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religious matters in the neighborhood. Having, naturally, an organization in which the morale is strongly predominant, together with a greater breadth and cultivation of mind than his companions, he is looked up, as a sort of minister among them; and the simple, hearty, sincere style of his exhortations might have edified even better educated persons. But it was in prayer that he especially excelled. In the language of a pious old Negro, he “prayed right up.” While he is at St. Clare’s house, he meets the pitiful, old slave Prue. Prue should spend all her times to care her mistress and she loves the milk, but her mistress refuses to buy milk for her, so her only child is starved to death. Because of that, she becomes drunk and deranged. Tom sympathizes with her very much offers to carry her basket for her, and send the Gospel to her. He is always giving others the belief of life. He says to her, “ O, ye poor critter! Hadn’t nobody never telled ye how the Lord Jesus loved ye, and died for ye? Han’t they telled ye that he’ll ye, and ye can go to heaven, and have rest, at last?” [7]
Tom loves not only black people, but also white people. When his first master is going to sell him, he has no complain on it. After he stays at the second master’s home, he often advises St. Clare not to go to these celebrating parties. In order to let St. Clare have the words in mind, Tom even goes down on his knees and pleads with him not to attend those revelries. He quotes a sentence from the Bible “ it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder!” [8]P1 to persuade St. Clare. When he is on his deathbed, he says to George Shelby, “ Ye don’t know! Pears like I loves’em all! I loves every creatur, everywhar!----it’s nothing but love! O, Mas’r George! What a thing’t is to be a Christian!” [9]P433 And “ who,---who,---who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” [10]P434 From the above, we can conclude that Tom, like Jesus, is the embodiment of God and love in Christianity.
Like Jesus, Tom often forgives others, no matter the man who treats him kind or cruel. Tom forgives his first master, he says, “Mas’r always found me on the spot----he always will.” [11]P39 When he is flogged by Legree. He says, “ Ye poor miserable critter! There an’t no more ye can do! I forgive ye, with all my soul!” [12]P428 Jesus forgives the men who betrayed him, he thinks they are innocent people and asks the God would not send down calamities to them.
Though Tom is submissive to his master, he has the consciousness to define the right and wrong. If the master treats him kindly, he will pay more reciprocation to his master. His first master Mrs. Shelby gives him all his property to manage. He once lets Tom to go to Cincinnati alone to do business for him. Tom has the opportunity to run away. Instead, he comes back on time. He does not want to betray his master, and he says, “Ah, master trusted me, and I couldn’t.” [13]P2 Tom’s second master St. Clare gives him money without looking at it, because he trusts Tom very much. “Tom had every facility and temptation to dishonesty; and nothing but an impregnable simplicity of nature, strengthened by Christian faith, could have kept him from it. But, to that nature, the very unbounded trust reposed in him was bond and seal for the most scrupulous accuracy.” [14]P208Even Tom’s third master Legree also gives him his property to keep. However, once his master does the thing he thinks wrong, he will do it at his own will. Legree asks Tom to beat other slaves, but Tom does not do it. He says, “ I’m willin to work, night and day----and , Mas’r , I never shall do it,----never!” [15]P369 His worship is not blind in that he only obeys what he thinks right. From learning to read the Bible and writing letters to his kids, Tom is consistently trying to improve himself despite the limits placed upon him by slavery.
From the above paragraph, we can conclude that, Tom is loyal and submissive to his master and at the same time he has a good distinction between what is right and what is wrong.
Mrs. Stowe has her intention to depict Tom as a Christ—figure. Her most obvious purpose is to evoke the white men who believe in Christianity in the north, to let them have the position to support anti—slavery actions and to hope them to realize the evil to keep slavery system in a Christian country. She needs to compose a character of black man who can be accepted by most whites[16]. So she endorses Tom a lot of characters similar to Christ. Tom is the man who can arouse the sympathy from the white.
We all think Tom is a man with good qualities and immaculate character. He is a stereotype with typical African features and disposition of that race, yet Tom has the passive character in his life. His non-resistant principle is not accepted by the white readers, but his upright quality is not separated from his firm belief and personal strength. In a word, Tom is the representative of a kind of person上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] 下一页
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