Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Women and Blacks Revolutionizing Society

1. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Women and Blacks Revolutionizing Society Chrstine Herzog

2. Thesis Statement • In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s fiction blacks and women are almost interchangeable in the hierarchy of values. Both “achieve moral triumphs in spite of or perhaps because of the oppressions of a predominantly masculine and commercial world.

3. General Outline • Defense of Stowe’s literary achievement -------1. astonishing diversity of characters: women and blacks -------2. defending Stowe against the critique of submissive blacks and resisting mulattoes only—the “feminine” nature of blacks * These two are irrelevant to moral triumphs (primitive Christian virtues).

4. I. Defense of Stowe’s literary achievement 1. astonishing diversity of characters: women and blacks 1) Tom: surpassing her stereotypical generations about the “African race.” -----A. royalty -----B. Heroic courage -----C. extremely virtuous, a type or a symbol but not an impossible character -----D. his strong desire for freedom; not resignation -----E. his feminine traits = uncommon strength

5. A Reminder • Herzog overall thesis in this chapter is the redeeming power that females and blacks share in common in Stowe’s novel.

6. I. Defense of Stowe’s literary achievement 2. defending Stowe against the critique of submissive blacks andresisting mulattoes only— the “feminine” nature of blacks: the wide array of male black images (cf. the claim of black femininity at the end) 1) males -----A. George Harris (mulatto): contrast to Tom -----B. Tom (doubt) -----C. Sam (all black): a defiant hero; mock- heroic -----D. Prue (all black): tragic -----E. Topsy (all black): pious -----F. Scipio (all black): gentle Christianity; powerful gigantic fellow

7. I. Defense of Stowe’s literary achievement 2. defending Stowe against the critique of submissive blacks and resisting mulattoes only— the “feminine” nature of blacks: the wide array of male black images (cf. the claim of black femininity at the end) 2) females: outstanding women A) blacks ---a. Lucy: having grit ---b. Dinah: disorderly; talented; common-sensical ---c. Eliza: Strength and daring ---d. Cassy the quadroon mistress of Legree: (complex) rage; scorn

8. I. Defense of Stowe’s literary achievement 2. defending Stowe against the critique of submissive blacks and resisting mulattoes only— the “feminine” nature of blacks: the wide array of male black images (cf. the claim of black femininity at the end) 2) females: outstanding women (irrelevant to the above claim) B: white: as varied as blacks ---a. Marie St. Clare: sickly and vicious ---b. Miss Ophelia: exasperating efficiency; cold correctness and narrow-mindedness (a contradiction to the thesis statement of redeeming power that blacks and women share) ---c. Mrs. Shelby & Mrs. Bird: sensitive, kind ---d. Rachel Halliday: motherhood personified

9. Claims that fail to develop logically(see the Microsoft Word version) • P. 102: Women and blacks achieve moral triumphs (***) • P. 103: Stowe’s interest in the primitive Christian values of women and blacks (undeveloped) • P. 104: Women and blacks shown in astonishing diversity (contradiction to thesis) • P. 107: Wide range of Stowe’s character shows the “feminine” nature of these (black) figures • p. 108: Not all-black characters are submissive and they are shown without irony (irrelevant) • P. 110: There is not racial trait that cannot be changed by environment (irrelevant) • p. 110: In addition to wide array of male black images, Stowe offers some outstanding [black] women. (deflective) • P. 112: Stowe’s images for women are varied; there is nothing like a general femininity in her female characters (big contradiction) • P. 113: Clearly the woman and the slaves are confronted with the same problem: how to circument an abstract, inhuman form of government which the ‘patriarchal institution’ of slavery is based on. (weak; underdeveloped) • P. 114: Motherhood of this kind is “the still point of the turning world” of H.B.S. (a new thesis near the end) • P. 115: The virtues of black people were then further identified with true Christianity. (undeveloped) • P. 116: Since women and blacks both suffered similar social constraints, feminism and abolitionism were closely allied. (undeveloped; irrelevant to variety of character) • P. 116. Stowe’s insistence on maternal experience as the general principle of Uncle Tom’s Cabin identifies the ethical center of the novel, and helops explain the unusual, and often misunderstood, characterization of Tom. (Tom’s maternity never discussed) • P. 117: Stowe’s novel “proposes as the foundation for a new democratic era, in place of masculine authority, feminine nurture.” (what about your primitive Christian values of women and blacks?) • P. 117: The values of maternal nurturing “

10. A Comment Herzog probably is successful in proving the variety of characterization in Stowe’s novel, but she fails to prove her thesis about the redeeming power that blacks and women share. In her analysis some blacks are submissive, some are rebellious, and some are defiant. women do not all possess maternal nurturing power; some of them are cold.

11. Tip When you find gaps in arguments, it’s a good starting point of paper.

12. A Sample Paper on Herzog

13. In these two chapters, Herzog tries to subvert the hierarchy of value in traditional dualism. Before, women are often seen not only as different from but also inferior to men. In the Western cultural representation, women are both physically and intellectually the weaker. They lacked . . . . Also, they are often associated with the ethnic Other to the White, for example, the Indians or the Black. . In traditional philosophy, reason is elevated while emotion is repressed. However, in Herzog’s perception of Hawthorne, it is just the reverse. Science and intellect here are revealed as an vicious power that destroys human capability of love or caring for others. . .