Critical Analysis of Uncle Tom's Cabin - Research Paper Example

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: A Critical Analysis A heart-rending tale of the curse of slavery that plagued America for centuries, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an enduring classic of great historical and sociological significance. Published in a serialized version in the National Era, an abolitionist periodical between the years 1851-52, the book sold more than 300,000 copies in just one year and is credited to be one of the major instigation that helped the country to rise against the great abomination of slave-system. The books impact on the abolitionist cause was so profound that it is reported when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he greeted the lady with the following words: “ So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!” (Gienapp, 77) The theme of the novel is slavery, slavery in all its aspects from the ugliest and the most grotesque to the kindest and the most humane. Stowe’s focus in the novel is clear and precise from the very beginning. She condemns the atrocity in all its forms and neither the Haleys of the world nor the much more humane Shelbys escape the scathing irony of her pen. Stowe, in the novel, presents a splendidly detailed and vivid picture of the slaves and their accursed existence and from the richness of the detail and the picturesque nature of the day to day ‘life among the lowly’ (another name for the novel and perhaps a more appropriate nomenclature considering the vastness of Stowe’s canvas) that she portrays one might assume that she had observed these sons and daughters of Africa from very close quarters. This, however, is not true. The majority of Stowe’s sources in writing the novel were secondary ones. She was greatly inspired by the autobiography of Josiah Henson, a fugitive slave. The biography is more popularly known as The Memoirs of Uncle Tom, (Antislavery-Literature) the name under which it was republished once Stowe’s book became famous. Other sources for Stowe included the shocking collection of newspaper articles from Southern states by Theodore Weld and Sarah Grimke published under the heading American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (Documenting the American South). A crusader in the Abolitionist cause, moved to write the book after the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of 1950 was passed prohibiting anyone to aid or abet runaway slaves, Stowe did amass a large quantity of research material from these books, which she used to write her novel. Another of her mainstay in the research that accompanied the book were the oral tales of horror and injustice from the fugitive slaves who came over to Ohio for asylum just as Eliza does in the novel. Stowe’s family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio on the banks of the river of the same name just across Kentucky, a slave state. Consequently, she came across many a story from across the river, tales that also formed the foundation of the Abolitionist discourse in Ohio. However, though it seems rather inconceivable when one reads the brilliant portrayal of the slave community in the chapters of the novel like ‘ An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, Stowe did not have any first-hand knowledge about them. She did visit the towns of Kentucky occasionally but had never been to any plantation run by slaves. (Hedrick, 112) But what she lacks in the field of practical experience, Stowe makes up with her unquestionable passion for the great cause of the long-suffering children of humanity. Her humanitarian creed is splendidly displayed in the novel especially in the parts where she rises even over the specific context of the slave-system to identify the suffering of her characters with the universal misery of mankind: elevating the specific suffering of Eliza to the universal suffering of motherhood, Stowe writes: If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader…how fast could you walk? How many miles could you make in those few brief hours, with the darling at your bosom, - the little sleepy head on your shoulder – the small soft arms trustingly holding on to your neck? Although Stowe’s motivation for writing the novel was declaredly, a propagandist one, her methodology of voicing the multifarious discourses about the slave-trade prevalent in the country with relative impartiality saves the novel from being a mere propaganda for the abolitionist cause. She works with a huge canvas and each and every character in the novel has his or her unique position in the debate over slavery that broke the country down into pieces. This honesty and sincerity in the voicing of the multitude of discourses, leaving the judgment in the hands of the readers, allows her to explore the subtle shades of her subject. The America she portrays is not a black and white world of the Civil War days. Side by side with the dark and explicitly devilish characters of Tom Loker and Haley (in fact Tom Loker takes a comparison with the devil as a complement and the true nature of these slave traders is underlined precisely by the author in the profusion of the animal imagery in the chapters dealing with them e.g. ‘a bull-dog come unto man’s estate’, ‘lithe and catlike in his motions’ etc.) we also find some brilliant characters who are neither pristinely white nor devilishly black. Among these we might count, Mr. Shelby, who in spite of having ‘the appearance of a gentleman’ and in spite of being ‘a fair average kind of man, good natured and kindly, and disposed to easy indulgence of those around him’ sells off Eliza’s little son and his most trusted servant Tom when faced with financial difficulty; we might count Senator Bird, who having just passed ‘a law forbidding people to give meat and drink to those poor colored folks’, goes out of his way to find a safe haven for Eliza and her son in the middle of the night. Such characters are found abundantly in the novel, and though Stowe has only scathing sarcasm for the likes of Mr. Healy, she abstains from passing any harsh judgment on the likes of the Shelbys and Bards. These delicate shades of gray not only brings the characters to life but also gives the story an unique depth as an exploration of the slavery in America making it one of the most enduring classics of the century. However, this is not to suggest that Stowe does not take a moral position against slavery in the novel. In fact the whole novel is based upon her moral, ethical and religious condemnation of the institution. Harriet Beecher Stowe came from a family with deep Christian roots. Interested in theology from a very young age, she devoted herself to the service of humanity in her early days. In the novel we find a great variety of interpretations of the tenets of Christianity and Stowe leaves us in no doubt about the one she prefers. In the very opening chapter of the novel we are introduced to the Christianity of ‘the hero of our story’, Uncle Tom, in the conversation between Shelby and Haley. As the novel progresses Uncle Tom grows in stature and almost becomes a Christ-like figure when he appeals to Aunt Chloe to forgive even the slave traders in words that echoes the final words of Christ, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). On the other end of the spectrum we continuously hear about Christian preachers who endorses the slave trade as well about the so-called ‘humanity’ of the likes of Mr. Healy. We are left in no doubt that it is the meek and mild Mrs. Bird’s version of the Bible that has the author’s whole-hearted support, when she says, in complete defiance of the law and her Senator husband, “I don’t know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.” The language of the novel, in concurrence with the huge canvas on which Stowe works, varies greatly from character to character underlining their education as well as social and economic position. We have pidgin English prevalent among the largely illiterate slave community on the one hand as well as a language of almost Biblical simplicity and power when Stowe engages in moralizing on the other: “Oh, ye who visit the distressed, do ye know that everything your money can buy, given with a cold averted face, is not worth one honest tear shed in real sympathy?” However, Stowe’s novel also gave rise to some stereotypes about the African-American community in literature. The most persistent among them is perhaps the character of ‘Mammy’ as portrayed in Aunt Chloe. As a reaction to the novel’s rather excessive idolization of Uncle Tom with his Christian humility, a number of Anti-Tom literature also appeared in the scene. Some of these reduced Uncle Tom to almost a comic character. In spite of these minor shortcomings, one might conclude that in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe wrote what might be rightly called the bible of the abolitionist cause. Works Cited Gienapp, William. Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2000. Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. London: Oxford University Press, 1996. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Calcutta: Bookline, 1982. Antislavery-Literature. 11th December 2006. BibleGateway.com. 10th December 2006. Documenting the American South. 10th December 2006. Read More

(Hedrick, 112) But what she lacks in the field of practical experience, Stowe makes up with her unquestionable passion for the great cause of the long-suffering children of humanity. Her humanitarian creed is splendidly displayed in the novel especially in the parts where she rises even over the specific context of the slave-system to identify the suffering of her characters with the universal misery of mankind: elevating the specific suffering of Eliza to the universal suffering of motherhood, Stowe writes: If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader…how fast could you walk?

How many miles could you make in those few brief hours, with the darling at your bosom, - the little sleepy head on your shoulder – the small soft arms trustingly holding on to your neck? Although Stowe’s motivation for writing the novel was declaredly, a propagandist one, her methodology of voicing the multifarious discourses about the slave-trade prevalent in the country with relative impartiality saves the novel from being a mere propaganda for the abolitionist cause. She works with a huge canvas and each and every character in the novel has his or her unique position in the debate over slavery that broke the country down into pieces.

This honesty and sincerity in the voicing of the multitude of discourses, leaving the judgment in the hands of the readers, allows her to explore the subtle shades of her subject. The America she portrays is not a black and white world of the Civil War days. Side by side with the dark and explicitly devilish characters of Tom Loker and Haley (in fact Tom Loker takes a comparison with the devil as a complement and the true nature of these slave traders is underlined precisely by the author in the profusion of the animal imagery in the chapters dealing with them e.g. ‘a bull-dog come unto man’s estate’, ‘lithe and catlike in his motions’ etc.) we also find some brilliant characters who are neither pristinely white nor devilishly black.

Among these we might count, Mr. Shelby, who in spite of having ‘the appearance of a gentleman’ and in spite of being ‘a fair average kind of man, good natured and kindly, and disposed to easy indulgence of those around him’ sells off Eliza’s little son and his most trusted servant Tom when faced with financial difficulty; we might count Senator Bird, who having just passed ‘a law forbidding people to give meat and drink to those poor colored folks’, goes out of his way to find a safe haven for Eliza and her son in the middle of the night.

Such characters are found abundantly in the novel, and though Stowe has only scathing sarcasm for the likes of Mr. Healy, she abstains from passing any harsh judgment on the likes of the Shelbys and Bards. These delicate shades of gray not only brings the characters to life but also gives the story an unique depth as an exploration of the slavery in America making it one of the most enduring classics of the century. However, this is not to suggest that Stowe does not take a moral position against slavery in the novel.

In fact the whole novel is based upon her moral, ethical and religious condemnation of the institution. Harriet Beecher Stowe came from a family with deep Christian roots. Interested in theology from a very young age, she devoted herself to the service of humanity in her early days. In the novel we find a great variety of interpretations of the tenets of Christianity and Stowe leaves us in no doubt about the one she prefers. In the very opening chapter of the novel we are introduced to the Christianity of ‘the hero of our story’, Uncle Tom, in the conversation between Shelby and Haley.

As the novel progresses Uncle Tom grows in stature and almost becomes a Christ-like figure when he appeals to Aunt Chloe to forgive even the slave traders in words that echoes the final words of Christ, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

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