Uncle Toms Cabin
Shelley Thomas
12/10/12
1st period
Power of Women Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin well before the age of the women’s rights movement, however, there are many example of early feminism. . Since Stowe could not express her views through voting, she wrote a novel to do so. A novel centered around women, in which they act more morally than their male counterparts. The women in this novel are very powerful, whether they are helping someone or helping themselves. Slavery is a political and moral subject, and Stowe felt women needed a role in slavery because men lacked morals. Throughout the novel, the reader sees many examples in which Stowe uses women to persuade their husbands on the issue of slavery. Senator’s Bird wife is one example in which she expresses her option on Fugitive Slave Law by stating, “I don’t anything about politics, but I can read my bible…..” Stowe holds up many pious and domestic women as models. However, not all the female characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin are as good as Senator Bird’s wife. For example, when women do not act morally, Stowe states that it is the evil influence of slavery rather the own women’s immorality. Some examples of this are Prue and her drunkenness or Casey’s infanticide. Also, Maria acts petty and mean and Ms. Ophelia was constantly being prejudice. The book still points to good and evil and uses the female gender as a whole when depicting their moral wisdom and uses this as a force for social change.
Stowe even sheds a positive light on Black women throughout the novel. She shows they are strong, brave, and capable. The reader sees this a lot through the character of Eliza. For example, “Her boy was old enough to have walked by her side, and, in an indifferent case, she would only have led him by the hand; but now the bare thought of putting him out of her arms made her shudder, and she strained him to her bosom with a convulsive grasp, as she went rapidly forward” (7.1, 3). Stowe develops Eliza has a heroine
12/10/12
1st period
Power of Women Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin well before the age of the women’s rights movement, however, there are many example of early feminism. . Since Stowe could not express her views through voting, she wrote a novel to do so. A novel centered around women, in which they act more morally than their male counterparts. The women in this novel are very powerful, whether they are helping someone or helping themselves. Slavery is a political and moral subject, and Stowe felt women needed a role in slavery because men lacked morals. Throughout the novel, the reader sees many examples in which Stowe uses women to persuade their husbands on the issue of slavery. Senator’s Bird wife is one example in which she expresses her option on Fugitive Slave Law by stating, “I don’t anything about politics, but I can read my bible…..” Stowe holds up many pious and domestic women as models. However, not all the female characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin are as good as Senator Bird’s wife. For example, when women do not act morally, Stowe states that it is the evil influence of slavery rather the own women’s immorality. Some examples of this are Prue and her drunkenness or Casey’s infanticide. Also, Maria acts petty and mean and Ms. Ophelia was constantly being prejudice. The book still points to good and evil and uses the female gender as a whole when depicting their moral wisdom and uses this as a force for social change.
Stowe even sheds a positive light on Black women throughout the novel. She shows they are strong, brave, and capable. The reader sees this a lot through the character of Eliza. For example, “Her boy was old enough to have walked by her side, and, in an indifferent case, she would only have led him by the hand; but now the bare thought of putting him out of her arms made her shudder, and she strained him to her bosom with a convulsive grasp, as she went rapidly forward” (7.1, 3). Stowe develops Eliza has a heroine