Exploration on American Civil War through Gone with the Wind and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.doc

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1、从飘和汤姆叔叔的小屋探究美国南北战争Exploration on American Civil War through Gone with the Wind and Uncle Toms CabinContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. A Brief Introduction of Gone with the Wind and the Author Margaret Mitchell.2III. A Brief Introduction of Uncle Toms Cabin and the Author Harriet Stowe

2、.4IV. The Relationship between the Two Novels and the Civil War.51. The depiction of slavery and the Civil War in Gone with the Wind.52. The Cruelty of the slavery described in Uncle Toms Cabin.73. The contrast of the different descriptions in the two novels.8V. The True Cause of the Civil War.9VI.

3、Conclusion.10References10Exploration on American Civil War through Gone with the Wind and Uncle Toms CabinAbstract: The essay points out that the different views on the American Civil War which is a quite special period in American history. From two great works that are recognized tightly related to

4、 the war, we try to find the true cause of the Civil War. Margaret Mitchells Gone with the Wind is regarded as an elegy of mourning the slavery while it is well received worldwide. Uncle Toms Cabin shows the cruelty of the slavery and its author Stowe was called as “the woman who wrote the book that

5、 start the war by Lincoln. But after the war, the novel lost its high position. The reason is the different descriptions of slavery which are the key points of the Civil War in the two novels. This essay is going to analyze the relationship between the two novels and the Civil War and the true cause

6、 of the Civil War from a macro-historical way.Key words: civil war; slavery; Gone with the Wind; Uncle Toms Cabin 摘 要：文章指出对美国内战这一重要时期的不同观点。作者将从两部和内战有重大联系的文学作品中发现美国内战的真正原因。飘是玛格丽特一生中唯一的作品，在受到极高赞誉的同时，被扣上了缅怀奴隶制的“帽子”。汤姆叔叔的小屋的作者斯托夫人因为其对残酷的奴隶制的描写而被林肯称作是“写出那本引发这场战争的书的小妇人。”但是在内战结束后，这本书立即失去了其重大的影响力。造成这种差距的原因是

7、两部作品中对在内战中起重要作用的奴隶制的不同描写。文章将从更深层次的角度来分析并阐述二者与内战的关系以及内战的真正起因。关键字：美国内战；奴隶制；飘；汤姆叔叔的小屋I. IntroductionIt is undoubted that the Civil War in 1960s is an important part in American history. Because the political system of American was changed after that war. The slavery was abolished and the black slaves w

8、ere set free. There have been many researches about the American Civil War and its true cause. Also there are many literature works which give different descriptions of the war in many aspects. Among those Gone with the Wind and Uncle Toms Cabin are the two most important ones. Published in 1936, Go

9、ne with the Wind is well received worldwide, and is still a reversal work with recognition because of the authors nostalgia for slavery. The novel describes the love story of Miss Scarlet OHara who is the daughter of a slave owner. It is under the background of the American Civil War and shows a his

10、torical picture of the Old South in Civil War from a south peoples view. In this book, slavery isnt so cruel as in other works. The masters and the slaves get along well with each other. There are even some slaves dont want to be free. Just because of that, the book is regarded as a book that pays t

11、ribute to the cruel slavery and can not be admitted by some authorities.In the other novel, Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin, she describes the cruelty in the south farmland. The masters take the lives of the slaves in their hands, and force them to work hard in the field. The slaves dont have any rights to

12、read, educate, even their marriage is out of their control. The slaves can not bear the poor condition; they try their best to escape from the south to pursue freedom, for example, George and Eliza. The author of this novel Stowe had ever been lived in a small town which is not far from the plantati

13、ons of the south, she says that she know the cruelty of the slavery. The purpose of her writing the novel is to let people understand the slavery and the poor condition of the black slaves. But after the war the book is regarded as a bitter memory of that war. It also loses its high position during

14、the war.From this paper the author will find the real relationship between the civil war and the two novels which is the key point of the research. In the past years, people who do the research always focus on the political influences of the two novels. The two novels can not have high position in l

15、iterature because the two excellent novels are limited in certain historical backgrounds. And this article is going to analyze the dilemma.II. A Brief Introduction of Gone with the Wind and the Author Margaret Mitchell Margaret Mitchell, American author of the enormously popular novel Gone With the

16、Wind (1936), which is a story about the Civil War and Reconstruction as seen from the Southern point of view. Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta. Her mother was a suffragist and her father was a prominent lawyer and president of the Atlanta Historical Society. Mitchell grew up listening to storie

17、s about old Atlanta and the battles the Confederate Army had fought there during the American Civil War. From 1926 to 1929 she wrote Gone with the Wind. The outcome, a thousand page novel, which was later compared with Tolstoys War and Peace, was published by the Macmillan Publishing Company in 1936

18、. Mitchells book broke sales records, the New Yorker praised it, and the big work was admired by the architectural persistence behind it but criticized as overly Southern, particularly in its treatment of Reconstruction. Competent but neither very good nor very sound. In 1937 Gone with the Wind was

19、awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Also questions about the books literary status and racialism, historical view and depiction of the Klu Klux Klan appeared. During World War II Mitchell was a volunteer selling war bonds and volunteer for the American Red Cross. She was named honorary citizen of Vimoutiers

20、, France, in 1949, for helping the city obtain American aid after WWII.The novel was published in 1936 when the monopoly capitalism appeared. Gone with the Wind eulogizes the prewar south life and shows quite different view from Uncle Toms Cabin, and reflects the necessity of the development of mono

21、poly capitalism. Meanwhile, it has an important position during the revolution climax brought by the economic crisis in 1930s. This novel shows a great historical picture of the south during the Civil War, and the main line is the love story of the heroine Miss Scarlett. It describes the Social life

22、 of the south during the Civil War and the process of the disintegration and decline of the slavery. The novel stresses on the whole process of failure of the south army, which shows a picture of the Civil War from a certain side. At the beginning of the novel, the author shows different views towar

23、ds the war through different people. Thats true in the history. The author shows her sympathy to the slave owners and cherishes memory of the south rural life; meanwhile, she exposes the inevitability of the abdication the south slavery system. The main character of the novel also shows her change f

24、rom the daughter of a slave owner to a capitalist. This is war, and the wreck and rebuilding that follows it, told entirely from the womans angle. It is the Civil War and Reconstruction seen from this new angle that makes Gone with the Wind so popular.III. A Brief Introduction of Uncle Toms Cabin an

25、d the Author Harriet StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Toms Cabin was a New Englander by birth and a Midwesterner by migration. Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811. Harriet and her entire family moved to the Midwest. Harriets father, Lyman Beecher, be

26、ing a Congregationalist minister, accepted the position as president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati, a border city, faced issues regarding slavery. Cincinnati bordered two slave states, Virginia and Kentucky. The city of Cincinnati is located on the Ohio River, the boun

27、dary separating Ohio and Kentucky. Before the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Kentucky slaves would escape from bondage and cross the Ohio River and could live as free men and free women in Ohio, which was a free state. This was due in part by the passing of the Missouri Compromise of 182

28、0. Stow emphasizes differences in class the least because class should not determine our religious and political beliefs towards slavery. To begin we will focus on St. Clare who is considered upper class and young master George whom is middle class. Both of these characters show a lot of compassion

29、for the slaves. Stow describes St. Clare as caring and sentimental person towards slaves, for example, “I have the same love that I have know for all kinds of human things”(Stowe:257)In Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) - Pious old Uncle Tom is sold by his well-intentioned Kentucky owner Mr. Shelby in financi

30、al straits. He is bought first by the idealistic Augustine St Clare. In his New Orleans house, Uncle Tom makes friends with St Clares daughter, the saintly Little Eva, and her black friend, the impish Topsy. Never was born! persisted Topsy. Never had no father, nor mother, nor nothin. I was raised b

31、y a speculator, with lots of others. Eva dies in a highly sentimental death scene from a weakened constitution, and St. Clare is killed in an accident. Tom is sold to Simon Legree, a Yankee and a brutal cotton plantation owner. Two of his female slaves pretend to escape and go into hiding. Tom will

32、not reveal their whereabouts and Legree beats the unprotesting Tom to death just before Shelbys son arrives to redeem him. A parallel plot centers on Eliza, her child, and her husband George who escape to freedom in Canada using the underground railroad. This novel has a great impact on the pursuit

33、of abolishing slavery in the middle of the 19th century. But after the war, the novel becomes not so popular. Edmond Wilson said “In American, Uncle Toms Cabin was regarded as just a propagated novel. It lost the necessity of existence after the purpose was achieved. And Wilson thinks besides the sp

34、ecial epochal reason, in fact it makes people recall the cruel war.” ( 艾德蒙威尔逊:4) IV. The Relationship between the Two Novels and the Civil War Both the two novels describe slavery which was the most important point of the Civil War; however, they show quiet different views about the question. The wh

35、ole story of Gone with the Wind happens under the background of Civil War in south. It reveals a great picture of the Civil War from a certain aspect. Slavery and the civil war are indiscerptible. Also in this novel, the author gives different views about the war of different kinds of slaves. But Go

36、ne with the Wind is said as a novel beautifying the slavery and against the Civil War because the author writes the novel from a south peoples view. The novel is recognized as an elegy of mourning the slavery. Uncle Toms Cabin wrote by Stowe, is the representative of abolitionism novels. In this nov

37、el the author shows her sympathy to the slaves, she describes the poor condition of the slaves and the cruelty in the south farmland. And we can see from her novel that the slaves dont have any rights to read, educate, even their marriage is out of their control. The masters take the lives of the sl

38、aves in their hands, and force them to work hard. The slaves can not bear the poor condition; they try their best to escape from the south to find freedom, for example, George and Eliza. However, after the war, this novel loses its high position and is regarded as a bitter memory of the cruel war. S

39、o we can see the two novels are said highly related to the great war and at the same time they are both limited by the war. The different position makes the different descriptions of slavery in the novels and the dilemma of the two novels in literature. 1. The depiction of slavery and the Civil War

40、in Gone with the WindWe can see the content of the novel is about the American Civil War, the slavery is inevitable in the book. But the depictions of the slavery and the war have no similarity with the other novels, such as Uncle Toms Cabin and Root in which the slave owners were cruel to the slave

41、s. The author pays much attention to the cotton plantation in prewar south, no whips, no punishment; they live in a peaceful and rich rural life. From the first to the seventh chapter, the novel revealed the scene that Scarlett went to the Twelve Oaks to attend the big feast. It describes the life i

42、n her fathers plantationTara and tells how her father turn to a slave owner from a desperado. And the depiction of the feast also shows that the slaves live a paradisiac life. Another protagonist of the novel Ashley has said that “In the evening, the blacks came back from the lands, singing songs. A

43、nd the windlass on the well was working to draw water. The prewar life was beautiful. I think the life then was just like a piece of Greek art, brilliant, flawless, complete and proportionate.” In social life, “Every summer, nearly every week theres a big feast and dancing party in this district.” I

44、n Soviet Union Encyclopedia, it says the life in the plantation was idealized in Gone with the Wind. And the relationship between the slave and the slave owners was totally opposite from other similar novels. (Tan:133) From the vicissitude of A Bao who is the black steward of Tara, Scarletts father

45、get A Bao because he win the bet. A Bao has a different position from other slaves when he becomes the steward of Tara, but his wife and daughter are the property of another slave owner, they are selling as goods. Later Scarletts father buys them. Some books say that it beautifies the slave owners.

46、That is not the truth. In fact, the purpose of doing that is making the slaves work for them heart and soul instead of mercy to the slaves. Just as what he says, he would not let his slaves marry to other woman who belongs to other slave owners. His doing that is in order to protect his own property

47、 but care for the marriage of the slaves. The slaves, without realizing that, of course think that is the charity of the white. That is not uglifying the blacks, which are the truth of that time.About the punishment of the blacks, it says “A Bao, the only one who had been trained, who is the steward now, but years of comfortable life and no restraint made him lazy.” “Sometimes the master was too angry and said he would sell someone to the south or whip someone, but no one was sold and only one time whipping because he didnt wash the horse of the master well.” Afte