Introduction
The film Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a film that thrills a lot of people. This is a film that exhibits Harriet Beecher Stowe’s never-ending model of American writing. The book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was given credit by President Lincoln during the commencement of the 1861 American civil war. The movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an observer story concerning the issue of slavery in Southern America. Although the book was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 the public release of this book and soon after the film were one of the few that explained the difficulties crossed with the old ways of slavery (William p.89).
Critical Analysis
At the start of the film Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it shows the way slaves were purchased and sold. Even though some of the southern American farm holders treated their slaves with deference and were similar to normal people, these farm owners were not as widespread. Subsequently, the other slave masters, who usually tortured, raped, and mistreated their slaves. This is an appalling film that shows how most slaves were treated. The book’s major personality Uncle Tom at starting stays with a family that is kind and known by the name the Shelby’s. Tom is suddenly sold together with nine other slaves for the reason that the Shelby’s which are the slave’s owners have gone badly into debt and for them to make clear their name and get out of money owing they must trade some or most of their slaves. A slave trader by the name of Simon Lagree purchases Tom together with the other nine slaves. Mr. Lagree was a slave merchant that is extremely unkind to his slaves.
Mr. Lagree purchases a child and intends to have the child for the reason that he was going to make the mother of the child his mistress. Although the woman slave Eliza was already matrimonial to another slave, Simon is doing anything possible to get her. Owning to the fact of the matter that the Shelby folks appreciated and gave care to their slaves just like their relatives, Shelby’s wife exposed to her maidservant Eliza what was going to take place and gave her assistance to flee with her child. Having to give Assistance in this escape she advised her, gave her a few amounts of money and a horse haggard cart. So Eliza takes off abandoning her spouse and taking her child to a safe place. But for the fact that Eliza fled was at the moment gone, Mr. Simon who was the slave buyer still longed to have a slave woman who can be inclined to him; as a result, he subsequently makes Eliza’s sister named Cassy her own(Weinstein p.33).
After Simon cautiously examines the slaves he gets all of them on a ferryboat that is bound for Louisiana. While onboard the daughter of a certain man called Mr. Saint Claire whose daughter was called Eva suddenly develops a strong liking for slave Tom. She stares as they are ordered into the ferry boat in shackles and handcuffs and wants to know why they are being treated so badly. Eva’s father explains to her that not all slave masters are nice to their slaves like the way they are. She pays a visit to the slaves almost every night and pays attention to them as they sing the sacred songs that help them on the course of the journey. She solicits and begs her father to purchase Uncle Tom. Obvious that Tom is becoming old Simon sells tom at a high cost of $2,000, getting his cashback on a slave named Napoleon that escaped off the boat and was consumed by alligators. On one occasion at Simon Legrees’ cotton farm the slaves are put to labor (Lott p.23). All this while Cassy the sister of Eliza is compared to give Mr. Legree pleasure. At the very instance while Tom was living in the residence of his master Mr. Saint Claire he is given value and treated as a slave that was well admired. Eva the daughter of slave master Saint Claire visited Tom regularly because her mother was not feeling fine at that moment. After Eva sees her good father kissing Harriet the other females that are staying in their house, she is shattered. She could not fall asleep in her bed that nighttime and is seen out in her “castle” partially alive. After Eva was hurriedly brought back to the residence, she recovers and speaks to allow the slave Tom to go free of charge or she commits suicide. With the value to his daughter demands Eva’s father seeks a solution for his servant’s freedom. On the day of Independence, Mr. Saint Claire was hoping to get back to sign the appropriate documents to grant his slaves freedom, but he is being deliberately gunned down by Simon Legree. Simon together with other unkind owners of slaves is afraid that slavery will soon come to an end and the slaves will flee from other farms, for this reason killing Mr. Saint Claire. Nobody is of the knowledge that Simon had assassinated him except for the very cruel slave owners. Simon held responsible one of the slaves in the house that he was involved in the murder and the slave was executed. After this, the slaves owned by Eva’s father Mr. Saint Claire, are again purchased and sold the second time. However, Uncle Tom is taken back to live with Simon Legree. Meanwhile, Cassy secretly brings Eliza to come and live in their shed feeling that Simon would by no means find out and which he did not. Perceiving that terrible things ensue the slaves, Tom persuades them to escape saying “God helps out those who only want to help themselves.” The slaves run away and they rupture the dam which holds water back from the cotton plantation. This demolishes all of the pieces of cotton that are on the farmland. Simon and his group discover the slaves in a religious residence and attempt to fight Cassy together with Eliza and her child in the residence and are then shot by Simon. Nevertheless, Eliza is lastly joined up with her partner who is now a free man. After discovering what has taken place at the cotton plantations Simon and his group depart to try and save the cotton and Tom is then abandoned in the burning house to die. The major spotlight of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is to demonstrate that African American’s have souls and thoughts the same as other humans. During her era, it was ordinary for white farm owners and slave owners to see black people like farm animals or low-level species of human beings.
Stowe’s chief aim in the movie and book is to demonstrate Blacks as a community. Her fundamental argument is that blacks go through suffering the same way as whites, and hence it is incorrect to maltreat them. All through the book, Stowe moves toward the thought of slavery from a firm Christian viewpoint. It is not astonishing bearing in mind that she had a very religious family, with her father being a well-known priest (Tompkins p.42)
During the era, this thought that black people had hearts the same as white people was a very novel thought. For the first time, it caused the white citizens accountable for their dealings either to the good or to the bad of their subordinate black slaves. Relatively than just seeing black citizens as animals, the slaveholders were required to perceive their slaves as human beings just like them(Jordan p.123).
Conclusion
The movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin has as well been ill observed by viewers. Though Uncle Tom’s Cabin commences a dignified career, the contemporary analysis of Stowe’s book and movie are, for the majority piece, not encouraging. In reality, the expression “Uncle Tom” has taken on a very negative connotation in black society. Several scholars think the liberal versions of Stowe’s characters are the genuine basis Uncle Tom is disapproved of so much these days. Right after its public release, the account of Uncle Tom’s Cabin started a career as a minstrel theater show, acted upon all over the nation There were no exclusive rights laws in the 1850s, therefore producers displayed up all the unenthusiastic stereotypes present in the volume and almost totally took away the anti-slavery part of the book in their plays. It is just lately that scholars have started to view Stowe’s book with the respect it merited. Previously seen as an amazing women’s book, people are beginning to understand, again, the significance of the story being expressed in this story-bound work. The sound effects of slavery and the responsibility of women ought to be the major spotlight when critiquing this paper.
Works Cited
Jordan, Joy. Whitewashing Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Nineteenth-Century Women Novelists Respond to Stowe. New York: Vanderbilt University Press, 2005, Print.
Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, Print.
Tompkins, Jane. In Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790– 1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985, Print.
Weinstein, Cindy. The Cambridge Companion to Harriet Beecher Stowe. 3ed. Cambridge University Press, 2004, Print.
Williams, Linda. Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2001, Print.
