汤姆叔叔的小屋的summary

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汤姆,叔叔,小屋,summary

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Book Summary Of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Unit 2 Racial Discrimintion

Jiafeng, Hongxuan, Jianwei, Chenjun, Jianfeng

Author Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 July 1, 1896)

In the 19th century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel in the world. Its author Harriet Beecher Stowe, a teacher at Hartford Female Academy who insist on abolition. When Abraham met Stowe at the start of the Civli War, he declared,so this is the littel lady who started this great war.

Mrs. Stowe was born in Connecticut in 1811, was an American abolitionist and author. She accomplished many novels, Uncle Toms cabin is one of those. In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, prohibiting assistance to fugitives.

On March 9 of the same year, Mrs. Stowe wrote a letter to the editor of Nation Era to tell him that she planned to write a story to critic slavery. In June 1851, the first intallment was published in the National Era. Then, installment was published weekly from June 5, 1851, to April 1, 1852.

Main characters:



Uncle Tom: A long-suffering Chritian slave who was beaten to death by Legree. Eliza: A maid to Mrs. Shelby who finally escaped to Canada and emigrated to Liberia. Eva: The daughter of St. Clare beged her father to buy Uncle Tom, died of terminally ill. Legree: A cruel slave owner, the last owner of Uncle Tom. Augustine St. Clare: Uncle Tom’s second owner and father of Eva. Arthur Shelby: Uncle Tom’s first master in Kentuchy.

Brief introduction to the plot

Our title character Uncle Tom, a noble, faithful, honest Christian slave on the Shelby plantation, is loved by his owners, their son, and Evary slave on the property. He lives contentedly with his wife and children in their own cabin until Mr. Shelby, deeply in debt to a slave trader named Haley, agrees to sell Tom and Harry, the child of Mrs Shelby’s maid Eliza. Tom is surprised at hearing the news but vows that he will not run away, as he beliEvas that his master relies on his honesty and his escape would plunge his master so far into debt that he would be forced to sell Evary slave.

Eliza, howEvar, cannot bear to part with her son and escapes the night before he is to be taken from her. She escapes successfully and makes her way to a Quaker village, with a local family that harbors slaves. It is there that she is reunited with her husband George, who lived on a neighboring plantation and has also escaped to flee his master's cruelty. The couple and their son spend a night with the Quaker family before returning to the underground railroad. On their route to Canada, they encounter hunters’ chase. To avoid being enslaved,they fight aginst the hunters and finally repulse them.Then the family successfully arrive at Canada,where they win their precious freedom.

At the same time, just when Tom is to be shipped away, Mrs. Shelby promises him that she will buy him back as soon as she can gather enough money. Then Tom is sold to Haley and taken to a ship for south cotton plantation. During the trip Tom bravely rescues a little girl named Eva from drowning. Eva is a sweet girl who is kind and innocent and devoted to her servants and family. Due to gratitude and compassion, she begs her father, Mr St Clare to buy Tom as her personal servant and Mr St Clare does as his daughter demands. Tom has lucked out because his second owner Mr St Clare treats his slaves relatively well.Tom soon gets his master’s trust and day by day befriends his new master and especially his young

daughter Eva.


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Tom grows fond of little Eva. They discuss their mutual Christian faith on a daily basis. Eva expresses her abhorrence of slavery and decides to do Evarything she can to attend to her slaves. She transforms the life of a hardened young slave girl named Topsy, and begins to teach another slave, Mammy, to read. HowEvar,happy time was always short.After two years with the St Clair family,Eva suddenly grows very ill. She accepts her impending death peacefully and tells her family and their servants that she is happy

knowing that she is going to heaven, where cruelty of slavery does not exist.



Mr St. Clare begins to confront the realization that he believes slavery is evil, and he promises Tom that he will fill out forms guaranteeing his freedom in the event of Eves death. But before Mr St Clair can follow through on his pledge, however ,he dies of being stabbed outside a tavern, leaving all his slaves in the hands of their mistress Mrs.St Clair.Contrary to her husbands tolerance and gentleness, Mary St.Clair is a more typical slave owner and treats her slaves unkindly. She believes black people are born inferior and they are supposed to be the whites property to serve their demands. Thus, she reneges on her late husbands vow and sells Tom at auction to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Toms tragedy

then kicks off.



Mr Legree is notorious as a cruel, violent, lascivious alcoholic. In pursuit of high profit, he trys every means to squeeze his slaves until they inevitably dies a few years later,then buys new ones cheaply. His slaves are living in poor conditions and strictly monitored. Despite Legrees bad treatment, Tom stll maintains his honest,kind behaviour. On Legree's plantation, Tom meets two fellow slaves, Emmeline and Cassy. Emmeline is a young mulatto woman sold to Legree at the same time as Tom, and she attempts to befriend the embittered Cassy, who has suffered at the hands of Legree for several years. Cassy has seen her children sold and is so destitute that Tom's pleas that she put her faith and trust in God fall on deaf ears. Legree soon comes to hate Tom after Tom refuses to beat and discipline the other slaves. Legree had planned to turn Tom into a brutal overseer, and when he realizes that Tom will not participate in cruelty, he

becomes enraged and takes out his wrath on Tom.



Tom becomes discouraged until he has a vision of heaven one night as he is drifting off to sleep. The vision reinvigorates him, and he decides it is his mission to suffer for the other slaves. He regularly fills their cotton baskets at the expense of his own, gives them his food and water, and reads the Bible to them. One night,Cassy uses narcotics to make Legree lay in a drugged sleep,which presents a great opportunity to escape with her and Emmeline .Regardless of Cassys advice,Tom refuses to run for the reasons that he has the mission endowed by God to stay with the poor,even if death awaits him.Instead,he encourages the two

poor women to escape.



When Cassy and Emmeline successfully escape,Legree demands that Tom tell him everything he knows. Tom admits that he knew of their plans to escape and is aware of their whereabouts, but he refuses to disclose where they are.He says that his body belongs to Legree but his soul isnt under Legrees control.He will forgive Legrees violience and pray for him no matter how hard he treats him. Toms act of kindness does not enlighten Legrees mind but enrage him.This time he beats Tom so severly.Its a pity that Tom is unable to obtain his freedom and Gods help. It takes him a few days to die, however, and in the meantime, his old master’s son, George Shelby, arrives to emancipate (or free) Tom too late. The evil slavery ultimately destroy our old friend Tom.At Toms grave,George Sherby swears to make every endeavour to

wipe out slavery from US.



On the other hand,Cassy and Emmeline eventually escape, and they happen to aboard with George Shelby, who is rooming next to a woman named Madame de Thoux. Through conversation, it is discovered that Eliza Harris is Cassy's daughter, and George Harris is Madame de Thoux's brother. Cassy and Madame de

Thoux journey together to Canada, where they are reunited with their family.


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Madame de Thoux reveals that her husband has left her a large inheritance, and they all move to France together, where George is educated. The family then relocates to Africa, and Cassy's long-lost son, who has been traced, joins them. Topsy moves with Miss Ophelia to New England, then moves to Africa to work as a missionary. George Shelby gives all the servants on the Shelby farm their freedom, and tells them to be Christians and to think of Tom.



Affects caused by the novel

Uncle Toms Cabin is one of greatest novel of the wolrd which ignited a huge storm of protest from defenders of slavery and was also roundly criticized by slavery supporters. A lot of writers from the south of U.S immediately publish their own books to express the opposite oppion to Stowes novel. Some critics claim that Mrs. Stowe is liar. In response to those criticism, Stowe writes a document A key to Uncles Cabin to highlight the veracity of the novels depition of slavery.

In spite of those criticism, the novel still captured the heart of many Americans, even massive people around the world. Till now, many writers have credited this novel with focusing Northern anger at the injustices of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law and helping to fuel the abolitionist movement.

Till now, this famous books have been translated to more than 130 languages in the world. And it is the first American novle that was translated to Chinese by Lin Shu (18521924, born in Fujian). In 1904, Lu xun finished reading this book and cannot hold his sadness, said with grief, Considering my motherland, I worried that it is long road to freedom; now since I know the miserable lives of black people, I worried more.

Whatis more, this book was adapted into many dramas and films. Uncle Toms cabin has been adapted several times as a film. In addition to film adaptations, versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin have been produced in other formats i.e television program series.

Reference books and websites

[1] Uncle Tom's Cabin, Write by Stowe Harriet Beecher, Published by Bantam Classics, 1986-11-01. [2]Articel: Uncle Tom's Cabin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin#Reactions_to_the_novel. [3]Articel: Harriet Beecher Stowe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe#Uncle_Tom.27s_Cabin_and_Civil_War.



[4] Gates, Henry Louis; and Hollis Robbins. The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin, W. W. Norton.



Group two presents

2013/10/15


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