The Last of the Mohicans

When I first heard about the book, it was because of a movie called the same name. The brutality of war and the tenacious vitality of Indians leave me an unforgettable impression. Than I went to see the book which made me admire the author’s ability of environmental depiction. This book is just like a friend of mine, keeps me company and gives me knowledge. It makes me think more about life and peace. Reading this book is just like a journey in the great American forests. I really enjoy the feelings. I thought the book was excellent. I saw the movie first though and absolutely loved it, but after reading the book, I am very disappointed with the movie. It was nothing like the book. In the movie the characters were not even similar to those in the book. The movie barely skimmed the surface of the intricate issues and relationships that are the very heart of the Cooper's novel. I know that not every piece of a novel can be transformed into a screenplay, but this was a very sad attempt. I still like the movie, but I feel they should have given it a different name, because it does not bring the justice deserved to the book, The Last of the Mohicans. Now I would like to recommend this book to other readers.

Title

Abstract：

James Fenimore Cooper was one of the first popular American novelists, who was born in September 1789, in Burlington and died in 1851. The Last of Mohicans is regarded as Cooper’s masterpiece, which opens a new area for American literature. The story happens in the third year of the seven-year war which launched by the English and French aggressors. The story reappears vividly the aggressors’ criminal action and it also reveals the author’s sympathy to the Indians through the whole story. The novel exposes that the roof of the contradiction conflict and violence slaughter lies in the colonization desire of the English and French aggressors.
The author applies a large amount of symbolism to promote the development of the story, to distill the theme of the novel and to present the “black” atmosphere. The paper is divided into three parts: the first part mainly introduces the author and the story content to the reader. The second part analyzes the use of symbols in The Last of Mohicans through the descriptions of the conversations, bible, environment, animals and gun. The third part is the conclusion. It helps the reader to get a further understanding of the novel’s deep sense and attain a better understanding of the meanings what the author really wants to express.

Key word:

The Last of Mohicans; conversation; environment; animals; gun

Title

1. Brief Introduction of James Fenimore Cooper

     James Fenimore Cooper was the first great professional American author. He was born on September 15, 1789, in Burlington, New Jersey, and grew up in the frontier village of Cooperstown, New York, in the heart of the wilderness he was to immortalize in his frontier novels. A high-spirited youth, he was expelled from Yale because era prank and was finally signed into the navy by his strong-willed father. In 1819 a trifling incident reportedly led to the writing of his first book. Reading aloud to his wife from a popular English novel, he ex-claimed, "I could write you a better book myself!" The result was Precaution (1820), which was followed in 1821 by his first real success, The Spy.
      Cooper became a prolific writer, creating two unique genres that were to become staples in American literature--the sea romance and the frontier adventure story. The first of the famous Leather stocking tales, The Pioneers, appeared in 1823 and introduced the wilderness scout Natty Bumppo. This detailed portrait of frontier life has been called the first truly American novel. In The Last of the Mohicans (1826) Natty Bumppo becomes the well-loved Hawkeye befriended by the noble Indian Chingachgook; the novel remains a favorite American classic. Other Leather stocking tales were The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deer slayer (1841). Cooper's sea stories The Pilot (1823), The Red Rover (1827), and The Sea Lions (1849) influenced both Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad and led to the use of the sea novel as a vehicle for spiritual and moral exploration. Cooper also wrote political satire, romance, and the meticulously researched History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839). By the time of his death on September 14, 1851, he was considered America's "national novelist."

2. Plot

It is the late 1750s, and the French and Indian War grips the wild forest frontier of western New York. The French army is attacking Fort William Henry, a British outpost commanded by Colonel Munro. Munro’s daughters Alice and Cora set out from Fort Edward to visit their father, escorted through the dangerous forest by Major Duncan Heyward and guided by an Indian named Magua. Soon they are joined by David Gamut, a singing master and religious follower of Calvinism. Traveling cautiously, the group encounters the white scout Natty Bumppo, who goes by the name Hawkeye, and his two Indian companions, Chingachgook and Uncas, Chingachgook’s son, the only surviving members of the once great Mohican tribe. Hawkeye says that Magua, a Huron, has betrayed the group by leading them in the wrong direction. The Mohicans attempt to capture the traitorous Huron, but he escapes.

Hawkeye and the Mohicans lead the group to safety in a cave near a waterfall, but Huron allies of Magua attack early the next morning. Hawkeye and the Mohicans escape down the river, but Hurons capture Alice, Cora, Heyward, and Gamut. Magua celebrates the kidnapping. When Heyward tries to convert Magua to the English side, the Huron reveals that he seeks revenge on Munro for past humiliation and proposes to free Alice if Cora will marry him. Cora has romantic feelings for Uncas, however, and angrily refuses Magua. Suddenly Hawkeye and the Mohicans burst onto the scene, rescuing the captives and killing every Huron but Magua, who escapes. After a harrowing journey impeded by Indian attacks, the group reaches Fort William Henry, the English stronghold. They sneak through the French army besieging the fort, and, once inside, Cora and Alice reunite with their father.

A few days later, the English forces call for a truce. Munro learns that he will receive no reinforcements for the fort and will have to surrender. He reveals to Heyward that Cora’s mother was part “Negro,” which explains her dark complexion and raven hair. Munro accuses Heyward of racism because he prefers to marry blonde Alice over dark Cora, but Heyward denies the charge. During the withdrawal of the English troops from Fort William Henry, the Indian allies of the French indulge their bloodlust and prey upon the vulnerable retreating soldiers. In the chaos of slaughter, Magua manages to recapture Cora, Alice, and Gamut and to escape with them into the forest.

Three days later, Heyward, Hawkeye, Munro, and the Mohicans discover Magua’s trail and begin to pursue the villain. Gamut reappears and explains that Magua has separated his captives, confining Alice to a Huron camp and sending Cora to a Delaware camp. Using deception and a variety of disguises, the group manages to rescue Alice from the Hurons, at which point Heyward confesses his romantic interest in her. At the Delaware village, Magua convinces the tribe that Hawkeye and his companions are their racist enemies. Uncas reveals his exalted heritage to the Delaware sage Tamenund and then demands the release of all his friends but Cora, who he admits belongs to Magua. Magua departs with Cora. A chase and a battle ensue. Magua and his Hurons suffer painful defeat, but a rogue Huron kills Cora. Uncas begins to attack the Huron who killed Cora, but Magua stabs Uncas in the back. Magua tries to leap across a great divide, but he falls short and must cling to a shrub to avoid tumbling off and dying. Hawkeye shoots him, and Magua at last plummets to his death.

Cora and Uncas receive proper burials the next morning amid ritual chants performed by the Delawares. Chingachgook mourns the loss of his son, while Tamenund sorrowfully declares that he has lived to see the last warrior of the noble race of the Mohicans.

3. Character Analysis

Hawkeye - The novel’s frontier hero, he is a woodsman, hunter, and scout. Hawkeye is the hero’s adopted name; his real name is Natty Bumppo. A famous marksman, Hawkeye carries a rifle named Killdeer and has earned the frontier nickname La Longue Carabine, or The Long Rifle. Hawkeye moves more comfortably in the forest than in civilization. His closest bonds are with Indians, particularly Chingachgook and Uncas, but he frequently asserts that he has no Indian blood. As a cultural hybrid—a character who mixes elements of different cultures—Hawkeye provides a link between Indians and whites.

Magua - The novel’s villain, he is a cunning Huron nicknamed Le Renard Subtil, or the Subtle Fox. Once a chief among his people, Magua was driven from his tribe for

drunkenness. Because the English Colonel Munro enforced this humiliating punishment, Magua possesses a burning desire for retaliation against him.

Major Duncan Heyward - A young American colonist from the South who has risen to the rank of major in the English army. Courageous, well-meaning, and noble, Heyward often finds himself out of place in the forest, thwarted by his lack of knowledge about the frontier and Indian relations. Heyward’s unfamiliarity with the land sometimes creates problems for Hawkeye, the dexterous woodsman and leader.

Uncas - Chingachgook’s son, he is the youngest and last member of the Indian tribe known as the Mohicans. A noble, proud, self-possessed young man, Uncas falls in love with Cora Munro and suffers tragic consequences for desiring a forbidden interracial coupling. Noble Uncas thwarts the evil Magua’s desire to marry Cora. Uncas also functions as Hawkeye’s surrogate son, learning about leadership from Hawkeye.

Chingachgook - Uncas’s father, he is one of the two surviving members of the Mohican tribe. An old friend of Hawkeye, Chingachgook is also known as Le Gros Serpent—the Great Snake—because of his crafty intelligence.

David Gamut - A young Calvinist attempting to carry Christianity to the frontier through the power of his song. Ridiculously out of place in the wilderness, Gamut is the subject of Hawkeye’s frequent mockery. Gamut matures into Hawkeye’s helpful ally, frequently supplying him with important information.

Cora Munro - Colonel Munro’s eldest daughter, a solemn girl with a noble bearing. Cora’s dark complexion derives from her mother’s “Negro” background. Cora attracts the love of the Mohican warrior Uncas and seems to return his feelings cautiously. She suffers the tragic fate of the sentimental heroine.

Alice Munro - Colonel Munro’s younger daughter by his Scottish second wife, and Cora’s half-sister. Girlish and young, she tends to faint at stressful moments. Alice and Heyward love each other. Alice’s blonde hair, fair skin, and weakness make her a conventional counterpart to the racially mixed and fiery Cora.

Colonel Munro - The commander of the British forces at Fort William Henry and father of Cora and Alice. As a young man, Munro traveled to the West Indies, where he married a woman of “Negro” descent, Cora’s mother. When Munro’s first wife died, he returned to Scotland and married his childhood sweetheart, who later gave birth to Alice. Although Munro is a massive, powerful man, circumstances in the war eventually leave him withdrawn and ineffectual.

General Montcalm - Marquis Louis Joseph de Saint-Veran, known as Montcalm, is the commander of the French forces fighting against England during the French and Indian War. He enlists the aid and knowledge of Indian tribes to help his French forces navigate the unfamiliar forest combat setting. After capturing Fort William Henry, though, he is powerless to prevent the Indian massacre of the English troops.

4. Comment:

    The Last of the Mohicans is complete in itself, but is tied to the other stories by Natty Bumppo, the central figure of the series. His character as the last uncorrupted white man who prefers the code of the Indian than the nature of the white settlers, who is loyal, courageous and a superb exponent of wood craft struck a chord with contemporary Americans that still finds an echo today. It is an adventure set in the forests of North America during the Seven Years War (1756-1763) between Great Britain and France. The plot revolves around the efforts of Alice and Cora Munro to join their father, who is the commander of Fort William Henry near Lake Champlain. Their course is blocked by Magua, the leader of a group of Huron Indians who are allied to the French. His schemes are frustrated by Uncas, the last of the Mohicans, his father Chingachgook, and Natty Bumppo. The book is characterized by a series of thrilling attacks, captures, flights and rescues.

 A notable feature of the story is that Cooper uses more than one name for many of the characters and groups of people. For example, Hawkeye is also known as Natty Bumpo, La Longue Carabine, Long Rifle, and Scout.

Another feature of the story is Cooper‘s noted detailed and verbose descriptions of places, characters, events, and so on.

Culture Clash: In the wilderness of upper New York, two cultures clash—white Eurocentric culture and native Indian culture.

Generally speaking, Hawkeye, Heyward, and David Gamut, each in his different way, represent the values of white civilization. Heyward represents the military ideal; David represents the sect of Protestantism known as Calvinism. Hawkeye is a more complex case because he in a sense lives in both worlds, Indian and white, and has great respect for some of the Indian ways.

Interracial Relationships: The theme of interracial relationships between Indians and whites is an undercurrent throughout the novel. Such relationships are frowned upon and regarded as unnatural.

The battles among Indians are cruel. Many people can not avoid death. Natty Bumppo does not want kill any one but have no choice to survive. He does proud of killing the enemy. When killing a cunning Huron in the tree in chapter 8, “No shout of triumph succeeded this important advantage, but even the Mohicans gazed at each other in silent horror. A single yell burst from the woods, and all was again still. Hawkeye, who alone appeared to reason on the occasion, shook his head at his own momentary weakness, even uttering his self-disapprobation aloud”. For end the Huron’s suffering as soon as possible, he shoots him, which also shows his goodness.

This is also a story about a great friendship between Hawkeye, the White Man, and Chingachgook, the chief of the Mohicans. It is mainly about rescuing the Munro sisters from being caught, and returning them to safety with their father during the war between the French and the English. The English army is having a problem because there are no more reinforcements. General Webb is scared, and asks Colonel Munro to seek surrender. What happened next? Did Hawkeye and the Mohicans succeed or lose?--Submitted by Diyanah Harun.

The tragic irony is that the last of the Mohicans, symbolically represent the last of a dying Indian culture, including not only the Mohicans but all the Indian tribes—dispersed, divided and ultimately destroyed by the coming of the Europeans.

    Though often hangs in the conflicting matter of friendly sympathy for Indians and discrimination to their savage bad manners, the inherent superiority of white eventually lead Cooper to support the white civilization and of discriminate the Indian tribes . This story discusses the Cooper through the whole Indian savage, backward, irrational image display, revealing his sense of superiority of white supremacy and self-identity of white governing the Indians. Regarding white civilization as the center and pride, reveal his exclusion of national civilization and narrow view of race. The design of the story, resulting in the death of all the major people of color except Chingachgook is further exposed his self-identity of Indian genocide policy. In short, as a white writer who describes the demise of Indian tribes, Cooper does not get rid of the impact of white civilization and the Indian ethnic discrimination. He with a melancholy mood essentially maintains the status of the white civilization and pride, but also agrees with white colonial Indians and Indian tribes eventually lead to the demise of history.

Conclusion:

Overall, Cooper's novel opens up a new area of U.S. literary history, but also the novel art to a new level. James Fenimore Cooper’s novel deserves appreciated and contemplating, for every sentence uttered by the characters in the story is justified.

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Prince and Pauper

Brief introduction

    This book is very attractive. It is a story about the Prince of England and a pauper who lived in the slum. They exchanged their status accidentally. From then on, Tom, the pauper lived a luxurious life in the palace. But he did not like that kind of life. He missed his mother and his two sisters. So he said to everyone in the palace that he wasn’t the prince. But nobody believed him, and everyone thought that his prince was mad. Soon the King died, and Tom had to join the coronation and become the King of the England.

    On the contrary, the true prince had to lead a vagrant life. Then Tom’s father mistook him for Tom, always beat him and ask him to beg in the street. The prince made a new friend-Hendon who used to be a noble but now his cousin took his place unlawfully by chance. Hendon help the prince a lot, they became close friends. And the prince promised that the Hendons have the right to sit in the presence of the King of England as well as his son and grandson. During the prince’s exiled life, he found that the law of the England is much too unfair and cruelty, and the life of the paupers are much too rough, So he made up his mind to change these law and made the life easier to the paupers. At last, with the help of Hendon and Tom, the prince became the King of the England. He actualized his promise to Hendon.

About the author

    Mark Twain was born Samuel Clemens, November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. When he was four, his father, an unsuccessful storekeeper, decided to move his family to Hnnibal, Missouri, which move had a strong effect on Samuel's life. Hannibal was a river-edge town through which many travelers passed: circus troupers, minstrel shows, religious leaders, and daring settlers on their way to California--all of whom Samuel would later use as characters in his books.

    But of all the people young Samuel met, he admired the steamboat captains most of all, and dearly wished he could pilot a Mississippi riverboat. Upon his father's death, when Samuel was twelve, he left school to train as a printer. This led to newspaper writing out West and finally the realizing of his dream--for four proud years, he navigated a steamboat up the winding Mississippi River. From this experience he chose his pen name, Mark Twain, which in navigation is the call to report the depth of water at two fathoms.

    Mark Twain is best known for his funny story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", and for his novels, both humorous and serious. The most famous of these are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and The Prince and the Pauper. In this last book, he poked fun at the old uper-class in England, and showed how wrong it was to judge people by outward appearances.

    Mark Twain died in April, 1910, but to his many readers around the world, he will live forever in Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Film, Tom Canty, Edward Tudor, and his other unforgettable characters.

    He is one of our Chinese readers' favourite and familiar American writers. He had to leave off his study, entered printing house and started apprentice career after his father's death when he was twelve. He once was a typo, and later became an outstanding news reporter, and decided write humourous literature. His works are famous for real reflection of American social reality and humour. He was regarded as "Lincoln of American literature". He was a humour master, novelist, writer, as well as eminent lecturer. Though he is not so wealthy, it doesn't matter with his humour, intelligence and language. At the same time, he has an insight and analysis into society, both spicy and humankind. Beside Prince and Pauper, there is also Gold-plating Age, The Adventure of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Key words: identity exchange, prince, pauper

Character analysis:

Tom: curious, virtuous, seek for love and better life

Tom Canty, youngest son of a family of beggars living with the dregs of society in Offal Court, has always had aspirations to a better life, encouraged by the local priest who has taught him to read and write. He hangs around the palace gates one day and sees the little prince, and is about to be thrashed and sent away by the guards until the prince commands them to stop and invites Tom inside. Fascinated by the differences of each other's lifestyles and by their similar appearances, the boys exchange roles. Edward leaves in rather a hurry, before the boys are caught at their game, first quickly putting away an article of national importance which we later learn is the Great Seal of England. Soon Prince Edward is attempting to escape from the brutality of Tom's father, while Tom posing as the prince is attempting to cope with court customs and manners. His fellow nobles and palace personnel think "the prince" is suffering an illness that has caused memory loss and fear he will go mad. They repeatedly question him about the missing "Great Seal", but he knows nothing about it. However, when Tom is asked to sit in on judgements, his common-sense observations reassure them that he is of sound mind.

Edward: virtuous, curious, smart, brave

As Edward experiences the brutish life of a pauper first hand, he becomes aware of the stark class inequalities in England at that time. In particular, he realizes the harsh and punitive nature of the English judicial system, witnessing women burned at the stake, pilloring, and flogging. He becomes aware that the accused are convicted on the flimsiest of evidence and branded, dismembered, boiled in oil or hung for petty offenses. He vows to reign with mercy when he regains his rightful place. When he unwisely declares before a gang of thieves that he really is the king and will put an end to unjust laws, they assume he is insane, and hold a mock coronation.

Comment:

When we read this book, many people will can't help thinking of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The same as we are attracted by quirky adventure of little protagonist, we also admire at their intelligence, courage, virtue, which would owe to Mark Twain's particular creative style. However, in the work of Prince and Pauper, Mark Twain carried out another try. In this novel, two children having no experience of life are the protagonist. But he used satire mode when narrating. In the meantime of attracting readers, it as well as achieve the artistic effect of mixing story and object ridicule, significance and circumstances. This is based on the novel of the 19^th century of the British in the background, described a poor child Tom, because of a occasional chance, interchange identity dramatically with the prince Edward. When Tom became the king of that country, he abolished some cruel laws, absolve a few innocent prisoners, promulgate some reasonable orders, while prince experienced all sorts of sufferings and realized common people's poverty-stricken life. It seemed to be a simple story but reflected deeply the true situation of 19^th century American.

Make a general survey of the story, I think the most attractive part of this book is that it narrate the story as a fairy tale and take the use of contrast and humourous as well as satire language. The first thing I want to talk about is its use of fantastic narrating modal. From the point of comparative significance, content of each art work is peculiar foot, which all need to wear peculiar shoes that is to find out unique form of expression corresponding to them. From the point of intuition, characters of romantic fairy tale flooded into minds when we see the title Prince and Pauper. The writer captured an expectant visual field of people's thinking set, dummied two much-alike figures born of same year and time. But in reality it is impossible that two persons without relationship won't be so alike. In order to present such a thing that doesn't exist in reality, Mark Twain had to imagine to adopt the technique of expression of fairy tale to adapt that they can interchange identities and experience entirely different life as before. They were both attracted to the characteristics of each other when meeting by the first time and began to exchange clothes so that the identities to be dramatically exchanged, which is beginning unfold of the plot.

In the second place, the most attracting point is the perfect use of contrast. The work uses prince and pauper as title, implying life-style and social view of the rich and the poor. Ever since slave society till modern society, there is gap between the rich and the poor. However, the 19^th century the writer live in is right the time of the rise of American capitalism and the gap between the rich and the poor is inevitable. The reason why writer drew materials of 16^th century England to manifest tribulation life of common people and inhuman exploit and oppression deserves our curiosity. The writer began to contrast from their birth. On one Autumn day a boy was unwelcomely given to a poor family named Canty. On the same day an aspirated boy was born to rich family which family name is Tudor. All English welcome this boy. Different birth not only accounts for their different living environment, but also indicates two extreme kinds of life after identity exchange. Pauper Tom used to live a muddy megafamily, where hitting the bottle, running wild and squabble is very usual. He lived on begging and would be mistreated by his father and grandmother if he got nothing when returning home. But the life didn't brought him unhappiness. As he could hardly fell asleep because of pain and torture received, he can only imagine where he lived was a palace depending on the knowledge learning from priest Andrew, which burned in his heart and made him forget all the pains. Tom's life, and raffle compound typically reflect the hardships of lower-class labouring people of that time; on the other side is luxurious noble life. When Tom saw six-month expenses of imperial family he was threatened out of breath and said they were going to go bankrupt when realizing the exchequer is void. All these findings, hearing and sayings come out from the mouth of a naive child and it emphasizes the authenticity of narration, deeply criticize the luxury, extravagance and waste of English nobles of 16^th century, meanwhile, it insinuates living conditions of American bourgeoisie and labouring people.

Contrast can also be incarnated from humanistic good and evil. Goodness and badness is not owned by a certain kind of people, that is to say, not all persons are virtuous, equally, not all nobles are evil. In the Prince and the Pauper, John Canty and Hugo even though are from lower class, they abandoned honest and virtuous nature of labouring people and what they only knew was to drink, fight and cheat. John didn't love Tom and punished him by cuff and kick. Though Tom beared torture, he received spineless mother love and care from sisters. The writer ingeniously put good and evil, beauty and clown into one family, reflecting the temporal society, inflicting different status and social environment on contrast, exposing domineeringness and atrocity of English nobles in 16^th century, displaying the distressed and formidable life of common people.

I read the book The Prince and the Pauper, by Mark Twain. It is a book about Edward, the Prince of Wales, and Tom, a poor boy from the streets of London. Tom ventures out to the palace to meet a real prince, which was his lifelong desire. Edward rescues Tom from a crowd that jeered at him because of he was clothed in rags. The two become friends. They switch clothes and realize that they look exactly alike! But then everyone mistakes Edward for being the poor boy and Tom for being the prince. The boys are separated.
Tom is thought to be the Prince by everyone in the palace. When Henry VIII dies, Tom is declared Edward VI, King of England. He denies it and tries to tell them he is a pauper, but they think he is mad and teach him what he needs to know to act like a king. Tom learns to enjoy being king, but wants to return to his home and family.
Edward goes on a quest to find his way back to the kingdom and Tom. During his adventure, he meets Miles Hendon, a kind fellow who was on a journey to his home, for he had finally gotten out of a war he was fighting. Miles rescues him from another crowd that is about to throw him into the Thames River. He decides to take Edward in with him. Together, they travel to Miles' old home and then to the palace to declare Edward's rightful place as the prince.
I enjoyed this book very much. It has got a straightforward theme: Don't judge a book by its cover. I would recommend this book to either teens or adults, since Twain uses some hard-to-understand archaic English words like "hither" and "thither". This book is book is not easy to read, but has interesting adventures.

Conclusion:

The Prince and the Pauper is the representative work of American writer Mark Twain. It describes a story of prince Edward and pauper Tom. They exchange their social position by chance and Edward becomes a pauper while Tom turns to be a prince. Tom dressed up prince's clothes enjoying everything and finally became the king but Edward strolled outside the palace and had to endure privation and tease and taunt from other beggars. With the help of Horton, Edward experienced many difficulties, corrected his bad habits and eventually came back to the palace. As for Tom, returned throne to the real prince with the blame of himself. Ever since that, Edward became a humane king and lived happily with his people. It is a real fancy story with humourous words, bringing happiness to children as well as greatly stimulating imagination of them and yearn for pure, goodness and glorious things.

This is based on the novel of the 19^th century the British in the background, a description of poor children, Tom and a rich exchange of Prince Edward social status of the fairy-tale. Tom lived a pauper clothing from a young age not to Biti, the hungry living in poverty, their imagination can one day become rich princes, Edwad are tired as a result of rigid, empty palace life, but also a fantasy to try to make non-poor child's taste. Through the fairy tale plot, the first novel in sharp contrast with the way that shows the life of the working people of the extreme hardship of the ruling class and the lives of extreme extravangance and luxury. At the same time, the novel is also clear that the life of democratic ideas are born when the only child of poverty, Edward is not only born the prince, all in different customs and status. This is the conscience or the whim of a sudden they do to recover? No, this is the objective character of the environmental impact of health is, the simple people who live on the transformation of the role. Those who do whatever they want, it is natural that the bourgeoisie think of the United States at the time of arbitrary government fraud; from Tom and Edward and the exchange of words and ideas of identity, and it is only natural to think of profound racial discrimination. As a result, although the novel based on 16^th century Britain, but its critics point to is the spearhead of the 19^th century America. Misunderstanding and exchange of identity is the main plot of the development of fairy tale, which appears to be the conventional settings. But in Mark Twain's rendering shows the hidden brilliance. Reading this, simple-to-earth language, practices, ideas and social background on the three aspects of the intent of the author, concise style, sharp vision.

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A Book’s Impact on the Great War

1.    Brief Introduction of the Author and the Book

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1811, Stowe was the daughter of a well-known Presbyterian minister, Lyman Beecher. The Beechers expected their children to shape their world. Catharine, the oldest daughter, was a pioneer in women’s education. Isabella, the youngest daughter, was a founder of the National Women’s Suffrage Association. Different from her sisters and brothers, Stowe found her purpose in life was to write. Besides bearing and caring for children after marriage, Stowe became active in local literary clubs, continuing reading the books of her girlhood, and developing writing talents which had been evident in her early life.

Harriet Beecher Stowe published more than 20 books, but Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the best-selling anti-slavery novel, made her an international celebrity and secured her place in history. By the time Uncle Tom’s Cabin began to appear in serial installments in a journal in June 1851, the crisis over slavery in the United States has reached a high pitch. When encouraged by her sister-in-law to “write something that will make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is,” Stowe declared, ”I will write something. I will if I live.” Upon its publication, the novel immediately produced a flood of imitative dramas, poems and other literary forms. However, after the Civil War it was almost neglected. It’s until the Civil Rights Movement that readers’ interests in reading anti-slavery fiction reawaked and the novel became widely read again.

2. Plot Summary

Tom, who is a good and pious man, is a slave of Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby. Having run up large debts, Shelby decides to sell Tom and a young slave Harry, the son of Mrs. Shelby’s maid Eliza. Eliza is an educated mulatto slave, who is her mistress’ petted and indulged favorite. Overhearing the news of selling Tom and her son, she decides to flee. Though Tom has been altered by Eliza, he still chooses to stay for the safety of Eliza and for the interests of his master. In order to evades capture, Eliza makes a dramatic crossing over the half-frozen Ohio River with Harry in her arms. During her escape, with the help of an abolitionist, she meets up with her husband George Harris, who escapes previously and plans to purchase his family’s freedom. Eventually through all kinds of hardships and dangers, the Harris family reunites joyously and journeys north to Canada to seek for freedom.

Meanwhile, Tom is walked off by a slave trader. On the boat towards a slave market, Tom meets and befriends an angelic little white girl who is named Eva. Eva urges her father, St. Clare, to buy Tom from the slave trader. In St. Clare’s home in New Orleans, Tom grows increasingly close to Eva because the deep Christian faith they both have. But good time doesn’t last long. Eva dies of tuberculosis two years later. St. Clare pledges to free Tom, nevertheless, his sudden death dashes this pledge. His cruel wife sells Tom to a vicious plantation owner named Legree.

Tom is taken to rural Louisiana with the other two new slaves, including Emmeline. There, Tom meets Cassy and hears her tragedy. Beatings is as common as hunger in Tom's life. Cassy and Emmeline can not stand the maltreatment any longer, they decide to run away. Though Tom supports their escape, he stays to handle the possible results and withstand Legree’s torments. He is beaten to death because he refuses to tell where Cassy and Emmeline have gone.

On Cassy and Emmeline’s boat to freedom, they meet the Harris family. Cassy finds that Eliza is her long-lost daughter who was sold as a child. The newly reunited family travels to Liberia.

3. Main Characters

Uncle Tom: We first hear of Uncle Tom when his master describes him to a salve trader “Tom is a good, steady, sensible, pious fellow”. He even doesn’t escape while conducting business for him in Cincinnati. Though he knows that he will be sold, he still maintains despite the urging of his wife. In Stowe’s attempt to make Tom an ideal Christian, she wipes out most of the imperfect human nature and adds all virtues she could think of to him. He loves everyone no matter he is white or black. St. Clare describes him as “a moral miracle”. Since falls into the affliction of Legree, he has become more of a saint than a man. Wherever he goes, he tries to spread some of the love and goodwill of his religious beliefs. He helps two slave women to escape, in the spirit of Christian kindness, not from the sense of racial solidarity. He even pledges to Legree that “ Mas’r Legree, as ye bought me, I’ll be a true and faithful servant to ye.” In fact, Tom mentions that he wants to be free just three times in the novel. Finally, in order to help the two slave women to get free, he dies under the cruel beating of Legree. “Poor critters!” said Tom, “ I’d be willing to bar’ all I have, if it’ll only bring ye to Christ! O, Lord! Give me these two more souls, I pray!” His death has something similar with the death of Jesus, which gets people’s sympathy and arises the resentment towards slavery.

Eliza: As a literate, polite Christian woman, Eliza embodies the mid-nineteenth-century ideal of feminity. Her obsessive strength of love for her son, Harry, is showed by a spectacular escape, crossing the Ohio River. She grabs Harry when she hears the alter and leaps over the rushing currents onto a raft of ice. She springs from one chunk of ice to the next, regardless of the pain and cold until she reaches the other side. “I always thought that I must obey my master and mistress or I couldn’t be a Christian”, she says early in the novel. When she overhears her master’s conversation with Harry, a slave trader, motherly devotion leads her frenzied, desperate flight from slavery.

Miss Ophelia: Miss Ophelia is St. Clare’s cousin from the North and she comes to help him manage the household. She is an educated and independent female. As a guest in the St. Clare household, she initially follows Beecher’s advice by restricting her activities to the domestic sphere. Though Eva encourages her to love the black, she still recoils at the thought of kissing and hugging the slaves. This attitude shows her inner unaware prejudice towards slaves. When Miss Ophelia gains legal title to Topsy, she gradually transforms from a typical “woman of the nominally free states” into a slaveholder “Christian woman of the South”. Miss Ophelia shows that she has learned the lesson by converting and educating her slave Topsy: it is futile to educate and Christianize her slave unless she can guarantee freedom to the slave.

George Harris: George Harris, an intellectually curious and gifted mulatto, is Eliza’s husband. “I’m a man as much as he is. I’m a better man than he is. I know more about business than he does; I am a better manager than he is… What right has he to make a dray-horse of me?” he argues that he deserves freedom. At one point, he confesses to his wife, “I an’t a Christian like you, Eliza; my heart’s full of bitterness. I can’t trust in God. Why does he let things be so?” Later, during his escape, George restates his doubts when he acquaints with a white man “Is there a God to trust in?... O, I’ve seen things all my life that have made me feel that there can’t be a God.” Although still determined to fight for freedom, George and Eliza speak of the happiness they receive from being in each other’s company. He manifests a softened spirit and promises to Eliza, “I’ll try to act worthy of a free man. I’ll try to feel like a Christian.” This new attitude is well exemplified in a heated battle with some slave hunters. After George shoots one of the slave hunters, he helps the wounded man to restore health.

Augustine St. Clare: Augustine St. Clare may be the book’s most tragic white figure, because he dies before he can realize his beloved daughter’s request of freeing his slaves. His fails to inherit the love of his mother and inadvertently caused the desperately horrors of Tom’s life under Legree, which embodies the spiritual enervation of his spirit. Though he admits the evil of slavery but he still tolerates and practices it.

Eva: Eva is the “fair, high-bred child, with her golden head, her deep eyes, her spiritual, noble brow and prince-like movements.” We first see her going among the slaves on the riverboat “with her hands full of candy, nuts, and oranges, which she would distribute joyfully to them”. Two years later, Eva becomes a slightly more mature and she responds differently to the evils of slavery. Learning to read, she comes to love the Bible, and she develops her antislavery sympathies into antislavery proposals.Jogos Dora, Eva expresses her belief that slaves should be taught to read Scripture and wishes she had the money to “buy a place in the free states, and take all our people there, and hire teachers, to teach them to read and write.” She is a little loving girl and an beautiful angel. Wearing white clothes like an innocent angel, her heart is fulfilled with love towards all races and classes. When Eva’s father asks her why she wants to buy Tom, she says that she wants him to be happy. When her nurse has a headache, she gives the valuable medicine to her. When she is seriously ill, she requests her aunt to cut some of the curls from her hair and gives all the slaves a lock by which to remember her. Stowe’s idealization of Eva can only be matched by that of Uncle Tom.

4. Comment

It will never be easy to make definite judgments on the merits of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Many major critical studies argued there was no place for Stowe in American literature in this century. It is said that “only recently has she been considered at all central to the great flowering of native literature before the Civil War known as the American Renaissance”.

This book is so famous and I’ve already known it in elementary school. But when I first read this book, I found it was quite different from my expectation. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there is an abundance of references to the Bible, Christian imagery and entire biblical passages are quoted. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is primarily a Christian novel. To me, who is not a Christian, it seemed quite alienate to me. In this novel, there are many ideal people, Uncle Tom is among the ones who receive a lavish praise from Stowe. Though what I know about is Christianity is limited, Tom’s policy of “turning the other cheek” reminds me of Jesus. When he is threatened with pain and death by a man who oppresses and torments him, Tom’s first thought is to save his oppressor’s soul. “Mas’r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give ‘em freely, as the Lord gave his for me.” Tom shows his love to all people even the one who pushes him to death and still prays for him. However, such a Christian virtue appeared incomprehensible to me. It seems that nowadays Tom’s passivity doesn’t deserve any approving treatment.

Nevertheless, it’s unfair to make judgments on Uncle Tom’s Cabin based on the contemporary moral principles. My impression towards this book totally changed when I place myself in the times of this novel.

Cincinnati, where Stowe lived in, and Kentucky, where slavery was rampant are separated by the Ohio River. Stowe concerned about the misery of slaves very much. After living across the Ohio River from slaveholding communities for 18 years, she witnessed and heard a lot about the painful experience of slaves. She hated the cruelty and evil of slavery.Juegos Dora In 1850, she couldn’t endure the brutalities any long and the desire to accuse burned like a fire. The Fugitive Slave Act passed in the same year. Everyday, a lot of people came to Stowe’s home to confide their misfortunes, cry for the forever parting with beloved and tell their tragic situation. "I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and broken-hearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity - because as a lover of my county, I trembled at the coming day of wrath." Saying these words, Stowe took a pen to record these and expose the horrors of Southern slavery to people in the North.

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe draws crucial distinctions in personality and behavior between good people and bad people. Legree is the representative of the darkness of slavery. He demonstrates infernal qualities in every action. He desperately tries to break Tom’s religious faith. Eliza and George Harris may rival any white in the novel in nobility. “I’m a man as much as he is. I’m a better man than he is. I know more about business than he does; I am a better manager than he is… What right has he to make a dray-horse of me?” This argument from George Harris has sense. Eliza has soft voice and manner, which seems to be a gift from God. These natural graces are united with beauty of the most dazzling kind. She has strong character and brave love to her son. George Harris is a bright and talented young mulatto man. He is hired out by his master to work in a bagging factory, where his adroitness and ingenuity caused him to be considered the first hand in the place. They deserve freedom, but receive unjust treatment of being sold. This unfair situation is caused by slavery. Exquisite description molds different characters and makes readers experience the same feeling as the characters in the book. The distinctions between good people and bad people cause readers’ hatred, sympathy and regret. Uncle Tom’s Cabin diagnosed the cruelty of society, and put forward a explosive question “how long will the evil slavery exist”.

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the women Stowe portrays are morally conscientious, committed, and courageous. Throughout the book, we can see many examples of idealized womanhood, of perfect mothers and wives who attempt to find salvation for their morally inferior husbands or son. Mrs. Bird, St. Clare’s mother, Legree’s mother and Mrs. Shelby are good examples. However, not all women act as morally virtuous and insightful saints in this novel. Marie St. Clare, the slaveholder is not belong to this group. Unlike Emily Shelby who has always felt that slavery is wrong, Marie St. Clare has always felt it to be right. So we can see although Christianity and sin are shown in active and deadly opposition, although most women appear to be morally superior to most men, and although women bear the responsibility of instilling Christian values in their sons, husbands, and slaves, Christian sympathy is not gender specific. Both women and men are capable of Christian feeling and its opposite. We can see that the problem of slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin cannot be resolved by a simple shift of power to women.

After reading this novel for several times, Uncle Tom’s sacrifice moved me to tears. In 1850s, maybe Christianity was a way to help the sufferers find hope for life and release of heart, and it was also a way to restrict the slaveholders’ actions. In the unreasonable slavery world, having belief in God really helped a lot. According to the values of today, we probably appreciate the brave actions of Eliza and George. They survive by running away and reunite their family. I think in 1850s, the death of Tom was more impressive.dora games Stowe wrote this book in order to attack the Fugitive Slave Act and the institution it protected, advocating the immediate emancipation of the slaves and freedom of all people. While still writing this book, Stowe said that she knew at the very start that Tom would die undoubtedly. The appearance of Eva, the angelic girl is also meaningful. She brought hope to the sufferers at that time. The slaves who lived in endless suffering could find the world still had beauty, happiness and truth. The death of Tom and Eva is just like destruction of perfection. Stowe needs to let the hero die to stress that his death is the consequence of the evils of slavery. Legree’s torments on Tom doesn’t break his religious faith. Tom prays for him until he dies, which shows the victory of virtue over villainy. Placing myself in that times, I understand the meaningful using of Christian values in the novel. Spiritual sustenance can support the despairing slaves to keep living and fight for their freedom. Compared with Eliza and George’s eventual happy life, Tom’s stirs up readers’ strong pity, which shows the importance of freedom.

5. Conclusion

The extensive debate between supporters and opponents of Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been existed since its publication. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an impressive work that can’t be overlooked. This novel appears to foretell the coming of the Civil War and many have regarded Stowe’s works as the cause for starting the war. Her work has received great attention from different social classes. Different times determine different writing styles, contents and material selections. Stowe believed that religious conversion could bring about historical changes. That’s the reason why in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Christianity is an inspiration and a guide along the way to help achieve a society free of slaves.

The Christianity in Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The reason why I choose this particular book:

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the most famous books in the world. It is so famous that people are capable of describing someone as an “Uncle Tom” or a “Simon Legree,” even of snickering at the death of “Little Eva” without altogether remembering that they have, in fact, never read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

I choose this particular book because the garish dramatizations of Uncle Tom flourished for decades after the Civil War, when it was natural for the North to be complacent about the end of slavery without concerning itself about the actual condition of the “freedmen.” These dramatizations, flourishing in one provincial “opery house” after another (but not in the South, where the book was still hated as a paramount example of Yankee interference with the South’s “peculiar incidents”) emphasized the most melodramatic, seemingly improbable incidents in the novel. The most famous of these was Eliza Harris’s leap from ice floe to ice floe in the Ohio River, her “chile” in her arms, rushing just ahead of wolves as she makes her way to freedom in Ohio from Kentucky, where her supposedly decent master, Mr. Shelby, has been forced to sell her to the vile slave trader Healey. Though the book Mrs. Stowe’s shows a dawning awareness that slavery is not just individual cruelty or indifference but part of a vast interlocking social process based on profit whatever the human cost. Slavery was hardly an isolated example of man’s rapacity that supports slavery in this Christian church-going society, she can teach her white middle-class readers to look at their own lives and pious professions.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Abstract：

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the most famous books in the world. It is so famous that people are capable of describing someone as an “Uncle Tom” or a “Simon Legree,” even of snickering at the death of “Little Eva” without altogether remembering that they have, in fact, never read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

There are no novels in Mrs. Stowe’s description of Eliza’s escape. Uncle Tom on the stage showed just how easy it was for Americans after the Civil War to forget the moral passion that Mrs. Stowe had brought to her indictment of slavery —a moral passion that in the book is the most powerful antagonist of slavery and one so worked on people’s feeling from 1852 to the end of the Civil War that no other single book can be said to have contributed so much to the end of slavery.

As for reading the book, the study of character allusions, criticisms and genre is essential for a full understanding of the novel. The essay will analyze the novel in the following aspects: The brief introduction of Harriet Beecher Stowe; The Plot of the Novel; The character allusions; The criticisms; The genre.

Key word:

Character allusions

Criticisms

Genre

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

1. Brief Introduction of Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom and made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Upon meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln allegedly remarked, “So you're the little lady who started this great war!” The quote is regarded as apocryphal.

Mrs. Stowe had great dramatic instincts as a novelist. In this book she saw everything as a drama of polarities: slavery as sin versus Christian love; men as active in the cruel social process values. The widest opposition to slavery, she thought, stems from an individual’s outraged feeling. Throughout the book the social cruelty of slavery fully comes home only through the power of feeling, the “religion of the heart.” What made the book so tumultuous an indictment of slavery was Mrs. Stowe’s unwearied emphasis on the forcible breakup of slave families. So harshly to tear child from mother, husband from wife, was to expose the heartlessness and hypocrisy of slavery. Though slaves were nominally expected to be “Christians,” and were sometimes even married in the church, such marriages were not legally binding. Nothing so stirred Mrs. Stowe indignation as the common saying among slave owners, slave traders, slave catchers—repeated by the spoiled and selfish Mrs. St. Clare and other respectable wives of slave owners—“ they don’t have the same feelings that we do.”

2. Plot

In tile nineteenth century Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold more copies than any, book in the world except the Bible. It was quickly translated into thirty-seven languages and has never gone out of print. The book had far-reaching impact and deeply affected the national conscience of antebellum America. The Norton Critical Edition text is that of the 1852 book edition, published in two volumes by John P. Jewett and Company Boston; all original illustrations are included. Annotations are provided to assist the reader with obscure historical terms and biblical references.

“Backgrounds and Contexts” includes a wealth of historical documentation dealing with the issues of slave and abolitionism. Harriet Jacobs’s narrative of' her life as a fifteen-year-old slave, two epistolary accounts by ex-slave and abolitionist William Wells Brown that document events in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, two crucial excerpts from Stowe’s Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin that provide the real-life basis for characters and events in the novel, and accounts of Tom-Shows and the anti Uncle Tom literature that sprang up in response to the novel's publication. Illustrative material includes slave advertisements; runaway slave posters; illustrations for the first British edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Britain's premier illustrator, George Cruikshank; as well as popular illustrations from American editions of the novel “Criticism” is arranged under two headings: “Nineteenth-Century Re-views and Reception” includes critiques by George Sand, William G. Allen and Ethiop, George F. Itolmes, and Paul Laurence Dunbar, among others. “Twentieth-Century Criticism” collects five of the best essays written on the novel in this century; they are by James Baldwin, Jane P. Tompkins, Bobert S. Levinc, Hortense I. Spillers, and Christina Zwarg.

A Chronology of Stowe's life and work and a Selected Bibliography are also included.

3. Character Allusions

In order to make a comprehensive knowledge of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I have first to briefly make character allusions which will help the development of the story and the understanding of the theme in the novel.

I. Tom

Tom, the protagonist of this novel, is obviously the Christ figure with black skin. Tom’s experience is quite similar to that of Jesus Christ. When Tom's first master, Mr. Shelby sells Tom to the coarse slave-dealer in financial straits, he betrays the loyalty of his most loyal slave since boyhood. Jesus is sold by his apostle Judas who is prompted by his avarice for money. So they are all betrayed and sold by the ones who are close to them. While he struggles with his faith, as Jesus does in the last hours of his life when he says, “my God, why have you forsaken me?” He never loses his simple faith. Tom's death scene also has striking likeness with that of Jesus Christ. Tom is flogged near to death, so is Jesus before his crucifixion. When Jesus dies, there are two criminals crucified together with him, one of whom believes Jesus is Messiah and is saved at the very moment and spot. Sambo and Qimbo, Degree’s two cruel overseers who in every sense are equal to criminals, are moved by Tom’s Christian fortitude and patience and are converted at the very moment and spot. Jesus is crucified to redeem sinners while Tom dies for the two runaway slaves, Cassy and Emmeline. They are all innocent, but all die for others. In essence, they all die for their faith and religious devotion. In fact, Tom dies as a “martyr” which is revealed by the title of chapter forty.

Tom is not only similar in his experience to Jesus Christ. More important, his temperament is like that of Jesus Christ. He is warm-hearted, faithful, forgiving and obedient.

Tom is full of love for his neighbors, blacks and whites. While he is at St.Clare’s home, he meets that pitiful, wretched old slave whose only left child is starved to death because she devotes all her time to tending her mistress and loses her milk, yet her mistress refuses to buy milk for her baby. Tom offers to carry her basket for her and sends the Gospel to her. Just as when Jesus sees sinners, he pities them, helps them, cures them and tells them “the good news”. Tom not only loves his fellow slaves, but white people. When he sees his second young handsome flighty master St Clare go to those wining parties, Tom goes down on his knees and pleads with him not to attend those revelries.

Tom is faithful to God and man. When he faces his third cruel master Simon Degree’s threatening and flogging, he doesn’t give up his faith in God and insists that his soul belongs to Him, not to him, though he bought him with twelve hundred dollars. Tom is also very faithful to man, such as his first and third masters who give him all their property to manage. Once, Mr. Shelby let him to go to Cincinnati alone to do business for him, Tom doesn’t run away, instead, he comes back because he thinks that his master trusts him and he mustn’t betray his master.

Forgiveness is Tom’s another distinctive characteristic. We can see it in Jesus Christ. Jesus forgives those who persecute him for he prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Tom also forgives his third cruel master Legree and Legree’s two overseers who harshly flogged him by saying, “I forgive you, with all my soul!”

Tom is submissive and obedient but only to God. When Jesus is facing his immediate bitter death, he prays “yet, not my will but yours be done.” And when he learns he will be sold to the south, Tom says similar words, “The Lord's will be done!” But his obedience is not to everyone. For example, once Legree requires Tom to flog a weak slave woman, Tom refuses, saying, “I can’t feel it right to do” So his obedience is not blind. He only obeys what he believes right.

　　II. Little Eva

　　Another image is Evangeline St. Clare, namely, the “little Eva”. The name “Evangeline” definitely promotes the idea and image of angel. In appearance, she resembles an earthly angel-beautiful, always dressed in white. In spirit, she is full of love, like a good guardian angel. I still remember when her father asks her best life style, Eva answers that their way is the pleasantest because “it makes so many more people round you to love”. And also the reason she asks her father to buy Tom is “to make him happy”. When she hears the story of Prue, she doesn’t want to go out in her new carriage again for the terrible story. In her eyes, there are many puzzling things, such as why Prue is so unhappy, why Tom should be separated from his wife and children, why no one loves that black little girl, Topsy. What she only knows and does is to love all the people around her. She shares the Gospel with all her father's plantation slaves as well as questioning her own father's faith. This action by Eva saves many lost souls and gives them hope. It also prompts the soul-searching and self-reevaluation in her father. When dying, she gives every slave servant in her house a lock of fair golden hair, asking him or her to be Christians, so that they could see each other in heaven. Eva is delicate and dies early, which “dramatize the fact that she does not belong to the world. This is especially evident when the angel is a child, like Stowe’s Eva.”

　　III. Sambo and Qimbo

　　Sambo and Qimbo, Simon Legree’s two cruel henchmen, are obviously the images of the two criminals taken from the Bible who are crucified at the same time besides Jesus Christ when we see their roles in the process of Tom’s death. With the command of Legree, these two flog Tom near to the point of death. Yet, Tom's forgiveness, patience and fortitude even move these two villainous men. Then, Tom introduces Jesus Christ to them, and they are converted immediately. In the Bible, one criminal is also moved by Jesus and believes him, and his soul is saved at that moment. In fact, these two overseers take two different archetypes from the Bible, the one who flog Jesus Christ and the other who is saved through Jesus. So, Sambo and Qimbo possess two different roles at the same time.

　　IV. Eliza

The above four images (Tom, Eva, Sambo and Qimbo) are easy to find their respective archetypes in the Bible. Another more indirect one is Eliza who is like Israelites running away from Egypt where they are slaves to Canaan where they will have a new free happy life. Eliza’s running is guided by God all the way, as Israelites are guided by God who appears “in the pillars of cloud and fire”. Israelites’ passing through the Red Sea which “was turned into dry land by strong east wind" is a miracle. So is Eliza’s escape through jumping from one ice flow to another, which can’t be done without the “strength such as God gives only to the desperate”. If we say the Ohio River is like the Red Sea, then the lake between America and Canada is like the river Jordan that lies between terrible wilderness and wonderful Canaan. I call the Ohio River the Red Sea, not the river Jordan, because Eliza still has to endure many pains after her crossing of the Ohio River, just like Israelites still have to suffer much in the wilderness. While after crossing the lake, the land of freedom——Canada waits for her and her families. Eliza is an intriguing character. She is submissive to her master and mistress, yet her child’s imminent danger and her desire for her child’s freedom and well-being overrides her loyalty to them. Israelites betray Pharaoh for they also long for freedom and well-being.

In my opinion, all the characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin can be put into four categories: perfect Christians, imperfect Christians, half-Christians and non-Christians. Tom and Eva are those rare real Christians or perfect Christians who really live up to the principles of the Bible. Imperfect Christians include those like Mrs. Shelby and Miss Ophelia. They believe God, but their selfishness or hypocrisy prevents them from being good Christians. There are also some half-Christians or going-to-be Christians, such as St. Clare and Gorge Harris. Simon Legree is a typical example of non-Christian whose tough nature refuses to be touched by any good word. This kind of categorizing might be oversimplifying. Yet, this is a pattern that I found in Uncle Tom's Cabin. So in this sense, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a book soaked with spirit of Christianity.

4. Criticisms:

The book, although broadly and continually received in a positive light, has also caught a large amount of derision for its strange and random tone (which is also the reason so many others like it). One of the best-known critics is fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, who has openly stated that he dislikes the book.

5. Genre:

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is written in the sentimental and melodramatic style common to 19th century sentimental novels and domestic fiction (also called women’s fiction). These genres were the most popular novels of Stowe’s time and tended to feature female main characters and a writing style which evoked a reader’s sympathy and emotion. Even though Stowe’s novel differs from other sentimental novels by focusing on a large theme like slavery and by having a man as the main character, she still set out to elicit certain strong feelings from her readers (such as making them cry at the death of Little Eva). The power in this type of writing can be seen in the reaction of contemporary readers. Georgiana May, a friend of Stowe’s, wrote a letter to the author stating that, “I was up last night long after one o’clock, reading and finishing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I could not leave it any more than I could have left a dying child.” Another reader is described as obsessing on the book at all hours and having considered renaming her daughter Eva.

Despite this positive reaction from readers, for decades literary critics dismissed the style found in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and other sentimental novels because these books were written by women and so prominently featured, “women’s sloppy emotions.” One literary critic said that had the novel not been about slavery, “it would be just another sentimental novel,” while another described the book as “primarily a derivative piece of hack work.” In The Literary History of the United States, George F. Whicher called Uncle Tom’s Cabin “Sunday-school fiction”, full of “broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos.”

6. Comment:

I really appreciate the essence in Uncle’s Tom Cabin, that is to say, Christianity. Mrs. Stowe’s made great efforts to create a lot character of Christianity (perfect Christians, imperfect Christians, half-Christians and non-Christians) are echoing in the Bible. And I also appreciate Stowe’s way of solving slavery. I still remember when in a small hotel George Harris says to Mr. Wilson, “I’ll fight for my liberty to the last breath I breathe. You say your fathers did it; if it was right for them, it is right for me”, it seems that the author Mrs. Stowe herself agreed with George. Then does this mean Mrs. Stowe advocated slaves to fight for their freedom through violence? Or the aim of her writing the book was to spark the Civil War? We are almost temped to say “yes” to both questions with the two “evidences” cited above if we do not exam the whole book thoroughly. First, let's not forget that Mrs. Stowe herself was a devout Christian who wouldn’t advocate any form of violence. Second, we should notice that Mr. Wilson advised Harris he’d better not shoot. Third, we should also notice that Mr. Simeon, the fervent Quaker, regards fighting with flesh as a temptation though he believes Harris has the right to do it. In fact, Harris himself would rather “…be let alone-to go peacefully out of it”. So, in the case of George Harris, Mrs. Stowe only advocated limited passive resistance when the law of sacred family bond was violated by the system of slavery. But on the whole, she held with the view of nonviolent resistance. To be specific, she praised slaves’ spiritual and moral victory over slavery which can be seen from her most carefully portrayed protagonist Tom, a pious, submissive Christian, who was her ideal black. Moreover, for Mrs. Stowe, the solution to slavery lied mainly in the white, not in the black, which, of course, is rather absurd. By informing her white fellowmen of the evils of slavery, she wanted the Southern slave owners to free slaves voluntarily through Christian love, just as George Shelby does. Of course, this childish, utopian idea can’t come to true for the economy of South is based on the slavery system. Those plantation owners couldn't give up their property voluntarily, could they? She also wanted Northerners, especially the Church of the North to shoulder the responsibility of educating those future freed men.

Conclusion:

To sum up, Christianity played a very important role in Harriet Beecher Stowe's writing which inevitably influenced greatly the portraiture of characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin and also Mrs. Stowe's own solution to slavery. The author of this thesis intends to interpret Uncle Tom's Cabin in the light of Christianity rather than anti-slavery and feminism to show a new outlook of it. Christianity is an indispensable part of western cultures and an important element in Uncle Tom's Cabin, yet most Chinese readers are not familiar with it. So the author in this thesis hopes to help Chinese readers appreciate it better by informing them more about Christianity in it.

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