Uncle Tom's Protest Novel, By Harriet Baldwin

There can be many different goals of a work of protest literature. Protest literature can contain many different definitions, meanings, and inflict different responses to their audiences. Whether attempting to inform, influence, inspire, or just affect the audiences’ emotion, the author has a goal that he/she is trying to achieve. This is done in either fiction or non-fiction protest novels. Sometimes however, people tend to draw different opinions from the intended goal, which leads to controversy and argument. In “Everybody’s Protest Novel”, Baldwin’s argument is focused on fiction protest novels. He discredits fiction protest novels in efforts to motivate and change people, but rather they are only good in informing people. He attacks Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin saying the sentimentality focus is the reason the book fails as a goal of protest. Although Baldwin makes a good argument, his argument is farfetched and he is blinded by his own beliefs. Baldwin focuses on the sentimentality of the Uncle Tom’s Cabin, referring to it as being dishonest.
He makes this known by saying “Sentimentality the…parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty.” His support of this is in his explanation of the character of Uncle Tom, in Stowe’s novel. As he suggests, making Tom a sympathetic character who never retaliates but rather accepts everything, blinds the people of the truth about slavery. That is not what happened in real life. It’s the “mask of cruelty,” as Baldwin states, hiding the truth from the readers. This however is what led to the success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, not failure which Baldwin attempts to argue. Baldwin was too focused on the idea that in order for a protest novel to be successful it has to be real. The problem with that is that readers of the time were already witnesses to what was really happening, it was their everyday lives, it was their reality. With the idea of writing about factual events giving the character credibility, which Tom lacked, it may disgust the readers and in turn deter them from reading the book. That would not do any good for the struggle of slavery. Instead, easing them into the struggle, giving a relation and friendship with the character of Tom wants them to continue reading to see what happens to their friend. That is why Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and any other sentimental fiction novel can be successful. Evidence of the success resides in Lincoln’s quote of “so
you’re the little woman that started this Great War.” Kimberly Drakes article of “On the Literature of Protest” provides a good counter to Baldwin’s argument. She credits Stowe’s characters as having “distinctive voices” that move people. This happens because when reading the book the readers ‘“share an effective state’ and ‘become more aware of themselves as a collective.’” This alludes to the point mentioned before that readers become one with the character, facing the same struggles they face, which in turns makes them more aware of the oppression in reality. It supports Drakes connection of cognitive and emotion, thoughts and feelings. Baldwin states that inflicting emotion upon readers leads to failure, however Drake says that there is connection between the two that should be reached. This is difficult to achieve because most readers already have opinions and emotions on certain things when reading about them, which influences everything to support their beliefs. There is a bias when reading protest literature, because the reader already had chosen a side to support, of either the oppressed or the oppressors. Therefore Stowe’s sentimentality is a strategic “tactic” with the attempt to actually change the readers’ position on the issue, to change their “mood”, and Drake suggests. This can only be done through fiction because the author is in control of what happens. They can decide where to take a story to get a certain point across, where in non-fiction works of literature, the story line is already given. Another example of a successful fiction story that deals with a sentimentality to counter Baldwin’s argument is Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.
With the narrator being constantly dominated by her husband John, she is lead into depression which seems to have an influence on her insanity, hallucinations, and obsessions. This is a tactic Gilman uses to represent the oppression of women during the time. It is suggested that her husband is the one that drove her insane because he never lets her express her feelings like she used to, even controlling the little things in her life. She is “absolutely forbidden to work until [she] is well again.” This leads to sympathy for the women, showing that she is helpless in her life. He husband is also her physician so she is constantly under his control, which leads her in into her own imagination hallucinations because she actually has some control over them. After she realizes she is the only one that can see the pattern on the wall paper she says “life is very much more exciting now.” Different that her previous thoughts of always thinking “John says”, she is free from his control which bring her enjoyment. The audience grows a relationship with the narrator, feeling the oppression that she feels from her husband, and being trapped. Gilman’s goal was the idea of “consciousness-raising,” which was a tactic of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960’s. The idea was inform women that the experiences that they are facing are
not only happening to them, but to all women. They are sharing the same problems, and are not alone. By doing this it would save people from going crazy as the narrator does in this book. Although, Baldwin uses Uncle Tom’s Cabin to support his argument that a sentimental fiction novel cannot be successful, it can be used to counter his argument as well. With evidence from Kimberley Drake and her connection of affect and cognition, it shows the opposite is true. Another example being The Yellow Wallpaper using an emotional connection with the main character as a ways to influence real people being oppressed. Baldwin argues that success in political is to bring “greater freedom to the oppressed,” which can be achieved through sentimental protest fiction novels. Both Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Yellow Wallpaper were successful doing this with the groups of people that both struggled in the 1960s, women and blacks. Women became aware that there dominance from men struggles were not self-experienced, but rather shared with other women relieving them of being trapped through The Yellow Paper. Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought a “clear social message to millions”, as Drake states, and finally inspired people to stand up for Slavery. Baldwin makes a good argument saying giving emotion for characters takes away from the seriousness of reality. However, this emotion allows for deep reflection, surpassing the bias of people’s opinions when reading these novels, and in the end changes their mood for the better of the oppressed people.