DEATH AND SALVATION
Uncle Tom S Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe Eva American Civil War Slavery Tom Novel Uncle Tom Augustine St Clare Soul
Death. How is it possible for such a minute word to affect millions of people on a daily basis? Whether written in a book or personally experienced; death is always representative of something unexpressed in life. For every individual death, there may be a variety of interpretations, but the same must be said of every individual life. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin reveals the lives and deaths of many characters. Each death in this story is representative of a particular theme: the loss of a child, a story of redemption, the pain of a soulless man, a repressed servant, and a symbolic Christ figure. Because each death tells a separate story, the question of redemption and salvation is brought into the scenario. Who will be saved? Can a life fraught with sin be redeemed? The purpose of this essay is not to name who is saved and who is damned, but to observe how Harriet Beecher Stowe uses the curiosity and concern for salvation and the idea that death, through empathetic feelings and sentimentalism, can be used to aid reform.
Little Eva: Being born into a barely Christian, wealthy, slave owning family, it is difficult to understand where Eva's religious roots commenced. It is true that her mother, Marie, went to church every Sunday and her father, St. Clare, was brought up with a religious background, but Eva's profound dedication to Christianity was not learned from her parents. She is referred to time and time again as a Christ figure because of all the love and Christian advice she spreads around so freely. Miss Ophelia comments, "Well, [Eva's] so loving! After all, though, she's no more than Christlike (Stowe 246). Stowe's description of Evangeline, "The shape of her head and ...the long golden-brown hair that floated like a cloud around it, the deep spiritual gravity of her violet
Death. How is it possible for such a minute word to affect millions of people on a daily basis? Whether written in a book or personally experienced; death is always representative of something unexpressed in life. For every individual death, there may be a variety of interpretations, but the same must be said of every individual life. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin reveals the lives and deaths of many characters. Each death in this story is representative of a particular theme: the loss of a child, a story of redemption, the pain of a soulless man, a repressed servant, and a symbolic Christ figure. Because each death tells a separate story, the question of redemption and salvation is brought into the scenario. Who will be saved? Can a life fraught with sin be redeemed? The purpose of this essay is not to name who is saved and who is damned, but to observe how Harriet Beecher Stowe uses the curiosity and concern for salvation and the idea that death, through empathetic feelings and sentimentalism, can be used to aid reform.
Little Eva: Being born into a barely Christian, wealthy, slave owning family, it is difficult to understand where Eva's religious roots commenced. It is true that her mother, Marie, went to church every Sunday and her father, St. Clare, was brought up with a religious background, but Eva's profound dedication to Christianity was not learned from her parents. She is referred to time and time again as a Christ figure because of all the love and Christian advice she spreads around so freely. Miss Ophelia comments, "Well, [Eva's] so loving! After all, though, she's no more than Christlike (Stowe 246). Stowe's description of Evangeline, "The shape of her head and ...the long golden-brown hair that floated like a cloud around it, the deep spiritual gravity of her violet