During the Civil War, the Union and Confederate States fought because of strong sectionalism. The 1989 movie, Glory, directed by Edward Zwick, portrays the views of many Northerners in their battle against the South, but, they were not always a unified group, even within the 54th Regiment, which consisted mainly of runaway slaves who were grateful for just food, shelter and friendship, there were internal conflicts. Colonel Robert Shaw was not the greatest of leaders at first, it was obvious that he was insecure. Private Trip decided to rebel within the Regiment. All the colored soldiers were antsy to fight, but because they were colored, they were repressed.
Colonel Robert Shaw was not the greatest leader at first. In the film, he was portrayed as an insecure young man, who was only brought up to the rank of colonel of a regiment because of his wealthy, well respected father. His insecurity made him feel obligated to reinforce his power; he had to be harder on his soldiers. Every time he saw a soldier do something slightly wrong, he would punish him, humiliating him in front of all the other soldiers, to show that he did have the power. To keep his title separate from those of common soldiers, he denied Thomas the right to speak to him until he got further permission to do so. When a soldier who was mistakenly taken for a runaway was captured, Shaw punished him with a heavy whipping, so that no one would ever dare question his authority, but he never found out the real reason the soldier "ran away", it was simply to get a pair of shoes. Power was very important to Shaw and he always felt the need to reinforce it, for fear that soldier may grow too accustomed to his leniency.
Private Trip was a rebel, he thought he was smarter and better than all the other soldiers. He could not let go of slavery, he was unwilling to switch from oppressed slave mode, to brave, respected soldier mode.
