Approaches to Teaching Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

by Elizabeth Ammons (Editor)

Now at seventy-three volumes, this popular MLA series (ISSN 10591133) addresses a broad range of literary texts. Each volume surveys teaching aids and critical material and brings together essays that apply a variety of perspectives to teaching the text. Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, student teachers, education specialists, and teachers in all humanities disciplines will find these volumes particularly helpful.

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

Reviews

[Matthew]

Uncle Tom's Cabin, the novel that started a war. Well, at least didn't help matters any.

Harriet Beecher Stowe creates an interesting look into the abolitionist movement in what became America's first number one best seller. By tackling the subject as a white women, there are initially some prejudices and racial gaps that Stowe visibly fell into, but her heart was in the right place, and for the most part, she was able to avoid them.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a product of its time, which means that there are those final few "wrap up" chapters where everything gets a nice little bow and is tidied up, but that's just the way that novels were written then.

By far the most interesting and likable character in the whole show was Augustine St. Clare, which makes the book a little bit awkward, if you ask me. Shouldn't the most likable character have been Tom, George, or Eliza? Speaking of, Stowe really dropped the ball when it came to George and Eliza's sections of the novel. They vanish for 150 pages-or-so, and as soon as Eliza and George meet up, Eliza is shoved to the side as "his wife."

I don't know. Uncle Tom's Cabin is a very important book, and it's not hard to read. But, as a reader that is after the abolition of slavery and after the civil rights movement, the book was just a little bit off. Still, it is a book that should be read.

[Janine Achey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifying...so unimaginable to think how a human being could ever treat another human being that way. I think everyone should read this book so they can get some sense of the horror that went on during the days of slavery. Reading about it in a history book is one thing but this book really brings it to life...you can feel the horror the characters must have felt. Hard to read, but a must read.

[Dsinglet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read with so much detail about pre civil war days and slavery in the south. She attempted to show many aspects and nuances to slavery. Some of the dialect was hard to understand but one catches on as the story goes on.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read about the lives of slaves.