The Violation of a Domestic Ideal in Uncle Tom´S Cabin

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Pavla Jarošová 264079 Bonita Rhoads, Ph. D. AJ 25049 American Fiction and Domestic Ideology 5 January, 2013 The violation of a domestic ideal in Uncle Tom´s Cabin Contents Introduction 3 1. Separating mothers and children 4 2. Freeing the motherhood 8 Conclusion 12 Sources: 13 Introduction In my essay, I would like to focus on the violation and breaking of the domestic ideal in African-American households as it is described and explained in Harriet Beecher Stowe´s Uncle Tom´s Cabin. The separation of African-American slave families is a thing that was happening for a very long time and I think that it still affects the nowadays African-Americans living in the USA. The trauma has been so profound and influential that it still exists in the minds of the slaves´ descendants. I would like to focus on some of the sociological and psychological issues which are connected with slavery and which are also a part of Uncle Tom´s Cabin plot. The ideal of domesticity has been reversed, forbidden and trodden down for the African-Americans and the impact of slavery is still playing an important role in their lives. They are still considered inferior by some people. Many of the traumas, injustices and pains caused by slavery have never been solved and they remain in the minds of African- American people as a terrible heritage of that era. It has been almost impossible for the African-American families to create a stable and safe home where they could bring up their children. I am going to focus on the issue of separating the families, mothers and children and on the problem of the impossibility education of black children by their mothers as it is depicted in Uncle Tom´s Cabin. 1. Separating mothers and children In Uncle Tom´s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe advocates the importance of the bond between mother and child and on the stories of her

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