Uncle Toms Cabin: Stowes Paradoxical Christian Message Essay

Uncle Toms Cabin Stowes Paradoxical Christian MessagePerhaps the greatest criticism levied against Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin is that it comprises of nothing more than Victorian sentimentality, and that the death of its two honourable exemplars, Tom and Little Eva, do little which actually remedies the injustices of slavery. Critic Ann Douglas sees the novel as emblematic of the feminization of American culture, which in religious terms figures as a move away from the morally forceful Calvinism to the sloppiness of the humanistic cult of gentle Jesus (Rachel Bowlbys paraphrase, 205). In order to recoup the novel from such(prenominal) charges, critics such as Jane Tompkins have attempted to demonstrate that the novels coupling of sentimentality and Christianity results in far more than a luxuriating in lachrymose emotions. For Tompkins, the force arse the novels sentimental Christianity is its subversion of the power hierarchy. Incidents like the deaths of Tom and Little Eva enact a th eory of power in which the powerless die to save the effectual and corrupt, and thereby show themselves more powerful than those they save (128). Thus, the traditional locus of power, is in effect, decentered, and religious faith gives marginalized figures like slaves, children, and women a power, to which in strictly worldly terms, they have no access.One problem with readings which stress the salvific function of the deaths of Tom and Little Eva is their failure to account for the novels self-conscious acknowledgment of the social forces which endlessly challenge the brand of Christianity which it advocates. The Christian message of Uncle Toms Cabin is ultimately paradoxical. On the one hand, the examples of Tom and Little Eva demonstrate ... ...f sustaining ones Christianity within the context of slavery, as healthful as the limitations of the individuals power to challenge such a large institution. George, in deferring his acceptance of Christianity until he reaches a place of freedom, ultimately comes closest to Stowes agenda of establishing a true Christian nation, uncorrupted by slavery, on earth. Works CitedBowlby, Rachel. Breakfast in America--Uncle Toms Cultural Histories. Nation and Narration. Ed. Homi K. Bhabha. New York, NY Routledge Press, 1990, 197-212.OConnel, Catherine E. The Magic of the Real Presence of Distress muddiness and Competing Rhetorics of Authority. The Stowe Debate. Eds. Mason I. Lowance, Jr., Ellen E Westbrook, R.C. De Prospo. Amherst, MA U. Massachusetts Press, 1994, 13-36.Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs. New York, NY Oxford U. Press, 1985.