AmericanSpiritinUncleTom’sCabin

歐嘉麗

I.The American Spirit Reflected in Uncle Toms Cabin

In most peoples opinions，Uncle Toms Cabin is a novel which exploded the Civil War and truly described the dreadful life of black people，in my opinion，however，the American spirit reflects in Uncle Toms Cabin is the truly reason to the whole course of the Civil War，it is also one of the most important prime movers in the later development of the whole nation，it is a systemic theory of Americans thoughts，it is nonfigurative but can be sensed anywhere.The American spirit in Uncle Toms Cabin is not a stone or cement block，but it did build the edifice of America.

II.The Main American Spirit that Embodied in Uncle Toms Cabin

1. Freedom.Freedom is the key word in Uncle Toms Cabin，without freedom，Uncle Toms Cabin can not be the novel as what we call it today，freedom is the eternal theme of it，black people in the novel struggle for it，the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote for the liberation of the slavery .freedom has different definition doing to different nations.in Uncle Toms Cabin，freedom means people can be free in a maximal measure in the society through the way of fighting.

2. Equality.“All man is created equal” is a world famous sentence addressed by Thomas Jefferson.Before Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin，the equality in the American spirit still has its own limitation； Equality in the American spirit at that time is the one which only gets its true meaning among white people.

3.Braveness.Braveness in Uncle Toms Cabin is different from our common sense of braveness，Braveness in Uncle Toms Cabin is one kind of bourn of American people，we can even say that the braveness in the American spirit is a habit of the American people，they get used to being brave，they always have the courage to resist or to say “no” to something or somebody.Eliza in Uncle Toms Cabin is one of the great examples.

III.The reasons why freedom，equality and braveness are the main American spirit in Uncle Toms Cabin

Before study this，I have to move to the very beginning of Americans history，the ancestor，the first group of immigrants to America，love for the freedom is the prime mover of ending the slavery in Uncle Toms Cabin，because the ship Mayflower not only carry the dreams for a new life of the Puritans but also the birth of a new colony and even a new nation.Equality is not a strange word to the American spirit in Uncle Toms Cabin，black slaves fight for it，they demonstrate for it，they take action to get it，and they join the Civil War to achieve it.it is also the true equality in American history，because equality between white people can not be called true equality，only equality among all races can be true equality.With the development of society，the American spirit，especially among black people，has gradually been incarnated，we can find in individual a vivid sample of the American spirit，especially another essential component： braveness，but in Uncle Toms Cabin，braveness was first greatly demonstrated with a rare background.

IV.The embodiment of freedom，equality and braveness in Uncle Toms Cabin

Freedom is nonobjective but it can be sensed everywhere in Uncle Toms Cabin，freedom is one of the most important part of Uncle Toms Cabin，it starts the novel and it ends the novel，freedom is the soul of the whole novel and it goes through all of it.Uncle Tom never is a free man all his life，and this is reversely the best embodiment of freedom，because freedom is what Uncle Tom exactly lacked of.

There is lots of embodiment of equality in Uncle Toms Cabin，such as race equality，gender equality and estate equality，race equality is one of the best known embodiments of equality in Uncle Toms Cabin，what I want to study here is the gender equality in Uncle Toms Cabin.Woman is a role which has been strongly emphasized in Uncle Toms Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe，especially the power of mothers love，Harriet Stowe even pointed out that the most dreadful thing of slavery is to deprive a child of his of her mothers love，and I do agree with it.

The most prominent embodiment of braveness in Uncle Toms Cabin in my opinion is Elizas escape from Arthur Shelby，Eliza is a maid，a female slave has the courage to take action to escape while even male slaves doesnt dare to do，what great braveness does Eliza possess，the braveness to protect her son and the braveness of ending her life as a slave finally bring one of the great success to the incessant struggle in Uncle Toms Cabin.

V.Conclusion

The main American spirit in Uncle Toms Cabin in my opinion are freedom，equality and braveness，without love for freedom，Uncle Toms Cabin would lose its true historical sense and would not last long in the world literature； without the equality being as the very thing the slaves in Uncle Toms Cabin truly pursue for，Uncle Tom Furthermore，the slaves would not get released or reach their position today if braveness has not been another main American spirit in Uncle Toms Cabin.It is only because these three main components of the American spirit in Uncle Toms Cabin，does Uncle Toms Cabin possesses a special place and last long in world history and world literature.