Personal Synthesis

I know it may seem from my overall blog that I have no theme, but in reality, I feel my theme is very loose.  You see, the way in which women are regarded in the novel is very puzzling and interesting to me, and that is what I have picked up on throughout my analysis and reading.

I found it strange that Harriet Beecher Stowe was so unbeknownst of her glory of her novel, and it seemed she didn't want the fame.  She seemed to want to push it onto others, and in particular, men.  So it was no surprise to see the men in the novel talking to the women as if they were lesser beings.  It seemed that there was some sort of equation of who the people, if they even were, referred as.  This is how I see it:

White Man: Noblest Being
White Woman: Property, Child, Semi-rules household
Black Man: Slave, worker, wanted more, property
Black Woman: "Creature", lover, property
White Child: ???, property
Black Child: Animal, Property

It seems that no matter how you look at it, if you are not a white man in this novel, you are property of the white man.  If you take a look at my "Multimedia Resources" page, I make this known with a picture of a white housewife who basically states that the woman is a prisoner in her own home.  This meant, to me, that even though the women in this novel are the rulers of the inside household, they are still prisoners to their husbands.  Do they really even own anything?  This book shows power struggle, and in power, comes ownership; women do not own anything.  They are equivalent to slaves.  Stowe herself refers to women as being "the weak things of this world," (Stowe 446), and this shows prevalent in her work.

I've said time and time again how she is just disgusting to me in the way that she believes women to be the weak beings.  If she thought that way about white women, how did she think of black women?  Black men?  How about white children?  By referring to white women as being lowly, blacks as being creatures; would children then be...  Slaves as well?  Until they are out of the adolescent era?  We do get a theory of how she respects slaves - she does write in her letter to the Abolitionist that she can feel the pain of loss that a black mother feels when separated from their child.  But how is it that she relates her husband to that feeling?  I don't know if I'm not supposed to find this weird, or if I'm looking at it too closely, but I find it to be strange that she relates her husband to that of a relationship of a mother and child.  She herself refers to women as children; the white man is the highest status.  So how does she suddenly change this role in her letter?  I believe she must be a very conflicted individual to have so many contradictions within this book.

I honestly do not question whether this book is for feminism because I know it is not.  I find Stowe to be disgraceful to the feminist community and I do not recommend this book to any aspiring feminist unless they want to become fueled with a bit of rage.