Epiphany

After Wednesday's class discussion, I decided I needed to discuss the book further with someone outside of class.  Someone who is not religious, yet still loves the book.  Enter English major Collen Wolfe.  She helped me to see through our discussion that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is not a book that exists solely to shove Christianity down its modern reader's throats, as I had initially stated.  She helped me see that what Stowe does in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is quite different than the force-feeding of religion that I was accusing her of.  Stowe is using "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as a way to point the finger at everyone in that society who call themselves Christian, yet still own slaves therefore helping to maintain that very un-Christian societal system.  It's like she's holding a mirror up to that society and saying, "Oh?  You're a Christian?  Look at yourself."  Because of this discussion, I have come to appreciate "Uncle Tom's Cabin" a little more.  I had been fighting the religious aspect of this book so hard that I failed to see the bigger picture.  But now I understand it a little bit more, and it has become even slightly enjoyable.

That said, I want to point out a realization I had while reading Chapter 32.  In this chapter, Tom arrives at Legree's plantation.  Everything else taken away, the only thing Tom has of his own possession is his bible; he is only able to keep his bible because he kept it hidden in his pocket.  On Legree's plantation, religion "is not tolerated" among the slaves.  Here on this plantation, even the slaves treat each other cruelly.  A surface reading would support the idea that Stowe was simply making a human nature observation: that when people are treated cruelly, they will treat others cruelly in return.  However, I now see it as Stowe making a specific comment on what will happen to a society without religion and without God:  this kind of society is hopeless and cruel.  I believe in this chapter, Stowe is providing her readers with a warning.  I think she is saying, "You call yourselves Christian, but most of you are hypocrites.  If you continue to be hypocrites and participate in slavery in any way, this is what society will become.  You are claiming to follow God, when God is not truly in your heart or in your actions.  If you do not stop, this will soon be our society." 

Turns out I no longer think of Harriet Beecher Stowe as a holy-rolling preacher.  She was actually quite brilliant.  I get it now.