Critical Commentary on Uncle Tom's Cabin

Sophia Cantave explores the representation and appropriation of African Americans and the slave experience in her article entitled, “Who Gets to Create the Lasting Images? The Problem of Black Representation in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The main point of Cantave’s article is that Stowe’s novel does not produce an accurate depiction of slavery. For Stowe’s novel made it hard for African Americans to tell their experience of slavery, as the public was accustomed to what they had heard/read only from whites and the “Master Narrative”. Thus making it hard for African Americans to break from the stereotypes, images and portrayals that Stowe’s novel helped further cement into society.

Cantave’s piece argues that Uncle Tom’s Cabin does not completely and accurately depict slavery, something Cantave states Stowe herself admitted to.  For Cantave writes that Stowe felt such inclusion of the more horrific aspects of slavery would make the book unreadable for her audience. Missing this element, and including comical depictions of characters like Topsy, Cantave states such that, “…Stowe’s novel provided the national with a shared cultural context for it discourse on slavery, offering reductive images, phrases, and symbols that quickly became the accepted norm.” (Cantave, 582) This reinforces the statement Cantave made on African Americans, African American writers more specifically, being limited, as their stories and experiences did not fit into this established norm. With that being said, Cantave goes on to explain the struggles of African Americans stemming from what Stowe’s novel helped establish. Cantave makes note of this struggle faced by African American writers like Toni Morrison and Harriet Wilson, among others, stating, “African Americans who step outside the accepted parameters of slavery’s discourse risk shutting down discussions, arousing white defensive or apologetic barrages and black desires to acquiesce and make nice in the face of such responses.” (Cantave, 591)

I think this piece adds to our understanding of Uncle Tom’s Cabin as it gives us a different way to look at the book. I think Cantave’s article helps us understand that there’s more to slavery than just what one novel depicts, and that we can’t take it to represent the story of slaves and slavery as a whole. I also think in some ways, a reader could miss some of the points that Cantave brings up in her article. For example, Stowe includes a slave of Legree’s named Sambo.  Having learned in a Sociology class, the term “Sambo” was a derogatory reference to slaves that whites perceived to be ‘stupid’ and incredibly pleasing to their master.  Knowing something like this helps us understand the points Cantave makes, and allows us to see the ways Stowe portrays some of her characters. With that being said, I think Stowe does start to reinforce these depictions, stereotypes, and images, much like Cantave argues.

After reading Cantave’s piece, I would say that I agree with the points that she brings up. I think that it’s evident that Stowe left out a lot of the horrors of slavery, as there were truly awful cases of abuse, death, etc. within the lives of many slaves. I think Stowe presents more good and moral people in her novel in the world of slavery, than she does bad. While I do understand that adding more about slavery may have retracted people from reading it, I do wonder if it would have added to the book’s sentimental theme. Though it may have been hard to read with the inclusion of such elements, I think omitting parts of the story of slavery could have been detrimental, just as Cantave argues in her piece. At the time people in the North, who were nowhere near slavery, could not know the whole and full story behind slavery and reading a work, from a white author, would give them uninformed ideas of slavery. In some ways I feel that the inclusion of a more accurate picture of slavery would have made Stowe’s intentions and message that much more clear and effective. I also agree with the point that Cantave makes about African Americans having a hard time breaking from what has been thought of them and their images, stereotypes, etc. I think it’s evident even today that African Americans and other minorities have faced and still face more difficulties than whites.

Cantave, Sophia. “Who Gets to Create the Lasting Images? The Problem of Black Representation in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Uncle Tom’s Cabin. (2010) 582-594. Print.