Characterization in Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin Essays

Characterization in Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms CabinEither they deny the Negros humanity and feel no cause to measure his actions against civilized norms or they protect themselves from their guilt in the Negros condition and from their fear...by attributing to them a superhuman capacity for love, kindliness and forgiveness. Nor does this any way nullify their stereotyped conviction that all Negroes argon given to the most animal behavior. - Ralph Ellison (Litwack 3) The above quote by Ralph Ellison, author of The Invisible Man, is a good get-go point for an analysis on the characterization within Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin. For many modern critics and readers alike, both black and white, harshly criticize the author for her stereotypical depiction of a black man as only being noble if he possesses a superhuman capacity for love, kindliness and forgiveness, like her most noble and forgiving character in the produce, Uncle Tom. However, a deeper analysis of cha racter will demonstrate that to Stowes Christian framework, the sacrifices and nobility of Uncle Tom are not ones of defeat and subjugation, rather they are his only option from a moral point of view-and Tom is of the highest moral character possible, some would say a level that is unrealistic in the caseful of his real abuses. This analysis will show how Stowe uses such characterizations to depict the horrendous nature of slavery in an attempt to change public opinion regarding the at a time sacredly held American institution. A conclusion will discuss how my own thinking has been affected by the work. The character of Ophelia is used to contrast the North and the South. Ophelia is an abolitionist who finds the atrocities of slavery ho... ...braham Lincoln would have been more than won over by this type of characterization, one so adept at pointing out the weaknesses of the white encephalon and injustices while extolling the highest virtues as ones possessed more typically by b lacks. The same thing could be done with the Jews who were held in Bondage by the Egyptians, even though today the sufferings Moses and his people endured would more than likely make most readers who do not consider the period and ideology of the society in which a work is created scoff at the humility with which they tolerated their bondage. Works Cited Litwack, L. Been In The Storm So Long The Aftermath of Slavery. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1979. Stowe, H.B. Uncle Toms Cabin. Houghton Mifflin Co., NY 1948. Sundquist, E.J. (ed.) New Essays on Uncle Toms Cabin.Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 1986.