Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Homework 4

Due: Tuesday, July 30, 12 pm,

submitted through Blackboard Name________________________

Like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Charles Sheldon’s novel, In His Steps, focuses on how religion connects to contemporary social problems, although they focus upon different problems.

Write two paragraphs. In your first paragraph, identify one way in which Sheldon’s text is similar to Stowe’s. Focus not on the texts’ subject matter (slavery, poverty, etc.) but on the literary or rhetorical strategies the authors use to explore their subjects, how they appeal to readers, how they frame the problems, how they structure or set up the narrative, how they use religion, how they treat the roles of women and men, etc.

In your second paragraph, identify a key difference between these two texts. Again, don’t focus on differences in subject matter, but on the writers’ strategies, how the text is structured, etc.