For this segment, I have decided to look at Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Letter to the Abolitionist Eliza Cabot Follen".
The main point of this letter seems to be that Stowe is so surprised that Uncle Tom's Cabin has received such positive feedback. She states how small and unfit she is, and how great God is constantly. She states that she now understands how a black woman feels when she loses her child to slavery or death because her husband has died and she feels alone. She speaks of how she has struggled with poverty her whole life and will most likely die that way, and how she struggles with the horrors of writing of the South. She just doesn't understand how someone like her would be received in such a warm way by readers, in one of her final paragraphs stating,
"It seems odd to me so odd and dream-like that so many persons desire to see me, and now I cannot help thinking that they will think, when they do, that God hath chosen 'the weak things of this world,'" (Stowe 446).
To me, this whole letter seems like some weird sob story, to be completely honest. But it also opens my eyes to the way she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. If she always felt that she was small and a weakling, then she would write a book with women not having much power as well. I didn't really understand the whole part about how she finally understood how a black mother feels when she loses her child because she has lost her husband, it just seemed out of place. To write a book on how slaves and whites lived together dealing with loss, runaways, and more seemed out of context if she never truly felt the true emotions. I just don't understand why she would state now that she understands. And the quote, how much she truly thinks of women disgusts me. She describes herself as being insignificant so it surprises her to hear that people want to see and congratulate her on her work. And then she says that they will think that God has chosen a woman to relish in the glory, seeming to say 'rather than a strong white man'. This final statement holds a total power in how she perceives women, especially white women herself. It genuinely seems weird to her to have a woman have such high remarks on a work, and that makes me angry. Clearly, Stowe was not a feminist.
Seriously, I read this letter and had a coniption fit. Not just because she says that women are weak but she drags God into it. She acts as if God has said 'yep, you women are the weaklings, you losers should thank your lucky stars I thought to include you on planet earth in the first place'.. Um, who gets to birth children? A feat that requires much strength and risks... (I have a whole soapbox I could climb on) I totally agree, Stowe doesn't have a feminist vibe at all. I think she does women a disservice with her approach.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love your belief in the strength of women and the fact that, I believe you told me, you were a minister as well? How empowering to me, actually, to know this because I thought the denominations of Christians were simply against women's empowerment. I thought it was complete crap that Stowe played the victim here.
DeleteThe letter to me seemed to be interesting, because the talk of god and how women are weak. Like really? She claims that god thinks that women are weak, which I don't think is true. I agree that Stowe is a author really does kind of in a way feel that women are weak,the way she talks about women kind of shows that she is an antifeminist author. I think she wants us to think women should be treated as equal's but then goes against it in some way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this! She seemed to go from limb to limb, swinging from 'act on this!!' to 'be subservient little weak creatures!'... She didn't stand on her soapbox very solidly.
DeleteI don't understand why she writes a book about her times and then says how cruel the times were and then agrees with how they should be treated. Is this supposed to be like how women in abusive relationships accept that they are to be hurt and beaten because they deserve it?
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