A short article which was published in the official newspaper of the Salvadoran government on July 22, 1853 praised Harriet Beecher Stowe and her book's success. Influenced by the literature of protest, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, current leader of Islamic Republic of Iran, addressing a number of Iranian intellectuals, remembered the novel as one of the most tragic works in the modern world depicting a morbid history of slavery in America. As the first widely read political novel in the United States, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" greatly influenced development of not only American literature but also protest literature in general. Later books which owe a large debt to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" include "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair and "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. Despite this undisputed significance, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has been called "a blend of children's fable and propaganda." The novel has also been dismissed by a number of literary critics as "merely a sentimental novel," while critic George Whicher stated in his "Literary History of the United States" that "Nothing attributable to Mrs. Stowe or her handiwork can account for the novel's enormous vogue; its author's resources as a purveyor of Sunday-school fiction were not remarkable. She had at most a ready command of broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos, and of these popular sentiments she compounded her book." Other critics, though, have praised the novel. Edmund Wilson stated that "To expose oneself in maturity to Uncle Tom's Cabin may ... prove a startling experience." Jane Tompkins states that the novel is one of the classics of American literature and wonders if many literary critics dismiss the book because it was simply too popular during its day. Over the years scholars have postulated a number of theories about what Stowe was trying to say with the novel (aside from the obvious themes, such as condemning slavery). For example, as an ardent Christian and active abolitionist, Stowe placed many of her religious beliefs into the novel. Some scholars have stated that Stowe saw her novel as offering a solution to the moral and political dilemma that troubled many slavery opponents: whether engaging in prohibited behavior was justified in opposing evil. Was the use of violence to oppose the violence of slavery and the breaking of proslavery laws morally defensible? Which of Stowe's characters should be emulated, the passive Uncle Tom or the defiant George Harris? Stowe's solution was similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson's: God's will would be followed if each person sincerely examined his principles and acted on them.