38 pages • 1 hour read
Catharine Maria SedgwickA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Early in the novel, Mononotto ponders the nature of a leafless tree. It reminds him of the state of his own tribe, and, perhaps, the eventual fate of all Indians. A tree has the potential to be strong, ancient, towering, and awe-inspiring, but all it takes is an axe, or a storm, or a blight of disease or insects to turn the mightiest tree into a ruin.
The sign of the cross is presented as cause for alarm in Hope Leslie. Despite being an emblem of Christianity, its use by Catholics is anathema to the Protestants. When Faith, wearing a cross, is reunited with Hope for a brief time, her conversion to Catholicism is nearly as shocking to Hope as her marriage to Oneco, an Indian. Sir Philip is undone by the untimely appearance of the crucifix in the jail cells, showing that it can only cause trouble for all who come into contact with it.
Magawisca sacrifices her arm for Everell’s life. Her resulting deformity is hid beneath cloaks and dresses. The loss of her arm is indicative of her separation from Everell and the life they shared together. It is also analogous to a castration or any other bodily loss of power. Magawisca is the female in the book who most exemplifies characteristics typically thought of as male. Her physical deformity, rendered by a man, is a reinforcement and reminder that she is a woman, ultimately subject to the whims and acts of men.
Building on British Romanticism in the tradition of Wordsworth and Longfellow, American Romanticism (1820-1870) also lauded nature and attuned itself to more poetic and philosophical representations of reality rather than the more transactional literature that preceded the era in the American canon. In general, American Romanticism held firm in the dignity of the “common man” and purported idealistic visions of human nature.
Sentimentalist literature attempted to pull at the reader’s heartstrings in order to persuade them to change their mind on a political subject. Rather than using facts and figures or more transactional writing, Sentimentalist novels told stories to illustrate a political point. This genre was popularized in the 1820s-1870s because more people in the country were able to read and wealth rose in general, giving greater segments of the U.S. population (most notably women) access to this form of literature. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the most famous Sentimentalist novels: when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he is said to have told her, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war” (Weinstein, Cindy. The Cambridge Companion to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Cambridge University Press, 2004).