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Meanwhile I disagree with Hochman when she writes that the book's "direct attack on the peculiar institution subverted its claim to timelessness" and adds that because it "critiqued a social evil in a particular historical period" it failed to "transcend its own cultural moment." With the strength of novel's characters and their interaction, and the poignant and graphic depictions of the era of cruelty, how can Hochman make the absurd claim that it is not timeless? For one thing, the differences on issues of ethnicity are still with us. Racism did not disappeared along with Jim Crow laws -- it is alive in 2010. Cruelty is still unfortunately part of our society (re: the psychological and sexual abuse U.S. soldiers visited on prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Iraq).
On page 223 Tom has seen beatings and lashings and yet, Stowe writes so magnificently, he was "…never positively and consciously miserable" and moreover, "…so well is the harp of human feeling strung, that nothing but a crash that breaks every string can wholly mar its harmony" (Stowe, 223). The purpose of that passage is to show the reader that humans bend but don't break. It isn't just about slavery or punishment, but the purpose is to fully depict the willful resistance to indecency.
On pages 233-235 the purpose on Stowe's part is to portray the classic argument for and against slavery -- the justifications and rebuttals to slavery. The brothers Alfred and Augustine argue in a fascinating dialogue that has a universal context, given that the world today is not free from unconscionable racial bias, and likely never will be. Alfred, who supports the whippings and beatings and scoffs at Thomas Jefferson's "free and equal" contribution to the Constitution as "humbug," says "…we can see plainly enough that all men are not born free, nor...
233). Augustine argues that "since training children is the staple of the human race… our system [slavery as a bad example] does not work well there" (p. 235).
Conclusion
Hochman's essay has great value because it brings into focus the way the American public viewed the novel before, during, and after the Civil War. This in fact is an apt history lesson. It is easy to see vis-a-vis Hochman's essay that Uncle Tom's Cabin is an historical novel and a classic novel; but in the opinion of this paper, it also has a purposefulness for today's students whether or not Stowe intended for that to be true. The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement have come and gone, and Dr. Martin Luther King has been dead for 42 years, but there is still need for continuing education and dialogue about race in our culture, and reading Stowe's novel should always be part of that effort.
Works Cited
Hochman, Barbara (2008). Sentiment without Tears: Uncle Tom's Cabin as History in the 1890s.
New Directions in American Reception Study. Eds. P. Goldstein and J. Machor. New York:
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. (1994). Uncle Tom's Cabin. New York: Norton & Company.
Works Cited
Hochman, Barbara (2008). Sentiment without Tears: Uncle Tom's Cabin as History in the 1890s.
New Directions in American Reception Study. Eds. P. Goldstein and J. Machor. New York:
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. (1994). Uncle Tom's Cabin. New York: Norton & Company.
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