12 Years a Slave stays focused on Solomon Northup's real-life ordeal, prioritizing historical narrative over identity-driven storytelling. Characters are complex and developed, with their traits rooted in the realities of the time, not modern ideology. The film uses diversity authentically, given the historic subject matter. It doesn't shoehorn in modern identity politics or flawless characters simply for representation.

While the film does highlight the brutal realities and moral failures of slavery, it depicts religion and family as important forces in Solomon’s life. However, it does provide a strong critique of American society’s historical foundations, which may be seen as undermining certain traditional narratives about history.

Given the historical setting, alternative perspectives, such as those sympathetic to the status quo of the time, are presented exclusively as villainous. There’s minimal pluralism or serious effort at exploring different moral assumptions, which aligns with a modern, singular view on the topic of slavery.