PBS Shows Us Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author Harriet Beecher Stowe had a tremendous impact on northern attitudes toward ending slavery. Her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852, became a sensation in part because it humanized slaves and focused on her readers’ emotions. I remember reading it when I was ten, and Stowe's description of abuses plantation owners inflicted on slaves has stayed with me even today.  It directed my reading and questioning of Southern literature, eventually leading me to Ralph Ellison's classic depiction of The Harlem Renaissance, Invisible Man.

 Uncle Tom's Cabin went on to sell 300,000 copies in the first year in the U.S. The novel was even more successful in Great Britain, where 1.5 million copies were sold in a year; a figure its publisher claimed was “10 times the sales of any book other than the Bible and prayer book.” 


In this video adapted from American Experience: “The Abolitionists” featuring historical reenactments, students learn about the far-reaching impact of Stowe’s writings on the abolitionist movement. They will learn how Stowe’s commitment to the abolitionist cause was strengthened after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, and how her best-seller was credited with “putting a human face on slavery” and helping launch the Civil War. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1IOJJYA

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Banned Books Week

The week of September 23, 2013 is Banned Books Week.  This affects every reader, but as a teacher of literature, I take personally any attempt to ban books, especially books that I currently teach.

In celebration of Banned Books Week, a North Carolina school board banned Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison.  Read NPR's report here.

Ralph Ellison's novel is a bildungsroman about an African-American who gradually loses his naivete about racism during the Harlem Renaissance.  My students find it to be a difficult read, sometimes because of Ellison's highly-descriptive and poetic style, sometimes because of the frustrating innocence of the protagonist.

 

 

 

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Invisible Man in his apartment with stolen light.
Photo: Jeff Wall[/caption]

 

 

 

We spend weeks unpacking the novel.  My students learn literary criticism through their research on Ellison and the Harlem Renaissance.  They learn how to analyze a work for its motifs.  They learn that syntax can be symbolic.  They learn that writers can be eerily prophetic.  At the end of it all, we are exhausted but better for our journey through Ellison's graphically-depicted world.

I hope that my students will better appreciate literature knowing that there will always be authority figures who wish to keep it from them.  I hope they ask questions, many questions, of themselves and the authority figures in their lives.  I hope they find at least one book that makes them think, grow. . .and want to change the world for the better.

 

Stephani Itibrout

English Teacher

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