Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
4.18.2 Reading and Review Questions
1. In Chapter I, why does Shelby support his claim for Tom’s integrity by
noting Tom’s having “got religion at a camp-meeting, four years ago?”
Why does Shelby not call out Haley’s integrity when he claims to have
“just as much conscience as any many in business can aord to keep?”
2. How does Eliza’s reaction to her son Harry’s being sold connect back to
Whittier’s “The Farewell?” What assumptions about the book’s readers
does the narrator make by calling upon their empathy with the line “If it
were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were to be torn from you by a
brutal trader tomorrow?” What do the readers have in common with Eliza?
3. How and why does Stowe ask readers to distinguish between
Constitutional and Christian relations? How does the conversation
between the Birds highlight the dierences between Constitutional and
Christian relations?
4. What human (or humane) needs does Topsy’s resistance to education
reveal? How is her character (as a character in the book) developed
through her relations with Eva?
5. What, if anything, is achieved through Tom’s “martyrdom,” that is, his
suering and eventual death? Is Tom heroic? If so, then how, and why?
4.19 FANNY FERN (SARA WILLIS PARTON)
(1811–1872)
The pseudonymous Fanny Fern
(born Sara Willis Parton) received
her education at Catherine Beecher ‘s
Hartford Female Seminary in Hartford,
Connecticut. She began writing soon
after graduating, contributing articles to
The Puritan Recorder, a newspaper run
by her father, Nathaniel Willis (1780–
1870). As marriage was considered the
main vocation available to women at
this time, Fanny Fern married Charles
Harrington Eldridge in 1837. They had
three children, with the eldest, Mary,
dying at the age of seven. A year later,
Eldridge died, leaving Fanny Fern
without clear means of support. Her
father consequently convinced her to
marry Samuel P. Farrington in 1849.
Image 4.17 | Fanny Fern (Sarah Willis Parton)
Photographer | Unknown
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain
Page | 1145