There were many common themes pointed out by our peers within their annotations. Within the assigned reading, Uncle Tom’s Cabin chapters 9-14, Stowe exemplified various details and character themes that helped bring her story to life. The first of these common themes raised by our classmates come from the chapter 9 annotations when Senator Bird and his wife are discussing Christianity versus morality. Mrs. Bird was imploring her husband to not follow the law he just voted for because it was against Christianity. In his annotations, Jeremy commented on this scene stating, “This feels like Stowe’s way of condemning the politics and laws of her time, and seeing the good that religion can bring if used in the right way (not justifying slavery).” (jeremylohr) This was interesting because according to him, it is no longer Mrs. Bird’s position on Christianity, but also that of Stowe, our author.
A common them represented in chapter 11 is the idea of the freedoms slaves have in America at the time. Obviously during this time slaves were not free to do what they pleased when they had masters that decided how they lived. In an interesting piece of this idea came when George was arguing with Mr. Wilson in chapter 11. Here George points out what white people would feel like if they were slaves. This is interesting because it flips the perspective of the slave trade on the white people, something they may have never thought about. “Very strong point here from George. I bet the reader of the time never considered this, and had an impact on their thoughts. I think Stowe is giving George a lot of strong arguments against Mr. Wilson.” Later within the chapter, Angeles comments on the reality of George’s circumstances when he is claiming America is not his country. “He realizes that the country he lives in will not do anything for him and those like him.” (abarrer6) This is powerful because George realizes the freedom of America at the time did not exist for everybody although the people in power tried to make it seem that it did.
Lastly, a common theme portrayed in chapter 12 by our classmates was of morality. During the scene Haley was on the boat, Stowe gave us an interesting piece of information towards his morality. A few students commented on this passage but we found this comment to be especially intriguing. “Haley would never be able to see slavery for what it truly is, rather than a way to make money, and I find it disturbing that the only reason he would stop is because of external factors, not a change in his morals or beliefs.” (mcgrainr) We clearly recognize through this comment that Haley explicitly states that he is not stopping his practice because he believes it is immoral but rather because he is only trying to protect himself.
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