Connections Between "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "The Curse of Caste"

Something interesting was brought up in class today that I had not really thought about. That there is a kind of closeness (or certain connections) between the book we are ending the semester with (The Curse of Caste) and our first text this semester (Uncle Tom’s Cabin). Both of the works unlike just about anything we have read between them (With the exception of The Heroic Slave), initially appeared in a weekly newspaper as opposed to a monthly journal of literature and scholarship. Looking at The Christian Recorder on microfilm I found the visual resemblance to The National Era striking, though the latter was by far a larger paper.

This/these simmilarit(ies)y explains a number of things. The first is the difference of The Curse of Caste’s format. The chapters (or more accurately the installments) are not as long as any other works’ because there is not as much space in a weekly paper (even though Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s installments were still lengthy) as in a monthly journal, as the space can be used for information that would not be relevant if put off until a future issue. Another oddity that is shared by both works is a seeming lack of patience in the author to allow the story to slowly and naturally unfold. In James or Twain a new installment or portion’s relevance to the overall story may not be immediately clear, but as time passes it’s connection becomes apparent. Neither Stowe nor Collins seem to have that kind of time (or perhaps more accurately space. Though Collins may have been in ill health for much of the work’s production.) to allow for it to unfold slowly. When they shift from one action or set of characters to another a quick amount of explanative narration accompanies it, so as to keep the readers in the loop and not confused. Another similarity that I found was that I thought that both of these were not as well written as many of the other texts we read this semester (Though this could probably be traced to my disdain for Stowe and the fact that Collins was not a professionally trained writer, that it was not her primary occupation).