Saturday, November 25, 2006
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Katja
ENGL 48A
Journal #19, Stowe
25 November, 2006
"But stronger than all was maternal love, wrought into a paroxysm of frenzy by the near approach of a fearful danger." (Harriet Beecher Stowe 1677)
The quote above is a very significant description of the bond between mother and child from Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The scene takes place at a time of great duress when the mother, Eliza, is feeling a powerful need to—and somehow is able to—protect her son from the slave trader and escapes the plantation.
This excerpt struck me as sad because Stowe herself never really got a chance to build a bond with her own mother who died when she was a little girl. She did not experience the deep unspoken levels of love and commitment between a mother and her child until she herself had children. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be mothers know that a mother is nothing less than a highly attuned and evolved woman: the rarefied essence of womanhood. I think that is why she cast Eliza as the heroine in Uncle Tom. She placed not only a woman but a mother in the most paramount role in the novel, partly perhaps because she only understood the precious relationship from the mother’s angle and was unable to explore it from the child’s point of view.
Nevertheless, the quote gives the reader an unadulterated sense of the true terror gripping Eliza at this very pivotal moment in the story. Here, Eliza makes and active decision, solely based on the potential benefits of her child. I keep hoping that Eliza will be strong enough to refuse to be paralyzed by fear. I want her love to usher her forward. Her urge to protect her child is strong, but is it strong enough to make up for all those years of little education, low self-esteem and disposability?
ENGL 48A
Journal #19, Stowe
25 November, 2006
"But stronger than all was maternal love, wrought into a paroxysm of frenzy by the near approach of a fearful danger." (Harriet Beecher Stowe 1677)
The quote above is a very significant description of the bond between mother and child from Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The scene takes place at a time of great duress when the mother, Eliza, is feeling a powerful need to—and somehow is able to—protect her son from the slave trader and escapes the plantation.
This excerpt struck me as sad because Stowe herself never really got a chance to build a bond with her own mother who died when she was a little girl. She did not experience the deep unspoken levels of love and commitment between a mother and her child until she herself had children. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be mothers know that a mother is nothing less than a highly attuned and evolved woman: the rarefied essence of womanhood. I think that is why she cast Eliza as the heroine in Uncle Tom. She placed not only a woman but a mother in the most paramount role in the novel, partly perhaps because she only understood the precious relationship from the mother’s angle and was unable to explore it from the child’s point of view.
Nevertheless, the quote gives the reader an unadulterated sense of the true terror gripping Eliza at this very pivotal moment in the story. Here, Eliza makes and active decision, solely based on the potential benefits of her child. I keep hoping that Eliza will be strong enough to refuse to be paralyzed by fear. I want her love to usher her forward. Her urge to protect her child is strong, but is it strong enough to make up for all those years of little education, low self-esteem and disposability?
# posted by Katja @ 6:24 PM 
