As I was reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin I was a little shocked by all the subject matter relating to slavery because in all of our previous readings good always prevailed. This story had so many negative connotations and “evil” that I would not find to be popular for any children to read. Stowe goes against all the theories of 19th century children’s literature that we have discussed like the fact that the stories teach good morals, good always prevails, children are our future, and just the fact that the stories have simple plotlines.
Towards the end of the story the woman named Lucy gets on the boat with her little 10-month-old son. “They won’t want the young ’un on a plantation…then there’s all the bother and expense of raisin’,” said the man (Stowe 325). When Haley and the man are talking about the boy they do not see him as a person, but only as an object, and they discuss whether he is worth the expense to keep him for his labor. This is a huge contrast to the other children, like Ellen who are seen as precious little people who are capable of learning so much.
Stowe portrays the children in Uncle Tom’s Cabin as weak, with no power. Aunt Hagar and her son Albert are about to be sold into slavery and the woman does not want to get separated from the only son she has left. “He an’t gwine to be sold widout me! said the old woman, with passionate eagerness; “he and I goes in a lot together” (Stowe 316). The woman is yelling about staying with her son, and through all this the boy doesn’t say a word. He is fourteen years old and I found it interesting that he couldn’t manage to voice his opinion at all. I think this shows that children truly do not have a say in anything, and adults do not view children as being important in society or there to help shape the future.
We do not get the chance to really see the lives of children outside the institution of slavery. The only glimpse we see is of the Bird family where Eliza goes to try to get help for her and her baby. I believe this is one of the only major times in the story that good somewhat prevails. In such a bad time when slavery is so prevalent, this family tried very hard to help runaway slaves. I think this could have shown children who read this that even when people do bad things, you can still stand for what you believe and do the right thing.
I like how you mentioned the complexity of the plot lines! It is very easy to tell that just merely by the amount of characters and how often we see them all. Not one character seems to have a little role in the story-line. I also like how you point out that the children are considered weak where in the other readings they are considered strong and powerful!
ReplyDeleteI like how your pointed out that we really don't get a glimpse of childhood outside of slavery and even the slight one we do get is driven by the background of slaver. You make some good points about children being seen as weak and unapprecaited.
ReplyDeleteI love the message that we get from the Birds. At the beginning of that chapter it said something like "behind every senator is a man" and we see that in Mr. Bird. His compassion was stronger than that of the law he was tied to, ironically the law he voted for. And we see Mrs. Bird being anything but submissive as she argues for justice over this! Good does prevail in this situation!
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