1. What is significant about the struggle for authority in the kitchen between Dinah and Miss Ophelia?
(pages 190-192)
2. Uncle Tom and Eva appear to be the two most religious characters so far in the book. Why does Stowe choose two of the most "simple and childlike" characters to represent the truest model of Christianity?
1. The struggle for ultimate kitchen authority between Dinah and Miss Ophelia is one that I never thought of until reading this post. Verrryyy clever! It leads my mind back to the quote about black people having an affinity for cooking and/or cleaning, said, I believe, by our wonderful Marie. Considering this to be true, there would be no need for Miss Ophelia to basically follow Dinah as she cooks, cleaning up her messes as she cooks up delicious concoctions for white folk to eat. Perhaps, then, because what Marie says is not always true, it grants Dinah a humanity the slavery has deprived her. In other words, she does not clean up well after her cooking because she is a fucking cook and not a god damn maid.
ReplyDelete2. I'm afraid if I delve too much thought into this question, my answer will become offensive. I will just say Stowe's use of Christianity within this novel as a sort of instructional manual simply isn't being sold to me. I believe she's trying to say something more about Christianity and its innerworkings of slavery and the patriarchal society. Christianity limits not only women's power, but people's power. The only time religion grants people power is when they know how to use it against those who love and preach religion, such as how Mr. Haley or Mr. Brocklehurst use it to connive and harm for their own selfish reasons, often of greed. Yay for capitalism and all of its evil.
It was St. Clare's paraphrased quote, my apologies!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your comments! They're always so spunky : )
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was really fascinated by the kitchen scene with Ophelia and Dinah. Even in a slave's domain, such as the kitchen, Ophelia still has to assert her authority and prove to Dinah that she is boss. Its irritating how Ophelia wants to disrupt something that has obviously been working for years. Dinah has her own system of doing things but to Ophelia, its just not good enough.