汤姆叔叔的小屋英文读后感
No slavery, be equal
These days I've just finished the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin that left a really deep impression on me and we can see.
It is a book written in 1852 in response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, Uncle Tom's Cabin has been considered as the most influential anti-slavery novel in that period and described by Stowe herself as a “series of sketches” describing the human cruelty of slavery, opens with a description of Arthur Shelby's Kentucky plantation during the antebellum period.
There are several impressive characters in this novel, George who is clever and brave;Harry, a beautiful and talented child who sings dances and mimes;Mrs. Shelby, a very religious woman;Sambo and Qimbo and so on. The major character Uncle Tom who was the most impressive in this novel was a devout Christian. He endured the miserable fate bravely and aroused the white's sympathy for slaves with his Christ's sacrifice and the tolerance of returning good for evil. This novel focuses on the distinctive personalities of Uncle Tom deeply influenced by Christianity and the important role Uncle Tom's Cabin playing on abolition; and the Significance of “Uncle Tom” to the harmonious world's development, and the effect on modern people.
In the book, at the beginning, the author presents us a very beautiful image of a rather harmonious family who live a happy life. However, that beautiful image couldn't last long, the darkness came soon. The master of this happy family, Uncle Tom was arranged into a difficult situation. As Shelby, the not cruel master, he has incurred serious debts- prompting him sell some slaves to avoid financial ruin, so Uncle Tom, Shelby's loyal servant since childhood was sold to Mr. Haley, the slave trader. Uncle Tom remained loyal to his master, despite his betrayal and the risk of death at the cruel hands of a new master. The slaves at the plantation were very mournful, but Tom remained placid and tried to read his Bible for comfort. On the steamboat to New Orleans, where Tom was to be sold, Tom befriended an angelic little girl, “Little Eva” St. Clare. Uncle Tom saved the five-year-old beauty from drowning, and she convinced her father to buy Tom for her own family. In her family, Tom enjoyed his life because of the girl's love; Tom's contentment does not last, however, because Eva soon falls ill. Dying, Eva asked Mr. St. Clare to free Tom after her death. But Mr. St. Clare is so sad by her death that he never legally freed Tom before he himself was killed trying to mediate a barroom scuffle. Mrs. St. Clare sold the slaves to settle her husband's debts and Tom was sold to Simon Legree who was so violent that beat his slaves brutally. At last, when Mr. Shelby, finally found Uncle Tom, he was almost died. After Tom was dead and buried, Shelby went back and freed his slaves.
As we all can see that Uncle Tom's Cabin was an anti-slavery novel and it was even considered as one factor that caused the Civil War. In the novel, the slaves were sold from one place to another frequently, and their fate was tragic, with no exception- just like Uncle Tom, no matter he was under the control of kind masters or evil masters, he can't escape the misfortune of being sold from one master to another. We can't see any human right of them, so terrible.
As someone said, with more people realizing the inhumanity of slavery in the 19th century, slavery became one of the most important issues and it became more violent year by year in American society. However, slavery was not abolished irrevocably until ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, following the Civil War. After the passage of Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote this novel Uncle Tom's Cabin which publicized the evil of slavery to a wide audience.
Now we are in the 21st century, we may never come across such kind of thing. However, this book can always remind of us that there ever has existed this evil and we can't let it happen again. And “equality” 、“human right ” can't just be a slogan, we should make it come true really and always.
Uncle Tom's cabin is frequently criticized by people who have never read the work, myself included. I decided I finally needed to read it and judge it for myself. And I have to say, that for all its shortcomings, it is really a remarkable book.
The standout characteristics of this book are the narrative drive, the vivid characters, the sprawling cast, the several completely different worlds that were masterfully portrayed, and the strong female characters in the book. The portrayal of slavery and its effects on families and on individuals is gut-wrenching - when Uncle Tom has to leave his family, and when Eliza may lose little Harry, one feels utterly desolate. As for flaws, yes, Mrs. Stowe does sermonize a fair bit, and her sentences and pronounc. But in her time, she went far beyond the efforts of most of her contemporaries to both see and portray her African-American brothers and sisters are equal to her.
The best way she did this was in her multi-dimensional portrayal of her Negro characters -- they are, in fact, more believable and more diverse than her white characters. Yes, at times her portrayal of Little Eva and Uncle Tom is overdone at times -- they are a little cardboard in places -- but both, Uncle Tom especially, are overall believable, and very inspiring. The rest of the Negro characters - George Harris, Eliza, Topsy, Cassie, Emmeline, Chloe, Jane and Sara, Mammy, Alphonse, Prue, and others, span the whole spectrum of humanity -- they are vivid and real.
The comments of a previous reviewer that the book actually justifies slavery and that it shows that Christianity defends slavery are due to sloppy reading of the book. No one reading the book could possibly come to the conclusion that it does anything but condemn slavery in the strongest and most indubitable terms. This was the point of the book. The aside about capitalism was just that, an aside on the evils of capitalism. It did not and does not negate the attack on slavery. Secondly, another major point of the book is that TRUE Christianity does not and could not ever support slavery. Stowe points out the Biblical references used to claim that Christianity defended slavery merely to show how the Bible can be misused by those who wish to defend their own indefensible viewpoint. It's ridiculous to say that the book "shows that Christianity supported slavery". It shows that some misguided preachers abused certain Bible passages and ignored other ones to support their view of slavery.