On the Characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin and Their Influence

Born in Connecticut, Mrs. Stowe is a teacher at Hartford Women's College. She is also an active abolitionist. This book revolves around the story of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering slave, and describes his experiences with people around him, both slaves and slave owners. This sentimental novel profoundly depicts the cruel nature of slavery; And believe that Christian love can overcome all kinds of harm caused by enslavement of human compatriots. Uncle Tom's Cabin is the best-selling novel in19th century (and the second best-selling novel, second only to the best-selling Bible). It is considered as a major reason for the rise of abolitionism in1850s, and it sold 300,000 copies in the United States in its first year of publication. Irina Kaptelova escaped with his son and Tom was sold to the lower reaches of the river. Simon Le grip is beating Uncle Tom.

At the beginning of the novel, Arthur Shelby, a farmer in Kentucky, is facing the dilemma of losing his land due to debt. Although he and his wife (Emily Shelby) are very friendly to their slaves, Shelby decides to sell some slaves to slave traders to raise the funds he badly needs. Two slaves were sold: one was Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children; The second is Harry, the son of Eliza, Emily's maid. Emily didn't like the idea because she had promised her maid that her son would never be sold; And Emily's son George Shelby doesn't want Tom to leave, because he regards Tom as his mentor. Chasing Eliza's family, Tom and St. Clare's family lived on Eliza's way to escape. She happened to meet her husband george harris, who fled before her, and they decided to go to Canada. However, they were targeted by a slave hunter named Tom Locke. Finally, Locke and his accomplices trapped Eliza and her family, which led George to be forced to shoot Locke. Eliza, worried about Locke's death, persuaded George to send the slave hunter to a nearby Quaker settlement for treatment. After returning to New Orleans, St Clare and his northern cousin O 'Filja had a quarrel because of their different views on slavery. O 'Filja opposed slavery, but he was prejudiced against blacks. However, St. Clare thinks he doesn't have these prejudices, even though he is a slave owner himself. In order to explain to his cousin that she was wrong about blacks, Saint Calea bought a black girl, Topsy, and asked O 'Filja to educate Topsy. After Tom lived with St Clare for two years, Eva became seriously ill. Before she died, she dreamed of heaven in a dream, and she told the people around her this dream. Because of Eva's death and her dream, others decided to change their lives: O 'Filja decided to give up prejudice against blacks, Topsy said she would try to improve herself, and St. Clare promised to set Tom free. Tom was sold to Simon Le grip, but before St Clare kept his promise, he was stabbed to death with a hunting knife for preventing a fight. St Clare's wife refused to fulfill her husband's promise before his death and sold Tom to an evil farm in an auction.

Lord Simon Le grip. Lai grip (he is not a native of the South, but an immigrant from the North) took Tom to the countryside in Louisiana. Tom met other slaves of Lai grip here, including Emmeline (Lai grip bought her at the same auction). When Tom refused to obey Legrip's orders to whip his fellow slaves, Lai grip began to hate him. Tom was brutally whipped, and Lai grip was determined to crush Tom's belief in God. But Tom refused to stop reading the Bible and tried his best to comfort other slaves. At the plantation, Tom met Cathy, another slave in Legrip. Cathy was forced to be separated from her children when she was auctioned; Unable to bear the pain of another child being betrayed, she killed the third child. At this time, Tom Locke returned to the story. After being cured by Quakers, Locke changed. George, Eliza and Tom were free after they entered Canada. In Louisiana, when Uncle Tom's faith in God was about to be destroyed by the torture he suffered in the plantation, he experienced two dreams-one was Jesus and the other was Eva-which made him determined to keep his faith in Christ until his death. He encouraged Cathy to escape and asked her to take Emmeline with her. When Tom refused to tell Legree where Cathy and Emmeline had fled, Lai grip ordered his boss to kill Tom. When he was dying, Tom forgave the two supervisors who beat him cruelly: inspired by their personalities, both of them converted to Christ. Before Tom died, George Shelby (son of Arthur Shelby) appeared. He wanted to buy back Tom's freedom, but he found it was too late. On the way to freedom by boat, Cathy and Emmeline met george harris's sister and went to Canada with her. Cathy once discovered that Eliza was her long-lost daughter. Now they are finally reunited. They went to France and finally arrived in Liberia, an African country that took in former American slaves. There, they saw Cathy's long-lost son again. George Shelby returned to his farm in Kentucky, freed all his slaves and told them to remember Tom's sacrifice and his faith in the true meaning of Christ.

The main person who edited this paragraph.

Uncle Tom is a person with the same name as Uncle Tom, and was considered as a noble and persevering Christian slave in the early novel. But in recent years, his name has become a nickname for African-Americans accused of taking refuge in whites (for more information, please see the section on the generation and popularization of stereotypes). However, Mrs. Stowe's original intention was to mold Tom into a "noble hero" and a praiseworthy figure. In the whole work, Tom not only endured the pain caused by exploitation, but also insisted on his own beliefs, even his enemies finally had to respect him. The two people in the photo are Tom and Eva.

Eliza is a slave (Mrs Shelby's maid). After learning that her 5-year-old son Harry would be sold to the slaver Harry, she fled to the north with Harry. While in Ohio, she was reunited with her husband george harris. Their family moved to Canada, then to France and finally settled in Liberia. Eliza was inspired by a record given to Mrs. Stowe's husband by john rankin of Rennes Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. According to Rankin's description, in February of 1838, a young slave woman crossed the frozen Ohio River with her child and fled to ripley, Ohio. She stayed at his house for a while before she fled to the north. Eva Eva's full name is Evanger Lynn Sinclair. Eva joined the narrative when Uncle Tom was shipped to New Orleans. Uncle Tom saved the 5 or 6-year-old girl when she fell into the water. Eva begged her father to buy Tom. After following the St. Clare family to New Orleans, Tom became a coachman at St. Clare Manor. However, Tom spends most of his time here with the angelic Eva. Eva often talks about love and forgiveness. She even persuaded the stubborn slave girl Topsy that she was worthy of love. Eva also tried to touch the bad-tempered Mr. Filja menstruation's heart. Some people think that Eva is the prototype of Marisu's role. Simon Legree Legree is a cruel slave owner who was born in the north. His name later became synonymous with greed and cruelty. His goal is to crush Tom and destroy his religious belief. Topsy is a "ragged" female slave who comes out of nowhere. When asked who created her, she thought it was neither God nor her mother. "I think I grew up by myself. I don't believe anyone made me." Later, she was transformed by the kindness of little Eva. Topsy is generally regarded as the origin of the prototype of black children. The phrase "grow up like Topsy" (later evolved into "gray like Topsy"; It's a bit out of date now) and then I entered English. At first, this phrase was only used to describe a self-sustaining and laissez-faire lifestyle; But later, it was also used to describe rapid growth or development. Other characters have many small roles in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Here are some well-known supporting roles: Arthur Shelby, Tom's host in Kentucky. Shelby is portrayed as a "kind" slave owner and a traditional southern gentleman. Emily Shelby, wife of Arthur Shelby. She is a religious woman, trying to influence her slaves with her kindness and morality. She was shocked when her husband tried to sell slaves to slave owners. As a woman, she has no legal status to prevent this from happening, because all the property belongs to her husband. George Shelby, son of Arthur and Emily. He regards Tom as a mentor and a devout Christian. Augustine St. Clare, Tom's second master, the father of little girl Eva; Is the most compassionate slave owner in the novel. St Clare has realized the evil of slavery, but he is not prepared to give up the wealth it brings. After his daughter died, he became more religious, began to read the Bible to Tom, and decided to release Tom. However, his kindness was wiped out because of his unexpected death.

Edit the topic of this paragraph.

The whole book Uncle Tom's Cabin revolves around the same theme: the evil and immorality of slavery. When Mrs. Stowe writes minor themes in her writing-such as mother's moral authority and the possibility of redemption offered by Christianity-she always emphasizes the connection between these themes and the horror of slavery. In almost every page of the novel, Mrs. Stowe is actively promoting the theme of "immoral slavery", and sometimes she even changes the narrative tone of the story to "promote" the destructiveness of slavery to people (for example, on the boat carrying Tom to the southern state, a white woman said: "The most terrible thing about slavery is trampling on feelings and family ties-such as breaking up people's flesh and blood." Through the description of slavery breaking up other people's families, Mrs. Stowe showed the evil of slavery in words. "In a free land, fugitives are safe."

Because Mrs. Stowe believes that motherhood is "a moral and ethical model in all American lives" and that only women have moral authority to save the United States from the devil of slavery; This is another theme expressed in Uncle Tom's Cabin: the moral strength and sacredness of women. In the book, examples of this role are Eliza, a slave who fled with her youngest son (eventually reunited with her family), or Eva, who is regarded as an "ideal Christian"; It is through this role that Mrs. Stowe shows that women can save people around them, even the most immoral people. But later comments also mentioned that the female characters in Mrs. Stowe's novels generally appear in the old-fashioned image of housewives, rather than real women. In addition, Mrs. Stowe's novels "reaffirmed the importance of women's influence" and paved the way for the feminist movement in the following decades. Mrs. Stowe's Puritan religious belief is displayed at the end of the novel and extends to all themes; She explored the essence of Christianity and thought that there was an irreconcilable contradiction between Christian theology and slavery. When Eva died, Tom begged her beloved St. Clare to "look back at Jesus"; When Tom died, George Shelby praised him with "How nice it is to be a Christian". This theme has been the clearest proof. Because in Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Christian theme occupies a great weight, and because Mrs. Stowe directly and frequently expresses her feelings about religious beliefs in the novel, this novel is often considered as a "sermon book". This book describes many slaves with different performances and personalities, as well as the faces of various slave owners. It focuses on the story of Tom, a slave who accepted the Christian spirit instilled by slave owners and resigned himself. It also created rebellious slaves who were unwilling to let the slave owners decide for themselves, such as Eliza and her husband. By comparing Tom, Eliza and her husband, two slaves with different personalities, this book tells readers that slaves who are resigned to fate and are at the mercy of slave owners cannot escape death, and only slaves who dare to resist and fight against fate can be reborn. style

Uncle Tom's Cabin has the emotional and dramatic style common in sentimental novels and family novels (also known as female novels) in the19th century. In Mrs. Stowe's time, this type of novels is the most popular: they tend to describe female heroines, and their writing style can often arouse readers' sympathy and emotion. Nevertheless, the difference between Uncle Tom's Cabin and other sentimental novels lies in that the former focuses on the topic of large-scale slavery and takes a man as the protagonist of the story; However, Mrs. Stowe also tried to draw some strong emotions from readers (such as making readers cry for the death of little Eva). The power of this writing type can be revealed by the reaction of contemporary readers. A friend of Mrs. Stowe's, Georgiana May, once wrote to her and said, "I woke up in the middle of the night last night and spent the whole night reading this book. After that, I can no longer watch my child die and be indifferent. " . According to the description, another reader was so fascinated by the short story that he even considered changing his daughter's name to Eva. Obviously, the death of little Eva had an impact on many readers at that time: in 1852 alone, there were 300 baby girls named Eva in Boston. Although it has been affirmed by readers, in the decades after its publication, literary critics denied this style in Uncle Tom's Cabin and other sentimental novels, because such novels were written by women and described "women's sentimental feelings" too prominently. A literary critic thinks that if this novel has nothing to do with slavery, "it is just an ordinary sentimental novel". Another critic described this book as "basically a bunch of meaningless fragments made by hard work". In his History of American Literature, George Whicher scoffed at this book and dismissed it as a Sunday school novel, full of "explicit plot, humor and sadness". However, in 1985, Jane tompkins changed this view in her landmark book In Sensitive Design: The Cultural Work of American Fiction. Tompkins praised the sentimental style that other critics refused to admit, and put forward that sentimental novels show that women's emotions have the power to improve the world. She also believes that family novels, including Uncle Tom's Cabin, which were popular in19th century, have "rational complexity, ambition and wit"; The criticism of Uncle Tom's Cabin is more destructive to American society than that of more famous novelists such as Hawthorne and Melville. Although the style of Uncle Tom's Cabin has changed since then, today's readers often feel that the content of this novel is obscure, artificial and "even outdated" because of its different writing style from most modern novels.

The editor's reaction to the novel.

The role of Uncle Tom's Cabin is "only a few other novels can match in history." . With the publication of the novel, the abolitionist view in Uncle Tom's Cabin triggered a protest frenzy of slavery advocates, who created a large number of works to refute the novel. In addition, Uncle Tom's Cabin, as a best seller, has a far-reaching influence on later protest literature (such as upton sinclair's The Jungle Prince). When Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, people in the southern United States were angered by the novel. And the supporters of slavery also severely criticized it. William gilmore simms, a famous southern novelist, claimed that Uncle Tom's Cabin was a completely wrong work, while others called it a crime and rumor. In this large-scale reaction, a bookseller in Mobile, Alabama was forced to leave the city for selling this book, and Mrs. Stowe herself received many threatening letters (even an email wrapped in a slave's ear). Soon after, many southern writers like Simms published their works against Mrs. Stowe's novels (see the anti-Tom part later). Some critics stressed that Mrs. Stowe's lack of experience in living in the south led to her inaccurate description of the area. For example, they said that Mrs. Stowe had never set foot in a plantation in the south. However, Mrs. Stowe also explained that the characters in her book are based on stories she heard from runaway slaves when she lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is said: "Several events she personally observed inspired her to write [this] famous anti-slavery novel. She witnessed these scenes on the Ohio River, including seeing a couple separated alive by slave owners. In addition, the records and reports in newspapers and magazines also provided materials for the plots that were still under construction at that time. " In response to these criticisms, Mrs. Stowe published "Reading Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1853 to prove the authenticity of the novel's description of slavery. In this book, Stowe elaborates on each protagonist in Uncle Tom's Cabin, mentioning their "archetypes in real life" and at the same time attacking slavery in the South "more violently than in the novel". Like the novel, the interpretation of Uncle Tom's Cabin has become a best seller. It should be mentioned that although Mrs. Stowe claimed that all the references she used before were recorded in the interpretation of Uncle Tom's Cabin, in fact, many works were read after she published her novels. Despite the speculation and flaws in Mrs. Stowe's research and the sharp attack of slavery advocates, this novel still attracts the imagination of many Americans. According to Mrs. Stowe's son, when President abraham lincoln met Stowe in 1862, Lincoln once commented, "You are the little woman who started the war." Historians are not sure whether Lincoln really said this sentence; In a letter to her husband a few hours after meeting Lincoln, Mrs. Stowe did not mention this comment. Since then, many writers have praised this novel, saying that it concentrated on expressing the anger of the north against unjust slavery and the law of escaping slaves, and praised it for injecting impetus into the abolition movement. James baird weaver, a general and politician on the federal side, once said that it was this book that made him actively participate in the abolitionist movement. Uncle Tom's Cabin has also aroused great interest from the British public. The first edition of London was published in May 1852, and 200,000 copies were sold. The British dislike of the United States is also part of the reason for its popularity. A famous writer once wrote: "Uncle Tom's popularity in Britain is not out of hatred and revenge, but out of jealousy and vanity at the national level." We have been stung by American arrogance for a long time-we are tired of hearing her boasting about the freest and most civilized country in the world. Our clergy hate her spontaneous government system-our conservatives hate her democracy-our Whigs hate her nouveau riche-our radicals hate her eloquence, arrogance and ambition. All parties cheered for Mrs. Stowe's betrayal. " . Charles francis adams, American envoy to Britain during the Civil War, later said: "Uncle Tom's Cabin: The Life of the Humble, published by 1852, had a direct, considerable and impressive impact on the whole world with the help of the accidental environment at that time, and these effects were even greater than any previous books." . This novel has been translated into almost every language, including Chinese (Lin Shu's classical Chinese translation is the first American novel translated into Chinese) and Amharic (1930 translation to support Ethiopia's efforts to end the suffering of black people in that country). This book is so widely circulated that sigmund freud, a famous psychiatrist, once reported that he believed that many patients' sadism and masochism tendencies were influenced by flogging slaves in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Literary Significance and Criticism As the first political novel widely circulated in the United States, Uncle Tom's Cabin not only has a great influence on the development of American literature, but also widely affects the development of protest literature. Later, upton sinclair's The Jungle Prince and rachel carson's Silent Spring were both deeply influenced by Uncle Tom's Cabin. Although there is no doubt about this significance, the general view of Uncle Tom's Cabin is "a book that mixes children's fables and sermons". Many literary critics also criticized the novel as "just a sentimental novel"; In George Whitcher's History of American Literature, he wrote: "Mrs. Stowe and her handwriting are not the reasons why this novel is so popular;" The talent of its author is no different from that of the editor of Sunday school novels. At most, she has many ready-made plots, humor and sadness, and then pieced these popular elements together into a book. " However, some critics praised the novel. Edmund wilson said, "Being completely in Uncle Tom's cabin ... will prove those shocking experiences. "Jane tompkins thinks this novel is one of the classics in American literature, and suspects that so many criticisms of this novel at that time were entirely due to its popularity. In addition to the obvious theme like condemning slavery, other viewpoints that Mrs. Stowe tried to express in her novels have also been studied by scholars for many years, and many hypothetical theories have been put forward for this purpose. For example, as a devout Christian and an active abolitionist, Mrs. Stowe incorporated many of her religious views into her novels. Some scholars believe that through her novels, Mrs. Stowe provides a solution to the moral and political problems that plague many opponents of slavery. The so-called moral and political questions are: even if the act of preventing slavery is just and opposing evil, is it against moral justice to use violence to oppose slavery and violate the evil laws of slavery? Which role in Mrs. Stowe's works is worth imitating, the obedient Uncle Tom or the provocative george harris? Mrs Stowe's solution is similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson's: if everyone can sincerely examine God's teachings and follow them, they will all become followers of God. Scholars also believe that this novel expresses the values of the free soil movement. From this point of view, the role of george harris has become the embodiment of the creed of free workers, while the complex role of O 'Filja represents those northerners who acquiesce in the compromise to slavery. In sharp contrast to O 'Filja, Dinah is an emotional-driven chef. In the plot of the novel, O 'Filja is finally transformed, just as the United States and the Party (three years later) announced that the North must change itself and defend its anti-slavery principles. Some people think that feminist theory is also a part of the novel, because the novel criticizes slavery under patriarchy. Mrs. Stowe believes that in the family foundation composed of slave owners and slaves, the blood relationship is stronger than the patriarchal relationship. In addition, Mrs. Stowe regards the unity of the country as an extension of the family, so the national consciousness stems from the maintenance of a * * * race. Therefore, she called for the establishment of African colonies that are free slaves and do not integrate into American society. There is also a view that this book attempts to redefine masculinity as a key step in abolishing slavery. In this view, abolitionists have to resist the aggressive and dominant male images developed during the conquest and colonization in the early19th century. In order to change this idea of men, so that men will not endanger their image or position in society because they oppose slavery, some abolitionists have absorbed the principles of women's participation in politics, Christianity and negativism, and believe that men should cooperate, empathize and show civic spirit. Others in the abolitionist movement believe that traditional and positive masculinity should not be changed. The men described by Mrs. Stowe are all representatives of the above two kinds of men.

The generation and popularization of stereotypes when editing this paragraph.

In recent decades, scholars and readers have criticized this book for its condescending racist tone when describing the black characters in it; Especially in the appearance, conversation and habits of the characters, and the passivity of Uncle Tom's resignation. The use and creation of African-American stereotypes in the novel can not be ignored, because Uncle Tom's Cabin was once the best-selling novel in the world in the19th century. Therefore, this book (with accompanying illustrations and related drama works) has played an irreplaceable role in deeply implanting these stereotypes into the American spirit. Black stereotype in Uncle Tom's Cabin: "Happy Black" (such as lazy and carefree Sam); Light-skinned mulattoes ("mulattoes", such figures as Eliza, Cathy and Emmeline) used as sexual tools; Caring black nanny ("wet nurse", such as mamy, the chef of St. Clare plantation); Stereotypes of black children ("black children", such as Topsy); Uncle Tom, or African-Americans eager to please white people (such as Uncle Tom). It should be noted that Mrs. Stowe's original intention was to mold Tom into a "noble hero". The stereotype of "a fool who obeys the flattery of white people" is obviously caused by related stage works in the later period, which is beyond Mrs. Stowe's control. In recent decades, these negative elements in Uncle Tom's Cabin have weakened the historical role of this book as an "important anti-slavery tool" to some extent. The change in the interpretation of the novel originated from an article by james baldwin called "Everyone's Protest Novel". In the article, Baldwin called Uncle Tom's Cabin a "very bad novel", saying that its description of race was very dull and aesthetically rude. In the 1960s and 1970s, black power and black art activists criticized the novel. Uncle Tom is regarded as a "traitor of race", and (in some points) Tom is even worse than the most vicious slave owner. During this period, criticism of other stereotypes in the book has also increased. In recent years, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and other scholars have reinterpreted Uncle Tom's Cabin, arguing that the book is "the core document of American race relations and a major moral and political exploration of these relations."