The Tragic Fate of Uncle Tom.doc

学号：xxxxxxxxxxx写作课论文学 院 外 国 语 学 院 专 业 英 语 专 业 年 级 xxxx 级 姓 名 x x x 论文题目 The Tragic Fate of Uncle Tom 2009 年 6 月23 日The Tragic Fate of Uncle TomThesis Statement: In the background of slavery, Uncle Toms character of submissive and loyal is one of the important reasons for his tragic fate.Outline:. A brief introduction to the author and the novelA. The introduction to Harriet Beecher StoweB. A simple account of Uncle Toms CabinC. Analysis of Uncle Toms character. Uncle Toms reversals of fortune A. Uncle Toms first reversal of fortune -be sold to HaleyB. Uncle Toms second reversal of fortune -be sold to Augustine St. ClareC. Uncle Toms third reversal of fortune -be sold to Simon Legree1. Uncle Toms hard life under the clutches of Legree2. Uncle Toms ultimate fate. Uncle Toms kindness and struggle in helping other slaves get their freedomA. Uncle Tom says nothing about Eliza and her son Harrys escapeB. Uncle Tom suffers great hardships in order to help Casey and Emmeline. Conclusion: At the time of the extension of slavery in America, slave-trade is an inevitable result. And Uncle Tom, as a pious and honest slave at that time, his tragic lot seems inevitable too.The Tragic Fate of Uncle TomPart,A Harriet Beecher was the seventh child of a famous protestant preacher. During her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical sketches, and childrens books, as well as adult novels. While she wrote at least ten adult novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe is predominantly known for her first, Uncle Toms Cabin (1852), begun as a serial for the Washington anti-slavery weekly, the National Era. It focused public interest on the issue of slavery, and was deeply controversial. In writing the book, Stowe drew on her personal experience: she was familiar with slavery, the antislavery movement, and the Underground Railroad because Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio, where Stowe had lived, was a slave state. Following publication of the book, she became a celebrity, speaking against slavery both in America and Europe. She wrote A Key to Uncle Toms Cabin (1853) extensively documenting the realities on which the book was based, to refute critics who tried to argue that it was inauthentic; and published a second anti-slavery novel, Dred in1856. In 1862, when she visited President Lincoln, legend claims that he greeted her as the little lady who made this big war: the War Between the States.Part,B Uncle Toms Cabin is a book mainly about Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other charactersboth fellow slaves and slave ownersrevolve. The novel mainly tells the stories of three slaves Uncle Tom, Eliza, and Georgewho starts out together in Kentucky, but whose lives take different turn. Eliza and George, who are married to each other but owned by different masters, manage to escape to free territory with their little boy. Uncle Tom is not so lucky. He is taken away from his wife and children. Uncle Tom is sold first to a kind master, Augustine St. Clare, and then to the fiendish Simon Legree, in whose hands he meets his death. At that time “a trade which is the vital support of an institution which an American divine tells us has no evils but such as are inseparable form any other relations in social and domestic life” (Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin 189). And even serious “There are those living who know the mothers whom this accursed traffic has driven to the murder of their children; and themselves seeking in death a shelter from woes more dreaded than death” (Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin 652).Uncle Toms Cabin played a positive role on social development particularly the U.S. abolitionist movement and the American Civil War. As a literary work, the famous American poet Henry W Longfellow says it is a “literary historys greatest victory”.Part,C Uncle Tom is a good and pious man, known for his reliability and Christian virtue. He is the protagonist of Uncle Toms Cabin. Even under the worst conditions, Uncle Tom always prays to God and finds a way to keep his faith. Part,A Beset by financial problems, Mr. Shelby, a Kentucky plantation owner, is forced to sell Uncle Tom and the young son of Eliza, Mrs. Shelbys slave, to a trader, Haley. Haley has come into possession of a mortgage, which, if Shelby doesnt clear off with Haley directly, will take everything away from Shelbys. Shelby has raked, and scraped, and borrowed, and all but begged-and the price of Uncle Tom and that little boy was needed to make up the balance, and Shelby has to sell them to Haley.Here, it is necessary to say that Mr. Shelby is a considerate master, he trusts Uncle Tom very much. He even asks Uncle Tom to charge the plantation. Uncle Tom lives a happy life in Shelbys. But Haley is a gruff, coarse man; he presents himself as a kind individual who treats his slaves well. But it is easy to learn from the novel that he mistreats his slaves, often violently. For Uncle Tom, falling to the hands of Haley is an unfortunate twist.Part,B While aboard a ship destined for a New Orleans slave market, Uncle Tom saves the life of a young girl named Eva, who later convinces her father, Augustine St. Clare, to purchase her heroic rescuer. St. Clare is a flighty and romantic man, dedicated to pleasure. St. Clare does not believe in God, and he carouses and drinks every night. He dotes on his daughter and treats his slaves with compassion. And Eva is an absolutely perfect childa completely moral being and an unimpeachable Christian. She laments the existence of slavery and sees no difference between blacks and whites. In this kind of environment, Uncle Tom quickly gains the affection of everyone on the plantation and forms a close bond with little Eva. But soon St. Clare is killed in a brawl. Once again, Uncle Tom is facing another reversal of fortune. His fate is unknown; no one knows what will happen to Uncle Tom.Part,C, 1 After St. Clares death, his wife Mrs. St. Clare sends their slaves to slave auctions. Since then, Uncle Tom fell into a Red River plantation slave Legrees hands. Legree is a vicious, barbaric, and loathsome man. He fosters violence and hatred among his slaves. Legree takes the slaves as talking animals, arbitrary beatings, unwarranted lynching. In Legrees farm,” Tom looked in vain among the gang, as they poured along, for companionable faces. He saw only sulen, scowling, imbruted men, and feeble, discouraged women, or women that were not women,-the strong pushing away the weak,-the gross, unrestricted animal selfishness of human beings, of whom nothing good was expected and desired; and who, treated in every way like brutes, had sunk as nearly to their level as it was posible for human beings to do” (Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin 509). Uncle Tom puts up for this inhuman torture, still does not expect to find a way out for himself, but quietly pursued the principle of doing an honest man. But there are two slaves Cassy and Emmeline, in order to survive, decided to run away, they go into hiding. Legree doubt that it is Uncle Tom who helps them to escape. He tied Uncle Tom up, giving Uncle Tom a very tough battle. But Uncle Tom finally showed his slave resistance, didnt tell Legree where the two slaves are. Part,C, 2 Because of Uncle Toms resistance, Legree becomes more barbaric and finally he could not escape the misfortune end of being beaten to death by his master.Part,A When Eliza hears that her master will sell her litter son to a slave, she decides to flees with her son. When she is about to leave she tells Uncle Tom everything and ask Uncle Tom to go with them. But Uncle Tom decides to stay still in order not to leave his master in trouble. But he doesnt tell anything to anybody about the escape.Part,B Legrees mistress, Cassy, a refined quadroon whose daughter had been torn from her and sold into slavery, attends to Uncle Toms injuries and tries to enlist his help in murdering their master. But Uncle Tom, a model of Christian forgiveness, refuses and convinces her to abort her plan. Later, when Cassy and Emmeline, pretend to escape by hiding in the attic that Legree believes to be haunted, Uncle Tom refuses to reveal their whereabouts and as a result Legree is furious, and has Uncle Tom flogged to death. As Stowe said “he felt strong in God to meet death, rather than betray the helpless” (Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin 604). George Shelby, who has promised some day to redeem Uncle Tom, arrives as Uncle Tom is dying, and vows to devote himself to the cause of abolition. He says “that God, that I would never own another slave, while it was possible to free him; that nobody, through me, should ever run the risk of being parted from home and friends, and dying on a lonely plantation, as he did” (Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin 645). To some extent, it is a comfort to Uncle Tom.Conclusion: The main themes of the novel include the following: Slavery is an evil institution; faith in God sustains and ennobles the oppressed; little children are blin