The Religious Preoccupation ofUncle Tom’s Cabin.doc

汤姆叔叔的小屋中的宗教思想The Religious Preoccupation of Uncle Toms CabinContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. The Religion and Stowe.3 1. The religious spirit and activities of Stowe.3 2. The religious reason of author for writing this book.4 3. The religious symbols in this book.4III. Different Characters and Their Religious Activities in the Novel.51. Religious spirits and activities of Uncle Tom.52. Eva and religion.63. The Quakers.7IV. The influence of Christian spirit in this book.7V. Study about the Religious Preoccupation of Uncle Toms Cabin9VI. Conclusion.11References.11The Religious Preoccupation of Uncle Toms CabinAbstract: Upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first time, Abraham Lincoln reportedly said: “so this is the little lady who made this big war”. Harriet Beecher Stowe was really a little lady who made up her lacking of height with influence and success. With the Uncle Toms Cabin, Stowe created a sort of characters of religious thoughts. Her radical position on race relations was informed by a deeper religiosity. She also continually emphasized the importance of Christian love in eradicating oppression. In fact, religious preoccupation is the cue throughout this book. It not only represents the nature of many characters, but also affects many other people and changes their view about blacks and slavery even the world. Universal love-caused by Christian spirit makes many slaveholders treat their slaves well even let them free, and also Christian love made most of the slaves love their owner instead of hatred. But those spirits were looked down upon by many scholars and readers. However, the religious preoccupation showed more advantages from any aspects in this book. Key words: religious preoccupation; Christianity; Salvation; Universal love摘 要: 亚伯拉罕.林肯总统第一次见到斯托夫人就说到：“这就是那位发动这次伟大战争的小妇人”.斯托夫人身材矮小，但她却用她的成功和影响力弥补了这个缺陷。通过创作汤姆叔叔的小屋一书，斯托夫人用一系列的宗教人物来体现宗教思想并强调基督教中博爱在消除种族压迫中的重要性。事实上，宗教思想作为一条主线贯穿整书，这种思想不仅反映在很多主人公的身上，而且使书中部分不信奉宗教的人改变了对黑人及整个奴隶制的看法。博爱，一种基督教倡导的精神使得很多奴隶爱而并非仇恨他们的主人，有些甚至感化了他们的主人。但是这种精神被很多读者甚至是学者所鄙夷。然而，在本书中，无论从哪个方面讲，宗教精神还是表现出了更多积极的作用。关键字: 宗教思想; 基督教; 救赎; 博爱I. IntroductionStowe, a female author who was deeply affected by her families, and she hugged great religious idea when she was young. Even in a rather hard situation both at her body and at economic situation. She also wrote Uncle Tom Cabin with the aim of showing her readers most of who were Christianity in north; she believed that Christian would overcome the slavery. Uncle Tom Cabin which was published in episodes in the National Era in 1851 and 1852, then its entirety was published on Mar.20th 1852. It sold 10.000 copies in the first week and 300.000 by the end of that year. Today, analysis of the conception and reception proved helpful in our understanding of the civil war era, with the test itself, the reader can find insights into the mind of a Christian.At the beginning of the novel, there was a scene that in uncle Toms cabin, aunt Chloe was cooking dinner for Tom and the children. Shelbys son was teaching Tom how to write the letter G. They laughed and talked, bantering about, then eating griddlecakes and discussing pies. After dinner, the cabin was filled with a motley assemblage, from the old gray-headed patriarch of eighty to the young girl and lad of fifteen. They had got permission to attend the prayer meeting. After a while, the singing commenced, to the evident delight of present. As they sung, some laughed, and some cried, and some clapped hands, or shook hands rejoicing with each other. At last, small George read the last chapters of revelation.When Mrs. Chloe criticized the criminal slavery, she cooked the last meal for his husband, but Tom made her believe that God would bless them. Tom believed in a world beyond this one and kept the notion of his afterlife foremost in his mind, trusting that todays suffering will be tomorrows salvation. At last, his belief faltered because of the brutal plantation which wasnt affected by religious thought, but because of Eva, he renewed his faith and strength. He worked diligently and tried to help the other slaves. Tom tried to fight against the cruelty, to infuse goodness into this moral void. The only commends he refused to obey were those that went against his faith; he would rather face a severe beating than violate his principles to beat another slaves.Back on the plantation, Uncle Tom once again felt his faith faltered, but when Tom sang a hymn and saw Jesus Christ, who came and spoke to him, his belief was once again renewed, and he sang songs of joy. Even when Legree beat him, he felt he was filled with Lords spirit. Tom endeavored to cling to his belief despite the wickedness and suffering that impinges on him.Adoring and generous, Eva told his mother that a house full of slaves made for a much more pleasant life than a house without them because, with slaves, one has more people to love. Extending her affection lavishly on everyone, Eva gave no thought to the differences between blacks and whites, so Eva was thought the devout Christian who was matched only by Uncle Tom. Lying weakly on her bed, she assembled the slaves, telling them to be good Christians and love one another. Many scholars did some research about this topic, Dong Hengzhuan in 2003 pointed that in order to control the slaves steadily, slaveholders tried their best to infuse religious belief to slaves to mislead them but Wu Weiren pointed that the literature with heavy Puritanism in the form of 19th century, advocated universal love, generous, mercy and universal Christian value. II. The Religion and StoweBorn in a Christian family, Stowe was influenced deeply by the Christian spirit. So she did many things based on religion. To reveal the cruelty of slavery, and to let her readers most of whom were Christian know of that Christian love and slavery were of paradox, Stowe wrote her masterpiece Uncle Toms Cabin, and also she used many symbols of religion to show her religious aim of writing this book.1. The religious spirit and activities of Stowe Stowe was born in a Christian family and had 14 sisters and brothers, among whom were pastors, and his father was also an eminent New English preacher. Affected by her father and brothers, Stowe was a pious Christianity. She wrote some religious articles when she was nine. Three years later, her article about religious was reported in the school annual work show. She came across a theology teacher Karvin.Stowe and married to him at last.Throughout Stowes life, she remained deeply involved in religious movements and the most divisive political and moral issue of her time: The abolition of slavery. Having grown up in a religious environment where plays were considered immoral, Stowe refused all requests to authorize a dramatization of Uncle Toms Cabin. But in 1854 or 1855, perhaps to take advantage of the popularity of the various unauthorized stage versions that were playing throughout the North; she prepared a text for dramatic readings by Mrs. Mary E. Webb, a free mulatto. The characters lines follow the novel closely, though there are some surprises, such as Uncle Tom sang a sentimental minstrel song at Legrees plantation. And it is revealing to see what scenes Stowe omitted, and to compare her text with the other dramatizations in the archive.2. The religious reason of the author for writing this book With the aim of showing the Christian, writing for a predominantly religious, predominantly protestant audience, Stowe made great effort to illustrate a fact that the slavery and the moral standard of Christianity opposed each other. She insisted Christianity could not tolerate the existence of slavery. Throughout the novel, it was easy to see, the deeper one believes the religious, the stronger one objects to the slavery. Eva, the most morally perfect white character in the novel, could not understand why anyone would see a difference between blacks and whites. In contrast, the morally revolting, nonreligious Lagree practiced slavery almost as a policy of deliberate blasphemy and evil. Universal love was the foundation of Christianity in Stowes novel. Stowe insisted “It would be no oppressing between one segment and another if everyone practiced this universal love of Christianity”.3. The religious symbols in this book 1) Stowe wrote the novel with the name of Uncle Toms Cabin. Obviously, the cabin of Uncle Tom became a metaphor for that Uncle Tom would rather be beaten even killed but do not harm or betray his fellow slaves. That meant that his willingness to suffer and die rather than to go against Christian love and loyalty. Thus, the cabin signified the ability of Christian love to overcome the destructive power of slavery. 2) The hymns in this book were also symbols of the Christian spirits. Thirteen songs were sung in Uncle Toms Cabin, all but one, the Latin hymn from Mozarts Requiem that St. Clare sang, sung by slaves. All but one of those, the “rowdy song” that Legree demanded the slaves to sing on their way to his plantation were religious. Stowes own religious affiliation, as the daughter, sister and wife of ministers, was with the Congregational Church, but for the hymns and spirituals in the novel she drew mainly from the Methodist and camp-meeting forms of Christianity. Eight of those songs are available here, in playable arrangements intended to reflect both the traditional words and music, and the versions Stowe used in the novel. Hymns played a crucial role in the story Stowe is telling. In Chapter 30, for example, Susan told her daughter Emmeline as they waited to be sold on the auction block, that if they were separated, she should “Take your Bible with you, and your hymn-book; and if youre faithful to the Lord, hell be faithful to you.” When Tom was forced to leave home and family, he carried his hymn-book with him as faithfully as his Bible; Legree took it away in Chapter 32, but singing hymns remained one of Toms most important sources of consolation. For Stowe, the words of the quoted hymns allowed the novel to create a kind of contact with the supernatural world; theyre portals between the sorrows of this world and the kingdom Tom is ultimately journeying to. III. Different Characters and Their Religious Activities in the Novel As befits its religious preoccupation, the novel presents two instances of a sacrificial death linked to Christs. Eva and Tom, the two most morally perfect characters in the novel, both die in the atmosphere of charged religious belief, and both die, in a sense, to achieve salvation for others.1. Religious spirits and activities of Uncle Tom Religion is a major theme of the book and one of Toms dominant characteristics. Tom not only read his Bible and led prayer meetings; he implored everyone around him to follow the teachings of Christ. One of Toms principal reasons for his piety was his belief that God would redeem earthly mortals who had suffered by giving them glory in the afterlife. Tom used religion as a tool to comfort the disenfranchised and suffering. Whenever he saw someone suffering, he took the opportunity to tell them about God, and made them believe that if the sufferer believed God, their suffering would become easier to bear. Tom was more pious than other characters in the book, and consequently, he took on their suffering as his own. Uncle Tom was a sort of patriarch in religious matters during his neighborhood, having, naturally, an organization in which the morale was strongly predominant, together with a greater breadth and cultivation of mind than obtained among them. He was protagonist of Uncle Toms Cabin, his master described him as an uncommonly good and honest man, and a devout Christian. Moreover, Uncle Toms passivity enabled the novels most trenchant exploration of the conflict between Christian ideals and the cruel inhumanities of slavery. Toms policy of turning the other check stems from a religious faith, and thus his behavior might be interpreted as owing less to weakness than to principle. He was sold to St.Clare. In St.Clares household, uncle Tom slowly took on more and more responsibility, eventually taking over the finances of the house for his master. His Christian faith kept him honest and led him worry for St.Clare, who spent his nights at parties in drunken revelry. After a talk with Tom, St.Clare promised to stop this behavior. He also asked Prue, a slave from down the street, to help her with carrying the rolls, and implored her to stop drinking and finding the lord.Toms piety was not the product of a desire to save him from eternal damnation; he truly believed that he had been endowed with a mission from God to help the suffering, as his words to Cassy demonstrated. Gassy wanted to kill Legree, Tom persuaded her not to, because it was a sin. He pleaded with her to try to escape instead. She said that she would, and that she would try to do so without bloodshed. At last, Gassy and Emmeline escaped from the plantation. When Legree asked him where Gassy and Emmeline went to, but he didnt even say a word. Legree told him that he would kill him if Tom did not tell him what he knew about the womens escape, but Tom said he would die than speak. Legree beat Tom all night, and then he ordered Sambo and Quimbo, the overseers, to continue the beating. Tom prayed and remained pious to the end, touching Sambo and Quimbos hearts. They believed him when he told them of Jesus. Tom prayed that their hearts could be saved. 2. Eva and religionIn chapter 22, there was a simple but important instance foreshadowing. When Eva and Tom read the Bible, and Eva said she would soon be going to heaven to join the angels. Tom noticed that Eva did not look well, but the text did not explore the matter further. Stowe used this scene to foreshadow Evas eventual death in chapter 26. The apparent foreknowledge of the young girl about her own death introduced a perhaps unfortunate piece of nineteenth-century melodrama, but it did serve to underscore Evas basic saintliness. The little girl was so pure that she was already in touch with heaven. The fact of Evas moral perfection added authority to her loving action and put extra force behind her innocent but political observation. Even when she would die, she even told Uncle Tom that she would die for the slaves of the south if it would alleviate their suffering. She talked with her father and asked him if all the slaves could be set f