Causes of Uncle Tom39;s Tragedy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.doc

毕业论文(设计)Causes of Uncle Toms Tragedy in Uncle Toms Cabin1. Introduction12. The historical background32.1 The development of economy32.2 Fugitive Slave Act of 185043. The writing purpose of Stowe63.1 The background of Stowe63.2 The writing purpose of Stowe74. The evil of slavery84.1 The hypocritical and evil slaveholders94.1.1 Arthur Shelby104.1.2 Augustine St. Clare114.1.3 Simon Legree134.2 The ruthless slaves: Sambo&Qimbo155. The personal flaws of Uncle Tom165.1 His submission and obedience165.2 His stubbornness of faith176. Conclusion18References201. IntroductionWith more people realizing the inhumanity of slavery in the 19th century, slavery became one of the most important issues and it became more violent year by year in American society. However, slavery was not abolished irrevocably until ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, following the Civil War (Wen Hongrui, 1997: 168). After the passage of Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a white woman, whose name was Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote an antislavery novel Uncle Toms Cabin, which publicized the evil of slavery to a wide audience. It was commonly agreed that Uncle Toms Cabin was an antislavery novel and it was considered as one factor that caused the Civil War. In the novel, Mrs. Stowe was more concerned with the urgent need to persuade people that slavery was wholly immoral than with producing a work of literature. Many articles have been written to discuss the antislavery spirit or the Christian spirit in Uncle Toms Cabin. As far as they are concerned, antislavery spirit is not contradictory to or incompatible with the spirit of Christianity. With the application of the famous Canadian literary critic Northrop Fryes theory of archetype, Zhang Wenhui and Han Bin in their thesis attempt to analyze various characters, such as Uncle Tom, little Eva, Sambo and Qimbo and some pious, ideal Christian mothers in Uncle Toms Cabin in terms of biblical archetype, to reveal the Christianity in the novel (Net. 1). What is more, on the basis of Bible, a paper introduces the background of history and analyzes several characters, such as Uncle Tom, Little Eva, Eliza and some pious Christian mothers. With the analysis of these persons and the comparison with the characters in Bible to reveal the Christianity in this novel, at last, it explores Mrs. Stowes solution to institution of slavery and the results (Net. 2). Most studies of the novel just introduce the background of history and analyze several characters on the basis of slavery or Christianity, and few have involved in finding the causes of Uncle Toms tragedy.However, this thesis not only focuses on revealing the evil of slavery, analyzing the backgrounds of history, but also explores the hypocritical slaveholders and the weakness of Uncle Tom, to fulfill the purpose of finding the causes of Uncle Toms tragedy. With the rapid development of plantations in North America, slave trade prevailed at that time. The slaves were sold from one place to another frequently, and their fate was tragic, with no exception to the protagonistUncle Tom. He was sold by Mr. Shelby, a kind master, who did not abuse or mistreat him, and he was sold to Simon Legree by Marie finally. Legree plantation was a horrific place, where even the slaves treated each other cruelly and Uncle Tom suffered beatings, abuse and murder. No matter in pleasant plantations or hellish plantations, slaveholders are made into an instrument of cruelty by slavery. No matter Uncle Tom under the control of kind masters or evil masters, he cannot escape the misfortune of being sold from one master to another. Through a thorough exploration of causes of Uncle Toms tragedy, the thesis provides Chinese readers with a new perspective to appreciate this classic novel.2. The historical background 2.1 The development of economy From the earliest days of colonization, the North and the South developed in different ways, and the seeds of conflict were sown. As the South developed a plantation economy that grew dependent on slaves for labor, the North developed an economy of shop keeping, business, and industry that used the labor of freemen (Ding Yongshu, 1999: 18). After the War of Independence, new equipment and technology were introduced from Europe, and modern industries were established, and the American national economy was growing rapidly. With the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney of Massachusetts in 1793 and the growth of cotton production, the South needed slaves more than ever on its plantations. In the 18th century, slave labor was the mode of production in the southern colonies. By the mid-19th century, the South had been agricultural and had a large number of plantations. Because farming was very profitable and the South needed slave labor for making huge profits, the South insisted that slavery be kept (Wen Hongrui, 1997: 250-251).In the novel, the South had a large number of plantations, such as Shelby plantation, St. Clare plantation and Legree plantation, which were making huge profits out of tobacco and cotton with slave labor. Obviously, slaves play a very important role in promoting the rapid expansion of the South economy. Because the South developed a plantation economy that grew dependent on slaves for labor, slave trade prevailed in the South and slaves were enslaved cruelly. Slavery was a social-economic system under which certain personsknown as slaveswere deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services (Net. 3). Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, tension on slavery issue grew, and the conflict between North and South became more and more intense. With the population and wealth of the North growing more rapidly than that of the South, the South found itself outnumbered in the House of Representatives, and its leaders were determined to prevent the North from controlling Congress in order to protect their interests. In these circumstances, the southerners tried to keep the number of slave states equal to the number of free states so that the their senators could not be outvoted by the Northern senators. Slavery became an apolitical issue, which seemed very hard to solve (Wen Hongrui, 1997: 252).Under these circumstances, the United States Congress passed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which benefited the interests of the vast majority of the southern plantations.2.2 Fugitive Slave Act of 1850The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. It made any federal marshal or other official who did not arrest a runaway slave liable to a fine of $1,000. In the United States, Law-enforcement officials everywhere had a duty to arrest a fugitive slave, and the suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify. In addition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was to be subject to six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee for their work (Net. 4).In the history of slavery in the United States, a fugitive slave was a salve who escaped his or her masters and traveled to a place where the state of his or her enslavement was either illegal. The majority of fugitive slaves tried to find their freedom in either a free Northern territory or a foreign country, usually Canada or Mexico. According to the Fugitive Slave Act, the law required anyone who found an escaped slave to return the slave to his owner, but many northerners disliked this law and did not follow it. People who did not follow it and guided fugitive slaves on the road to freedom would be punished. Uncle Toms Cabin was written after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it illegal for anyone in the United States to offer aid or assistance to a runaway slave. In the novel, George was a runaway slave, who escaped from his master to find freedom in Canada, then a sign to hunt him, was announced at once. Therefore, it was reasonable for many slaves to be afraid of the law and most of them feared against it. As is analyzed above, with the rapid development of American national economy, the South needed more slave labor for making huge profits and the life of slaves was more terrible. Most slaves were put up at auction and separated from their family. Because of the conflict of interests between the South and the North, their relationship became more violent. In defence of their interests, the United States Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that protected slavery and made slaves to be the legal property of their owners, and the South achieved its goal by the law. Nevertheless, because of the law, many slaves were deprived of freedom and enslaved crueler, and the evil of slavery was clearer. Some of them could not endure inhumane enslavement and tried to escape their masters for freedom, but few of them had succeeded in it. Although a few slaves achieved freedom, they experienced considerable difficulties. In Uncle Toms Cabin, when Eliza leaped over the Ohio River for freedom, she was forced to jump rapidly between blocks of ice at the risk of her life. The dangers Eliza faced in her leap and the courage she required to execute it successfully, which indicated slaves journey to freedom was involved in grave peril. 3. The writing purpose of StoweUnder the historical background of America, slaves were enslaved cruelly, and Uncle Toms life was as tragically as other slaves. Stowe wrote Uncle Tom as a tragic feature in the novel Uncle Toms Cabin to arouse public attention and convinced her readers the necessity of ending slavery.3.1 The background of StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe was an American female writer who was born in Littchield Connectiut. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was one of Americas most celebrated clergymen and the principal spokesman for Calvinism, and he was a famous Calvinist preacher who drove his offspring along the straight path of devotion to God. Her mother was a prayer who died when Harriet was fouryearold; her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was the best known pulpit orator of his times. In 1836, she married Calvin Stowe who was a biblical scholar. In a word, Stowe lived all her life at the atmosphere of Christianity that inevitably influenced her masterpiece Uncle Toms Cabin and the religion of Uncle Tom, who was too stubborn to his faith. When the author was twenty-one-year-old, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio with her family. The Ohio River served as the legally recognized division between the North where the non-slave-holding states are and the South where the slave-holding states are. She had an opportunity to visit the South when she married to Calvin Stowe in 1836. In the South, she observed the operation of slavery there with particular attention and spent much time observing slavery first-hand on visiting Kentucky, across the river from her home. After several years, the passage of Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 aroused many abolitionists to take action or to write. Therefore, based on her life in Cincinnati and motivated by Fugitive Slave Act, Stowe became having strong antislavery feelings and set about writing the novel, Uncle Toms Cabin, which had a tremendous impact after its publication.3.2 The writing purpose of Stowe Under Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a slave who wanted to find the real freedom had to escape from the North to Canada. Uncle Toms Cabin was written by Stowe after the passage of the law, it attacks this law and the institution it protected.In the case of Uncle Toms Cabin, Stowe sets out to convince her Northern audience of the evil of slavery; she uses the figure of Uncle Tom not to explore the psychology of a slave, but to assist her thematic arguments (David, 2003: 73). In the novel, Uncle Tom was described by the author as a faithful, forgiving and obedient slave. Besides, he was loyal to his masters and warm-hearted to his fellows. However, Stowe wrote him to be a tragic figure who was suffering beatings, abuse and even beaten to death at last. It shocked most readers because such a kind person should deserve a good retribution in common sense. Most readers were impressed by Uncle Toms sense of duty and self-sacrifice and gentle patience, which made him an admirable and moving figure to Stowes white Northern audience in 1852. It was Uncle Toms tragedy that aroused public attention. Because the different historical problems that existed in different periods of history that Stowe lived, the purpose of the novel was to criticize the evil of slavery by describing the horrible life of slaves. To fulfill the purpose, Stowe had to make it a tragedy. The tragedy impelled people, including the white and the black, to participate in the antislavery movement and made Stowe the little lady who made the Civil War as Lincoln uttered. 4. The evil of slaveryAccording to An Outline of American History, slavery was inherently a system of brutality and coercion in which beatings and the breakup of families through the sale of individuals were commonplace (2003: 224). The criticism of slavery was the behavior of slaveholders and overseers toward Uncle Tom, and the fundamental violation of slavery is inalienable right to be free (David, 2003: 33). Stowe attempted to show people what slavery was and emphasized the effects of slavery were as tragic for the slaves as for the slaveholders, and exposed the evils of slavery that torture slaves both physically and spiritually. In the novel, Mr. Shelby and Mr. St. Clare, though they are kind to the slaves, are ambivalent figures in slavery because of their involvement. The torture of slaves is expressed clearly in the words of Prue (a female character in the novel): “I looks like gwine to heaven,” said the woman; “ant thar where folks is gwine? Spose theyd have me htar? Id rather go to torment, and get away from Masr and Missis” (Stowe, 2001: 317). These words show the physical and spiritual injury on the slaves. Normally, in the Western countries, people try hard to get salvation so that they can go to heaven after death. Here Prue would rather go to hell to avoid being a slave to the white Masters again in the after-life, thus it is not difficult to imagine the misery and torture slaves have to bear in present life. Under the situation of slavery, the lives of slaves could not but be miserable and horrible, and the hypocritical and evil slaveholders are made into an instrument of cruelty in the system.4.1 The hypocritical and evil slaveholdersSince the thread of Uncle Toms life and tragedy have become interwoven with that of higher ones, his masters, it is necessary to give an introduction of them. At the Shelby and St. Clare plantations, masters do not abuse or mistreat slaves. However, Stowe does not offer these settings in order to show slaverys evil as conditional, but seeks to expose slavery even in its best-case scenario. Though Shelby and St. Clare possess kindness and intelligence, their ability to tolerate slavery indicates them hypocritical and evil. Even under kind masters, slaves suffer, as we see when the financially struggling Shelby guiltily destroys Toms family by selling Tom and St. Clare does not carry out his promise to free Uncle Tom. Some slaveholders such as Shelby and St. Clare treat Uncle Tom kindly, but he yet cannot avoid the tragic fate of being sold from one place to another. And then Tom was bought from the St. Clare wife by Simon Legree, a particularly vicious and brutal slave-owner. At the Legree plantation, the evil of slavery appears in its most naked and hideous form. If slavery is wrong in the best of cases, in the worst of cases it is nightmarish and inhuman (David, 2003: 35). Therefore, under the evil of slavery, no matter in the control of kind or cruel masters, Uncle Tom cannot avoid the tragic fate and the injury on him.4.1.1 Arthur ShelbyArthur Shelby is the first owner of Uncle Tom in the Kentucky. Because of facing loss of his plantation, he is forced to sell Elizas boy, Harry, together with his most trusted and valuable slave whose name is Uncle Tom, to the cruel slave trader Mr. Haley to pay off his debts. By selling Tom, a financially struggling Shelby feels guiltily just momentarily while Toms family is destroyed. When Mr. Shelby sells Tom to the coarse slave-dealer in financial problem, he betrays the loyalty of his most loyal slave. Although Mr. Shelby is an educated and good-hearted man, he tolerates the evil of slavery and practices it. In the years prior to the Civil War, many people excused slavery by claiming that most slaveholders were good men or acted in the interests of their slaves. Stowe uses her irony to argue against this idea. Slaves interests do not lie in having kind masters; instead, they lie in being set free (David, 2003: 35). It is freedom that are the really interests of slaves. Any slaveholder who owns slaves is unwilling to give up interests to free slaves and automatically acts against his slaves interests simply by continuing to own them or participating in slave trade.In Chapter 4, Uncle Tom and Harry are comparatively well off under the ownership and we can see happy evenings. Shelby indulges in a cigar to soothe his nerves after concluding to deal with Haley. Two families are being torn apart by his actions at the same time as he smokes this comforting cigar. From the scenes, we can know that a slave is very easy to slip from a decent life to a bad one. Although Mr. Shelby is a good slaveholder and he treats Uncle Tom as his faithful and devout manager, he participates in the slave trade and sells Uncle Tom at last. His toleration of slavery indicates that he is hypocritical and att