Uncle Tom's Cabin And Beloved Research Paper

Influential Role of Mothers in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Beloved

Though more than a century divides the creation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), the immense similarities between them can persuade one to read them accompanied with each other. In Uncle Tom's Cabin and Beloved there is an underlying theme of the importance of the influential role of mothers in African American slavery culture and in white culture. They both address the issue of a mother’s rights with the role of strong and influential female characters. Instead of encouraging the belief that women are less than men, the idea is to promote that they are more than obedient and submissive homemakers. Stowe and Morrison do this

For instance, In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Eliza asks the readers : “How fast could you walk?” (Stowe, 105). The meaning behind this being that any other mother would move as quickly as possible to save their child, including the readers themselves. Human resiliency is the ability to keep pushing forward even against adversity. In Beloved the mothers play a huge role and have an influence on their sons. In a sense slavery just does not allow for the role of motherhood. Mother’s during slavery often had their infants taken from them before they could even create a bond with them. Sethe’s mother in law, Baby Suggs, had eight children and they were fathered by six different men. She was tricked into having sex with these men who promised to protect her children. This is an example of the sacrifices a slave mother would make for her children."My first-born. All I can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread. Can you beat that? Eight children and that's all I remember."(Demme, Beloved) "The last of her children, whom she barely glanced at when he was born because it wasn't worth the trouble to try to learn features you would never see change into adulthood anyway." (Demme, Beloved) Sethe on the other hand killed her own daughter. Some critics think it represents an act of the deepest motherly love. The murder can be viewed as Sethe saving her

There was rape, impregnation, and then kidnapping of their children. Uncle Tom’s Cabin displays this with Eliza who is forced to run away to save her son from being sold and the two of them being separated. In Beloved, Sethe has long term psychological issues from the impact of her past life in slavery. Through Sethe you see the brutal effects that slavery has caused her to have on her life. She attempts to kill three of her own children but only succeeding with the third. Sethe originally believed that Beloved was just an ordinary slave woman. When Beloved’s demands begin to consume her she convinces herself that Beloved is a reincarnation of her daughter and this seems to be what the majority of readers agree with. If Beloved were alive this “woman” would be the same age as the baby she murdered. The psychological impacts of slavery are what we try to make a human connection