Situation Critical (Response to Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Let me get this out in the open. I did not like Uncle Tom's Cabin.

I have had to read books that I have not liked for class in the past, however, with them I usually understand that they are of literary merit. They are revolutionary, well-written, timeless, or tell a story that has not been told before. While one could easily argue that this book does fulfill the criteria I just listed, I personally do not think that it is good literature. I just thought that I should put my response (or at least opinion) to Uncle Tom's Cabin out there, before discussing the response of other (I assume, more qualified) critics.

What I found interesting about the reviews that we read, was how positive the response was. As a person of my time I am mostly familiar with much of the negative criticism that exists in regards to Uncle Tom's Cabin, so I was (more or less) surprised at the positive reviews that abounded about Stowe's masterwork. Allen praised the realism of the book, and was glad that such attention (from the book's success) was being brought to the issue of slavery. The only real qualm he had with the work, was the over-piety of the titular character, which though presented by Stowe as a positive trait is viewed by Allen (and many of his successors) as a very negative characteristic.

Something that I did not realize was how incredibly influential the novel was. While I know it was one of the best-selling novels of the 19th century, and have heard that Lincoln referred to it as "the book that ended slavery", I did not realize that it was as influential as it was. In his article Levine touches on some of the articles which Fredrick Douglass' Paper re-published about the book that talk about the effects of the book's influence. Not only did it help sway opinion in the North, but it also had affect in the South and had influence abroad (especially in the U.S.'s former mother country, Britain). This was interesting, because it meant that clearly the book accomplished (to an extent) what Stowe intended it to do, bring an awareness to the horrible practice of slavery.

I also found it interesting to see that even at the time of the novel's publication there were negative feelings about the ways that characters were depicted, and especially harsh was the criticism of Stowe's support of Colonialism (which seemed to conflict, and undue a lot of the good that the story had done, prior to its ending.). Overall I found the reception of the novel more interesting than the novel itself. But then again, I did not think much of Uncle Tom's Cabin.