CL 4/7

In Birth of A Nation, the scene with Gus chasing Flora clearly demonstrates the point that Griffith is trying to make. This discourse community believes that African Americans were dangerous and predators, and that white people were heros and innocent. The theory of discourse is that the way people act and think is affected by power structures in society. Clearly, whites were seen as the highest class in society. Therefore, african americans were seen as being at the bottom of society. This affected how some white people acted, they had big egos and were rude and they were afraid of african americans. This is shown in this scene, when Flora is running away from Gus. The theory of multiliteracies is that people talk a certain way based on their discourse communities. At, this time; some whites talked like they knew everything and they talked about african americans in way that showed their disdain for them. These concepts made it possible for Griffith to compose the scenes and get across a white supremacist message. Griffith was already enforcing the beliefs and fears that some white people had. He created further division, by dramatizing that division in the scenes. He fed fear by making african americans seem like predators, he did this by having Gus follow Flora and hold on to her. He enforced the idea of white supremacy by making white characters innocent and civilized.