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The Power of Love in Uncle Tom?s Cabin and Beloved


There are several common themes in the film Beloved and the book Uncle Tom?s Cabin. They both deal with the effects of slavery on the white and black communities. They both address the brutal treatment of blacks within slavery, including the sexual mistreatment of black women by their masters. A prevalent theme out of both works is the power of a mother?s love for her children. The film Beloved paints a grim picture of what it was like to be a black woman in the 1860?s. Like the book Uncle Tom?s Cabin, it takes us through the story of an escaped slave in the South traveling to the North in order to gain freedom. The main characters, Sethe, in the movie Beloved, and Eliza, in the book Uncle Tom?s Cabin, are both mothers who want nothing more that to see their children delivered from the bonds of slavery. Although the film and the book were created using very different styles, their objectives are somewhat similar.

In Stowe?s book Uncle Tom?s Cabin we follow Eliza through a dramatic escape from her plantation after she learns about the impending sale of her only son. Determined to take him out of slavery or die trying, she runs away in the night with him holding on to her neck. Stowe focuses much attention on the power of maternal love. She felt strongly against slavery because it often broke the bonds of maternal love by ripping children away from the mothers. Families were continually being torn apart by the auction block; Stowe wanted the reader to be aware of the effects of this horrible institution. Logic tells us that no mother would ever willingly put her children or herself in danger. However, through Eliza?s character in Uncle Tom?s Cabin we see the desperation that many women had to experience to save their children.

Harriet Beecher Stowe?s novel, though fictional, did more to change the hearts of Americans who were standing on the edge abolitionism than any other work at that time. In fact, near the conclusion of the Civil War she was invited to the White House in order that President Lincoln might meet the ?little woman that started this big war.? Stowe felt that she had an obligation to inform the world of what really went on in the South, what life was really like for slaves. Her work made a tremendous impact in its time. Uncle Tom?s Cabin was and continues to be the most famous American novel ever written. It sold three million copies in the United States between its publication in 1852 and the start of the Civil War, nine years later. She most certainly realized her vision to help Americans see, ?the wrongs and sorrows of those oppressed ones.? Stowe?s novel was one of the first of its kind. By reading it, Americans were forced to see the ugly reality of slavery. The book was an extremely bold and graphic way for Stowe to depict her message. It truly affected white people in the North who had previously tried to convince themselves that slavery was not all that bad.

The movie Beloved, based on Toni Morrison?s novel, shows us the same desperation of a black mother, but on a far more dramatic scale. Like Eliza, Sethe also escaped slavery with her children in order to save them. She experienced freedom for twenty-eight days. During those twenty-eight days she learned to love her children in a new way. In a touching monologue Sethe?s character explains that while back on the plantation, she never really felt the children were hers to love. It is only after seeing them free and being free herself that she begins to feel like a real mother. When Sethe discovers that her old master has come to take her and the children, she attempts to kill all four of them and herself, in order to keep the babies out of slavery. She succeeds in killing only one of her daughters before she is found. Sethe justifies her actions by explaining she had to put her babies where they would be safe. She would rather they rest in peace up in heaven than endure the hell here on earth that is slavery. When asked if murder were really necessary, her justification is that ?schoolteacher aint got ?em!? That is the same schoolteacher that brutally raped her while she was pregnant with her last baby.

I believe it was the intention of the director, and Toni Morrison to remind Americans of what an awful stain slavery has left on this country. Like Uncle Tom?s Cabin the movie is graphic and gives the viewer a chance to really see what happened to the slaves in the South. However, the movie was released nearly 140 years after Stowe?s novel was published. America?s threshold for viewing violence and sex has increased greatly over time. Also, more studies have been conducted and many more stories of slavery have been told. New narratives have been discovered. I believe educated people feel more of an obligation to reveal the actual details of slavery than they did while it was going on. Beloved is much more realistic than Uncle Tom?s Cabin simply because of the time it was released.

Reviews of the movie Beloved were, in general, extremely negative. The film was not well received by audiences. I believe there are two reasons for this. The first is ignorance on the part of the audience. Viewers would have really had to put deep thought into analyzing this movie; it cannot simply be watched passively. If you were to watch this film with no background of the novel or its main themes, it would be easy to get lost. This is a film intended for a mature and thoughtful audience. This leads me to the second reason the movie did not do well with the mainstream moviegoers; it was a difficult story to adapt to the big screen. Although I feel certain aspects of the story (such as Sethe?s murdered daughter returning from death to haunt her) were important to the main theme, it was difficult to show them in the film without an eerie science-fiction effect. I feel this took away from the big picture, and more specifically, the aspects of the story that the audience needs to see.

Uncle Tom?s Cabin has also been ill perceived by audiences. Although Uncle Tom?s Cabin began a noble career, the modern reviews of Stowe?s book are, for the most part, not very favorable. In fact, the phrase ?Uncle Tom? has taken on an extremely negative connation in the black community. Many scholars believe the liberal adaptations of Stowe?s characters are the real reason Uncle Tom is criticized so much today. Immediately after its release, the story of Uncle Tom?s Cabin began a career as a minstrel stage show, performed all over the country There were no copyright laws in the 1850?s, so producers played up all the negative stereotypes present in the book and almost completely took away the anti-slavery aspect of the novel in their shows. It is only recently that scholars have begun to look at Stowe?s book with the reverence it deserves. Formerly seen as a sensational women?s novel, people are starting to realize, again, the importance of the story being told in this fictional work. The effects of slavery, as well as the role of women should be the main focuses when critiquing this piece.

It is important to remember that both of these stories contain history that America needs to hear about. Eliza and Sethe were willing to go to great lengths to prevent their children from being owned by another human being. Their actions came from the same motivation. Sethe?s character obviously acted in a more drastic manner, by murdering her child, but in both instances the audience is able to see how terrible slavery is by the mothers? actions to stop it from continuing in the future generations. This appeals to the hearts of Americans, whether you are white or black. I think that is what made these two works so powerful, especially Uncle Tom?s Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe had to come up with a way to engage white Northerners in this fight against slavery, so she had to present the problem to them in situations to which they could relate. Whites probably could not relate to being forced to pick cotton in a field and the brutal treatment of working slaves. However, every human can relate to the pain of seeing one of your children be hurt. Every human can relate to wanting to give your child the best life possible. Beloved used the theme of maternal love for the same reason. People living in 1998 would probably have trouble relating to other aspects of the brutality of slavery. Not many of us today have ever performed the daily tasks that people did in the 1850?s. But we can relate to the inhumane treatment of others. Today, we can understand a mother?s love and how it is more powerful than any evil on earth.

In conclusion, I feel that it is important for students to read Uncle Tom?s Cabin and watch the film Beloved in order to gain a more realistic view on slavery. It seems that Americans want to forget this chapter of our history ever existed. We will only ever know the effects of slavery on Americans by uncovering the truths we are able to find. The only way to learn from our history by facing it head on, no matter how horrific and shameful it may be. Until more stories such as the ones in Beloved and Uncle Tom?s Cabin are told we will not be able to heal the wounds that slavery has left on our country.