The Tragic Worldview in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Suci Rahmaningtiyas

 

Abstract

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This novel describes clearly the suffering of black people in America as a slave. There is a fugitive slave law that frees anyone to catch the runaway slave. That law makes many slaves be caught and punished. That condition does not make some slaves give up to fight for their independence. However, there are some slaves who do the opposite things. There are people who surrendered to the situation and blame their fate. There is also someone who has a tragic mind like what happen in Uncle Tom. He does not accept the situation of slavery, but he still stay to face it with his faith to the God. Uncle Tom believes that God will guide and save him. Even that hope never happen to him. Considering that phenomenon, this study applies the Genetic structuralism theory which tries to find the worldview that appears in the novel. The result of this thesis shows that struggle of Uncle Tom’s tragic views which expressed by Stowe’s thought as a collective subject, and also the human fact and worldview that appears at that time. Slavery system made several slaves who does not believe in God existence finally give up and doing nothing for their future. While the other slaves who has a faith to God are have a strength to runaway and gain their independence.

 

Keywords: Slavery, Genetic Structuralism, Lucien Goldmann, Fugitive Slave Law.