Birth, new life, coming into existence in the midst of
physical squalor, economic impoverishment, and daily terror.
Through Solomon, then, McQueen forces the viewer to behold the slaves» degradation, anguish, and
physical suffering, just as he did with the Maze Prison's miasmic
squalor in Hunger and the pathological self - loathing of sex addiction in Shame, each film a prolonged howl of despair prompted by the horror of literal or spiritual imprisonment.