Milk. 12 Years a Slave was directed by Steve Mcqueen and was produced by
Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and etc. The main character for this movie is played by Chivetel Ejiofor.
This movie shows the life of a carpenter and fiddle African American player who was kidnapped
and was sold into slavery (Kozanitis, 2013). While, Milk projects the life of a gay rights activist and
politician Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay person to be elected as a city supervisor. Milk
was directed by Gus Van Sant and was produced by Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen. The main
character was potrayed by Sean Penn (Ebert, 2008). Thus, I would like to compare the two movie in
terms of the difference of movie genre, the smilarities of the proatagonists and the antagonists and
also the ending of the movie.
First, the movie genre for 12 Years a Slave is an historical fiction. Historical fiction usually
represent a story which took place during a certain period in history. It often presents events from
the fictional characters point of view during that time of the period. Meanwhile Milk is a
biographical film. Biographical films differ from historical fictions because they would tell a
person's life story in a detailed version or at least a certain year in their lives which has some very
important historical moment.
Next would be the similarities of the protagonists and the antagonists. The main protagonist
for 12 Years a Slave is Solomon Northup whereas for Milk is Harvey Milk. The similarity between

5. these two main character are their characteristic. Both Solomon Northup and Harvey Milk would
fight for their rights. In 12 Years a Slave, this can be seen when Solomon was kidnapped and locked
up in a room. He told the slave sellers that he is a free man but he was beaten with a whip instead.
On the other hand in Milk, Harvey Milk devoted himself to political activism in order to run for city
supervisor. Besides that, both Harvey Milk and Solomon Northup never gives up. In Milk, take the
case of the two unsuccessful political campaigns in 1973 and 1975. After Harvey Milk fails to
secure a seat, he didn't give up and continues expanding his supporters. And in the end in 1977, he
finaaly won a seat. Likewise for Solomon Northup's situation. Solomon faced cruel and abusive
treatment from the slave overseers and at one point, his own master. But through all that treatment,
he didn't give up his life nor his hope to return to his family (Jauregui, 2013). And after twelve
years, he met a Canadian abolitionist with the name Bass who promised to send a letter to his
family and change his life forever. As for the antagonist, the main antagonist in Milk is Dan White,
the former city supervisor whereas for 12 Years a Slave would be Solomon's longest standing slave
owner, Mr. Edwin Epps. The similarities that I could find between these two antagonist would be
their stereotype attitude and the way they commit violence. In Milk, the stereotype attitude can be
seen when Dan White meets Harvey. Because Dan White is a straight socially traditionalist person,
he and Harvey had a hard time getting along and therefore creating a difficult and complex working
relationship. Meanwhile in 12 Years a Slave, Mr. Epps shows his stereotyping attitude through the
way he thinks about the slaves. He thinks that every slave as his property and not human and he can
do anything he wants with them. As for the the way they commit violence, Dan White assasinated
Harvey and Moscone coldly without any hesitation similarly to the way Mr. Edwin Epps would
treat his slaves, only Mr. Edwin Epps does it harsher.
Last but not least, the ending of the two movies. Both Milk and 12 Years a Slave gave me a
kind of mixed feeling. This is because it was all too sudden. For instance, in Milk, I felt happy for
Harvey Milk for he had finally became a city supervisor like he had always wanted and all of a

6. sudden Dan White, the former city supervisor, came and assasinate him along with the liberal
mayor named George Moscone. As for 12 Years a Slave, I was happy that Solomon Northup was
able to meet his family again but the others who were with Solomon the whole time during his slave
years were still held captive as slaves so it was kind of a mixture of happiness and sadness.
Hence to conclude, I have compared and also contrasted a bit of both story in terms of
movie genre, the main characters and the ending of the movie. I have learned and understood that
we should not give up that easily on the challenges that falls upon us no matter how hard and long it
takes. I think that Harvey Milk and Solomon Northup did well in showing awareness to the people.
They are very dedicted to overcome difficult challenges and showed a great amount of pride and
justice towards the rights that they own.

7. Reference List :
Kozanitis, J. (2013, November 10). Movie review: '12 Years a Slave'. The Western Front.
Retrieved from http://www.westernfrontonline.net/blogs/article_51c542fa-49fa-11e3-99e1-
001a4bcf6878.html
Jaurequi, A. (2013, November 6). '12 Years a Slave' shockingly brilliant. Daily Titan.
Retrieved from http://www.dailytitan.com/2013/11/12-years-a-slave-shockingly-brilliant/
Ebert, R. (2008, November 24). Milk Movie Review & Film Summary (2008).
Retrieved from http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/milk