Race and the American Novel Part 1 Blog 2

In Sophia Cantave’s article, Who Gets to Create the Lasting Images? The Problem of Black Representation in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she points out how Stowe recognizes that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is not a good representation of slavery since slavery is too awful to be portrayed in art, specifically her writing. Stowe also goes on to say that if she had decided to portray slavery more accurately it could not be read and would not be a successful book. Instead she creates more pleasing characters and scenes. Cantave focused a lot on how Stowe uses comedy to make slavery readable. Cantave says, “By making the tragic and the laughable, Uncle Tom’s Cabin gives white people and black people a way to read slavery together” (585 Cantave). Yet, Cantave states that this also gives white people a way to “regulate black achievement, black national mobility and black cultural expression” (586 Cantave).

What happens if the irony is lost on the readers? Cantave argues that by “denying African Americans the opportunity to tell their story without comic interjections left whole things unsaid” (592 Cantave). African Americans were not able to create the “lasting images of the slave experience” since at that time they could not write about their own experiences.

This article helped me understand why Stowe used comedy and unrealistic characters when portraying slavery. A book that would portray slavery more realistically would not be popular or constantly used in classroom settings. Not many people would want to read it because of how gruesome and awful slavery truly was. Stowe’s book allows many people to read and learn about slavery. By including comedy more people want to read it.

I agree with Cantave, in that Stowe had to use comedy to make her novel readable, but when doing so African Americans were not able to tell their own story that would have eventually become the lasting image. This reminds me of Adiche’s Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story. Is Uncle Tom’s Cabin the single story about slavery that many of us know? I think in some ways it is and as Adiche says, “The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes are not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete” (Adiche).  Cantave does make a good point that even thought this novel is not a true depiction of slavery it does create a start to discuss racial and literary topics. 

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. "The Danger of a Single Story." Ted Talks, July 2009. Web. 10 Mar.               2015.

Cantave, Sophia. "Who Gets to Create the Lasting Images? The Problem of Black Representation in Uncle Tom's Cabin." Approaches to Teaching Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (2000): 582-94. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print.