When I read James Baldwin’s critique, I tended to agree with him that the ideas that he pointed out as “sentimental” and “hypocritical” resonated throughout the novel. One of the concepts that he pointed out in Stowe’s writing was sentimentality that masked her implicit racism. It seems to me that he agrees with Stowe when she talks about the problem of slavery, however, he argues that her novel ventures into pushing an agenda about good versus evil between the two races depicted. For this reason, he believes her novel is worthless, dishonest, and exaggerative of what really occurred.
Several passages that support Baldwin’s critique jumped out at me throughout the book. Perhaps one of passages that stood out to me the most was from Augustine St. Clare to Ophelia. She had been passionately arguing with him regarding the wrongful treatment and ownership of slaves, so he brought her a slave, Topsy, to care for and train. She was repulsive at the thought of having to deal with a “little plague” to which he replied, “That’s you Christians all over! You’ll get up a society, and get some poor missionary to spend all his days among just such heathen. But let me see one of you that would take one into your house with you, and take the labor of their conversion on yourselves!” (Stowe, pg. 219). This statement by St. Clare seems to point out the very problem that Baldwin has with the novel: seeing the problem but doing nothing about it. This is the type of hypocrisy that resonates throughout the novel.
One of the other problems that Baldwin points out in this novel is the slave’s need for spiritual salvation. Stowe continually portrays slaves as evil and uncivilized until they accept Christianity. An example of this comes from one of St. Clare’s stories of a past slave he owned. He states that the violent slave “embraced christianity afterwards and became as gentle as a child” (Stowe, pg. 214). Even Uncle Tom is portrayed in this book as a hero solely due his own Christianity. These examples seem to show that Stowe was advocating for not just the problem of slavery, but also for the need for christianity.
While Jane Tompkins might have a point in stating the this novel is critiqued due to sexism, I think that most of the points that Baldwin made are still very relevant and valid. It is hard to look at this novel as a credible source of information on slavery when it is so infiltrated with sentimentality. Baldwin may have been right when he said her novel, if intending to prove that the slavery is wrong, was “material for a pamphlet rather than a novel” (Baldwin, pg. 533).
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI too agree with Baldwin's assessment, as the instances of hypocrisy and racism in Uncle Tom's Cabin are many. Perhaps Stowe's hypocrisy and failure to see what UTC was really saying is a product of her New England upbringing, but it's still there regardless.
Her novel is meant to preach liberty and justice, but is somebody really free if they're held to a "right" standard? Your second example really illustrates this-- for slaves to become free, accepted members of American society, they need Christianity, and it feels too much like Stowe's pushing an agenda with this and similar passages. Because of this, I also think it's hard to look at Uncle Tom's Cabin as a credible retelling of slavery.
Ryan I think that you have made a very important point in you post, one that we had touched briefly on in class. This book has clearly portray that the slaves were uneducated, and the only way that they could receive an education is through texts and religion. Most often the person who "took it upon themselves" was the misses of the house. This action also helps build a fictional internal hierarchy of the house for the readers. Topsy is a great example of this is the reading.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the power and religion which the white woman held over her slaves was on of the most important themes running through out the book, and highlights baldwins primary complaint that the book his overt racism.