I think we can all that agree that Marie is an awful person. Compared to her, St. Clare seems like a nice guy. He treats Eva well. He is nice to the slaves. He gives Tom the responsibility of the house finances. In this section, however, I am beginning to despise St. Clare. Although he seems like a nice guy, St. Clare encourages racism. One example is: "cooking being an indigenous talent of the African race" (189). This is an ignorant comment. Of course, not all blacks are fabulous cooks.
St. Clare continues his racist attitude by assuming that all blacks have the same personality and character traits. St. Clare believes that blacks share many negative characteristics, such as dishonesty and deception. The conversation that particularly enraged me occurred between St. Clare and Miss Ophelia about an honest slave. He says, "Honest!-why, of course, they arn't. (194). The word "they" in this quote is crucial. St. Clare does not judge each person individually, but instead, judges the whole race in a negative way.
St. Clare's thinking is dangerous. He makes sweeping generalizations about blacks. The sad thing is, his thoughts about slaves and blacks probably represent most Southern whites in this time period.
So, my question to the readers: Who is worse? Marie or St. Clare?
I thought the 189 quote was third person narration, and not St. Clair in particular? There are other comments like that earlier in the reading, such as when Tom first arrives at the house on page 149 "The negro, it must be remembered, is an exotic of the most gorgeous and superb countries of the world, and he has deep in his heart, a passion for all that is splendid , rich, and fanciful..." Part of this is to contrast with Ophelia's judgement of the house as "heathenish", as per her membership in the "colder, more correct white race."
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting, because Ophelia doesn't have any direct action with Tom in which she seems to disapprove of his character or racial profile.
*St. Clare
ReplyDeleteYeah, that quotation is the narrator's speech, although it is true that St. Clare does indulge in some of the same racially-charged thinking as the narrator.
ReplyDeleteI apologize for the mis-quote. I do agree that the text on page 194-195 is St. Clare talking about socialization; both masters and slaves are socialized to believe that slaves are inhumane, cunning, and deceptive.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it would be more accurate for me to say that Stowe uses St. Clare to address racist generalizations. For example, St. Clare says, "The fact is, that the whole race are pretty generally understood to be turned over to the devil" (195). Here, St. Clare is stating the voice of society. Maybe it is not necessarily his own opinion? I'm still trying to figure this character out :-)