The book Uncle Tom’s Cabin is considered a classic. Many times classic lose some of their impact as time goes by but that is not the case with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel. It can be argued that the story has more meaning and impact now then it even did when it was first published. It is a glimpse into a dark period of American history that people have no actual frame of reference to understand. Books like Stowe’s puts a name and an emotional context to what can otherwise be viewed through a detached lens of indifference. The wide variety of characters that Stowe introduces during the novel allows a better chance that an individual will find one that they can identify with and be able to connect; for me that character was Cassy. Her life starts out just like anyone else’s might have today. She has a loving mother and father until tragedy strikes. Many people have had to overcome a setback in their childhood and have gone on to live very happy lives. Cassy is no different. Unfortunately, her happiness is not long lived and she is plunged into every mother’s nightmare. As a mother, my children are the most important aspect of my life. They are the reason that I make 90% of the decisions that I make daily. Reading Cassy’s story and putting myself into her situation makes my heart ache. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around how horrible it would have been to have decisions about my children’s welfare and happiness taken away from me. Not to mention living with a threat that they would be physically hurt or worse yet sold away from me forever. I want to think I would have been as strong as Cassy and been able to push through the anguish that she must have felt after her children were taken but I honestly feel that I would have crumbled. Slaves had to be incredibly strong to survive the abuse and terrorism that they faced on a daily basis.
Tom's Cabin: A Norton Critical Edition by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: Norton, 1994.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative of his Life both endeavor to stir antislavery sentiment in predominantly white, proslavery readers. Each author uses a variety of literary tactics to persuade audiences that slavery is inhumane. Equiano uses vivid imagery and inserts personal experience to appeal to audiences, believing that a first-hand account of the varying traumas slaves encounter would affect change. Stowe relies on emotional connection between the readers and characters in her novel. By forcing her audience to have empathy for characters, thus forcing readers to confront the harsh realities of slavery, Stowe has the more effective approach to encouraging abolitionist sentiment in white readers.
The brilliant author Mark Twain, published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on February, 1885 (Ulin). According to book critic David Ulin, Ernest Hemingway declared that Huckleberry Finn has been one of the best books in American Literature and that all of American writing comes from that novel (Ulin). Being a businessman, Mark Twain was very involved in marketing and publishing his own books (Mulder). Twain’s involvement made the publishing process for the book Huckleberry Finn a difficult one (Mulder). Twain began to feel displeased with his first publisher James R. Oswood in 1884, which caused the publishing process to extend (Mulder). Twain ended up forming his own publishing company with his nephew
Throughout the course of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, numerous characters stand out for their complexity in character. However, only a fraction of those can contend with the memorability and intricacy of Evangeline and Ophelia St. Clare. In the chapters the two become included in, they possess influence over the other characters, including Uncle Tom, the lead protagonist. The individuals obtain stark contrasts between each other, from their personalities to their personal convictions. Additionally, they also vary in the level of character development they undergo in the story.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1850s that “changed forever how Americans viewed slavery, the system that treated people as property”. (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) This book “demanded that the United States deliver on the promise of freedom and equality, galvanized the abolition movement and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War”. (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) “The strength of Uncle Tom's Cabin is its ability to illustrate slavery's effect on families, and to help readers empathize with enslaved characters.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) As Foner mentioned: “By portraying slaves as sympathetic men and women, and as Christians at the mercy of slaveholders who split up families and set bloodhounds on innocent mothers and children, Stowe’s melodrama gave the abolitionist message a powerful human appeal.” (472) With this novel, Stowe wanted to convince Christians that God doesn’t’ approve slavery, that it is evil which must be destroyed.
Overall Uncle Tom’s Cabin is filled with religious overtones of martyrdom, imposed religion, and genuine piety of the slaves in bondage. Harriet Beecher Stowe shows the divide between how the slaveholders see religion as a whip to keep slaves in line and how slaves see the same religion as a balm for the wounds inflicted on them by the whites.
It also teaches Christian values as well as family values. At the time of its publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an immediate success and one of biggest sellers of all time. Despite the fact that Stowe induces her own personal opinions, with the very little experience she has had with slaves, she delivers a magnificent novel which is still enjoyed by many modern readers today. The time of her novel’s publication was very important. It was published at the peak of the abolitionist movement, in the 1850’s.
William Arthur Ward once said, "Real religion is a way of life, not a white cloak to be wrapped around us on the Sabbath and then cast aside into the six-day closet of unconcern." Religion is the one thing that people can usually tolerate but never agree upon. Each faith seems to have an ordained assumption that they have the correct thoughts on how to life one's life or how to think about things or the way to act in certain situations. Still, each religion has its own "sub-religions." If someone refers to Christianity, there are several different religions that are blanketed under that umbrella: Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian are just a handful. The inconsistencies that are associated with everyone's belief about religion run into deeper ruts of confusion. This confusion leads people to have distorted views as to what they believe and what their religion is all about. This is no different from the feelings about slavery by Christians in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Throughout the novel, Christianity presents itself in a few different lights; as a twisted and deformed glimmer of what religion is supposed to be with undertones of bigotry and prejudice, an innocent yet naive child that brings joy to everyone he or she meets, and as Uncle Tom himself, the standard for what a Christian is supposed to be. These different portrayals of Christian living come from Stowe's own beliefs about Christians and brings them into the light.
Even today, with literature constantly crossing more lines and becoming more shocking, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin remains one of the most scandalous, controversial, and powerful literary works ever spilled onto a set of blank pages. Not only does this novel examine the attitudes of white nineteenth-century society toward slavery, but it introduces us to the hearts, minds and souls of several remarkable and unprecedented characters.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ed. Philip van Doren Stern. New York: Paul S. Eriksson, 1964.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's nineteenth century novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, gives incredible insight into the injustice of slavery practiced throughout America during the Civil War era. The story follows two plots, that of a runaway slave fleeing for freedom in Canada, and that of a faithful Negro servant being sold and traded in the ruthless southern slave markets. It is not only the parallel plots, however, that offer a sense of contrast to the story. Through depicting the slavery opposing Christian values and morality, the distinction between racism in the North and racism in the South of the United States, and the characters' differences of values and cynicism, contrast provides the book with an indisputable power to explore social morality of the time.
Huckleberry Finn is a prime example were society morals isn't the logical path because the view of the scenery only tells half the tell .within this story many things that happened that was show to be right wasn't truly fair.like Huck father not wanting the best for Huck,how king and dolphin treat people,and how Jim is treated by others.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a novel about a boy named Huck who fakes his death and travels down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim. Throughout the novel they encounter many different characters, most of whom Twain uses to satirize the South. The definition of satire is “a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles.” Twain satirizes the values, and intelligence of the South through the characters of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords, Colonel Sherburn and Boggs, and the people scammed by the King and Duke.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, has had a tremendous impact on American culture, both then and now. It is still considered a controversial novel, and many secondary schools have banned it from their libraries. What makes it such a controversial novel? One reason would have been that the novel is full of melodrama, and many people considered it a caricature of the truth. Others said that she did not show the horror of slavery enough, that she showed the softer side of it throughout most of her novel. Regardless of the varying opinions of its readers, it is obvious that its impact was large.
It is extremely difficult for the modern reader to understand and appreciate Uncle Tom’s Cabin because Harriet Beecher Stowe was writing for an audience very different from us. We don’t share the cultural values and myths of Stowe’s time, so her novel doesn’t affect us the way it affected its original readers. For this reason, Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been heavily scrutinized by the modern critic. However, the aspects of the novel that are criticized now are the same aspects that held so much appeal for its original audience.