Personal Synthesis
One theme in
UTC that really stood out to me was the power of women. Many see this book as
very early feminism and I would have to agree. This novel was written before
the women’s rights movement. I saw many times in the novel, though it may not
be very prominent, how women have a lot of power especially over their
husbands.
Many of the women
in the novel are very nice and sweet, who try to get their husband’s to be too
harsh to their slaves. They try to work through the background so their husband’s
don’t know that their wives are trying to have things a certain way. Some examples
of these women are, Mrs. Bird who tries to help out many slaves, and St. Clare’s
mother, and there are many more also.
This book
shows also African American women in a very positive way. Eliza is the prime
example of pure, strong, capable, and brave African American women. Eliza is
also very protective over her son and will do anything to keep him safe, even
if that means running away with him, which that also shows her great bravery.
This is one
of the stronger themes that I saw throughout the entire book. A lot of the women
portrayed in the book had great power over their husbands. Even sometimes when
the husbands didn’t really realize it. When they did, they just pushed their wives
off to the side and said that they didn’t want their opinion.
I also wrote about Mrs. Bird in my post, and how women had influence over their husbands. I thought it was interesting the hold the women had over them; even though the husbands didn't always treat them as a team member, it seemed that the husbands looked to their advice in times of stress.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the men in the book listen to the women and take their advice? It's interesting to consider ways in which women have power and how their power is established in relation to the men.
ReplyDelete