Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a well written story that provides a different perspective of the times of slavery. With the plot following the lives of multiple slaves, the reader gains a new understanding about how the slaves lived and struggled through the days. Although we know that slavery is a terrible thing, many people think that all the slaves were harshly treated and that there were no good slave owners. However, Uncle Tom’s Cabin reveals that this thought to not be entirely true. Through her writing, Stowe illustrates that there are owners that do care for their slaves.
The perspective of the slaves that Stowe uses gives the reader a new view of how things were back then. From my own readings, I find that most writings seem to be from the view of abolitionists or the slave owners. However, Stowe gives two different perspectives of different slaves that show how the slaves lived and thought. The first perspective was from runaway slaves. With this, the experience of fear and courage is seen from the runaway characters, Eliza and her family. Since they are running away from their masters, they have the understanding that if they are caught, there would be severe punishment and even the possibility of death. With many close encounters, the fear, horror, and anxiety of the slaves are written with great detail. However, Stowe also showed the story of a slave that chose to stay behind even if it meant the worse for him. With this part of the story, Stowe reveals how the slave trade business works and how some of the slave owners were not as terrible as many other books portray them to be.
One of the major themes that stuck out to me was the faith in God. I find that there are very few books that emphasize the love and greatness of God. The main character Tom showed a constant faith in God. With this faith, he was able to gain the trust of his owners although blacks were thought to be lower. His Christian behavior influenced many of the other slaves to learn more about God. Although during that time blacks were thought to be nothing but property, Tom is rather influential not only to the characters in the book, but also to readers. He illustrates how a Christian should never give up on God and that no matter what the circumstances are, you just have to trust in God because He is in control all the time. I feel that this has shown me that I personally struggle to do this. I feel challenged to be like Tom and not give up on God and to put my complete faith in Him. I find that this illustration presented by Stowe to be quite intriguing since her main focus was to point out the hardships of the slaves and support the end of slavery. To tie in a biblical lesson into her observation of the sins of man is quick ingenious; pointing out two truths through her writing.
Stowe did an excellent job at writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I was greatly challenged by the characters, especially Tom and Eva with their strong love toward God. Also with the view from the slaves’ perspective, I feel that a lot of my thoughts about the post Civil War time were greatly inaccurate. I never really imagine that there were owners that actually really cared as much as Mrs. Shelby, George, Eva, and St. Clare did. I strongly recommend this book to readers that love to read historical stories. Although it is roughly 500 pages long, the plot draws the reader into the story with its heartfelt expression of the lives of the slaves and how God is in control of everything. The only thing that I find to be difficult was the strong Southern accent written throughout the text. With this, there were a few sections that took some time to comprehend what was being said among the characters. But besides that, the book was greatly educational and entertaining to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment