Uncle Tom's CabinAuthor: Stowe, Harriet BeecherGenre: General Classics Publisher: Knoph Released: April 1995 |
A Review by Laurie Edwards
06/18/2001
So, with political change its aim, it seems fair to review Uncle Tom's Cabin from a social standpoint, rather than simply a literary one.
What does this novel stand for?
Obviously, Mrs. Stowe disapproved of slavery—from first page to last, the "peculiar institution" is written as brutal and inherently evil. Example after example is given as proof of the cruelty of the system, concluding, finally, with Uncle Tom's death by beating. Her passion undoubtedly convinced millions that slavery has no place in a civilized society; now where is a reasonable solution for all concerned? Mrs. Stowe never offers one.
Her deeply Christian contempt for the ownership of one person by another is all very well, to be sure, but she doesn't portray her black characters as naturally equal to their white masters. Blacks, both slave and free, are written as simple-minded creatures with no more complexity of character or wit than small children or dogs. While holding forth on the dignity of the black race, Stowe makes them seem beneath contempt.
Women, too, get short shift in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The daughter, sister, and wife of ministers, Mrs. Stowe had in full measure the Victorian view of a woman's place. Her book uses the virtues associated with her sex as a club with which to beat slaveowners, all of whom are portrayed as male. The sweetness, tender hearts, and "natural" feeling of women for the downtrodden are Mrs. Stowe's stock-in-trade when it comes to advancing the anti-slavery postition. Mrs. Shelby, Eva St. Clare, and Ophelia (all white women) all express proper womanly virtues and hate slavery (even though each lives comfortably under the Southern system).
Coupled with their determined goodness, women are written as none too bright—certainly not intelligent enough to discuss or have a hand in the big questions of the day. "I wouldn't give a flip for all your politics, generally, but I think this [the Fugitive Slave Law] is something downright cruel and unChristian," says silly-but-kind Mrs. Bird. The theme is followed throughout the book: Women aren't too bright, but their natural goodness enables them to see more clearly than men, with all their intelligence and book-learning. It's at once complimentary and demeaning.
The men fall into one of three groups: long-suffering black slave (exemplified by Uncle Tom as the Christ figure), trashy/mean white working class idiot (Haley), and indolent, kindly white plantation owner (Augustine St. Clare). Each of the males in the book, down to the youngest and least important, is one of these three, and they're all stereotypes; not one male comes off as any sort of individual. This categorizing of half the population is offensive; even given her time and place, there were real men, with ideas and hopes, who could have been used as models, instead of just going with what were even then stereotypes.
Ultimately, that's what Uncle Tom's Cabin is: a string of racial and sexual stereotypes, both in characters and issues. Politics being what it is, if Harriet Beecher Stowe hadn't written it, someone else would have, perhaps William Lloyd Garrison.
Skip it. It was an important book a hundred and fifty years ago, but it isn't a good one, and it has nothing to do with reality—either today's or 1852's.
© Copyright ToxicUniverse.com 06/18/2001
