Similarities in Twelve Years a Slave, and Uncle Tom's Cabin

The first similarity is that both of the novels are written by Negro slave. They described the cruel experience in southern plantation and escape from the southern slavery to northern freedom.

There are many novels regarding slavery. The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair is one example. Another example is Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Both of these novels talked about slaves but, The Jungle talked about the wage slaves while Uncle Tom’s Cabin talked about regular slaves.

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass were both slaves that wrote about their struggles and pain during their years of slavery. Both stories were the same but also very different. Both Jacobs and Douglass were born into slavery. The stories were written by authors that finally gained their freedom from slavery. Jacob’s wrote “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and Frederick Douglass wrote, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”. Jacob’s wrote it in a woman point of view and gave us a look at how the women that were slaves experienced life; whereas Douglass wrote as a male slave and the brutality.

The anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe was written at a time when slavery was a largely common practice among Americans. It not only helped lay the foundation for the Civil War but also contained many themes that publicized the evil of slavery to all people. The book contains themes such as the moral power of women, human right, and many more. The most important theme Stowe attempts to portray to readers is the incompatibility of slavery and Christianity. She makes it very clear that she does not believe slavery and Christianity can coexist and that slavery is against all Christian morals. She believes no Christian should allow the existence or practice of slavery.

Since the beginning of writing, literature has played a pivotal role in shaping the history of the world. The same holds true when referring to the early American history topic of slavery. Many abolitionists wrote in hopes that their views will persuade people in America to take a stand against slavery. While there were many authors that led the anti-slavery movement, the most successful writers were the slaves that lived through this atrocious time period and were able to recall their experiences. Two prominent authors during this time period were Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. While the two writers shared many common experiences due to their time being a slave, they also had had a variety of differences. Harriet Jacobs wrote mostly wrote in a way that appealed to people’s emotions and focused on what a woman goes through as a slave; whereas Douglass focused on freedom and manhood.

Stowe’s novel however was intended on having a cultural impact on its readers, the novel has direct references to the Fugitive Slave Act, abolition movement and its influence on the shift in racial politics. Uncle Tom’s cabin reinforces racial thinking upon its readers and reflects Stowe’s colonialist viewpoints.

Slavery is a disappointing example of inhuman behavior, a dark past in our history books. Two stories demonstrate the cruelty of slavery while living on a plantation. “Harriet Tubman” and “The People Could Fly” give two different encounters on the topic of slavery. “Harriet Tubman” is a biography and “The People Could Fly” is a historical fiction. Both would make one wonder, what is there to live for when freedom does not exist in your life? The two different genres of books are able to give readers an understanding of how heart-wrenching and depressing life of a slave was. Both show the family of slaves taking care of one another. They show the family bonds even though the slaves are going through harsh conditions

Through the texts, Douglass and Jacobs both preserve in their struggle for freedom, both physical and mental. Another text that can be linked to Douglass’ Narrative is the well-known Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Although it was written by a white female, like Douglass’ Narrative, Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows the harsh reality of slavery with the inclusion of graphic descriptions and images. Both texts were meant for the American public to read, as they were written in the time that slavery was still legal. This text is also similar to John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me in that the purpose of both texts are to open the perspective of the audience, the American public, on a social injustice happening during the time each author wrote his book. Both authors also use personal experiences to show the readers what it is like to experience slavery or discrimination based on skin color.

In these two tales of brutal bondage, Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the modern reader can decipher two vastly different experiences from circumstances that were not altogether that dissimilar. Both narratives tell the story of a slave gaining his or her freedom from cruel masters, yes, but that is where the most prominent similarities end. Not only are they factually different, these stories are entirely distinct in their themes.

Even though bith authors had these many core similarities they are both fundamentally different stories because of the simple reason that their gnders are different. Jacobs and Douglass simply write the female and male versions of slavery. The life of female slaves and male slaves were two totally different monsters and this difference is reflected in the slaves narratives of bothh authors.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative of his Life both endeavor to stir antislavery sentiment in predominantly white, proslavery readers. Each author uses a variety of literary tactics to persuade audiences that slavery is inhumane. Equiano uses vivid imagery and inserts personal experience to appeal to audiences, believing that a first-hand account of the varying traumas slaves encounter would affect change. Stowe relies on emotional connection between the readers and characters in her novel. By forcing her audience to have empathy for characters, thus forcing readers to confront the harsh realities of slavery, Stowe has the more effective approach to encouraging abolitionist sentiment in white readers.

During the final years of legal slave ownership in the United States, the slave narrative became a popular way for literate enslaved people to express their anti-slavery stance through their own testimony. Two of the most influential writers on the slave narrative topic were the autobiographical authors Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Since Douglas and Jacobs were both born in a similar time period, there are many similarities found in their works. Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave is closely comparable to Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl when analyzing how they represented their enslavement in their autobiographies. The two authors have similar ideas when portraying their struggles with forced ignorance. Their writing also contains parallels with the corrupting power of slavery for the slave owners, as well as the parallels in pointing out the hypocrisies of using the bible to defend slavery. These similarities can be explained in part due to Douglass and Jacobs following the same basic slave narrative outline to maintain the shared goal of abolishing slavery in the United States.

i) Mary Rowlandson's A Narrative of the Captivity and A Restoration is a captivity narrative. Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a slave narrative. While they are considered distinctive genres, they share some characteristics. Look at the excerpts you have from them in your reading. How are they similar? How are they different? Be sure to provide evidence from the texts to support your conclusions. Answer the above questions in a 1,000-1,250-word essay.

One was the best seller that captured all audiences, the other an unfiltered narrative telling of the slavery experience, although contrasting, both caused tensions that led to their popularity and why they are still read today. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel about a slave who embarks on a journey south and discovers how slavery is different in the disparate parts of the south. Meanwhile, Eliza, a mulatto enslaved woman runs away to ensure a better life for her son Harry by fleeing to Canada. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a narrative written by a former slave who became an abolitionist. Similarly to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it depicts the dehumanizing effects of slavery upon the master and likewise the slave. Both stories illustrate how misconceptions and faith in religion play a role in confusing as well as giving hope to the characters described. These two stories can be contrasted as you may contrast Martin Luther King and Malcolm X; one portrays a more moderate tone while the other gives us the full fledged exhibit of slavery. Although they are both unique and tell different stories of the lives of enslaved African Americans and their masters, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as well as Frederick Douglass’s The Narrative and Life of Frederick Douglas both capture the essence of slavery in the 1800s and give us two points of view of religion and the dehumanizing effects of slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a novel written in times of unrest where slavery was a controversial topic and women 's rights were still suffering. Uncle Tom’s Cabin showed the grim reality of slavery and showed the importance for women to gain a societal role beyond the domestic domain. The reading contains a number of major characters throughout the novel. The two most notable characters we will discuss is Mrs. Shelby and Marie St. Clare. Throughout this paper we will compare and contrast these two characters and give specific examples to illustrate the similarities and differences between these two unique individuals.