Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is a novel that had presumably ignited the American Civil War. By discussing the issue of slavery and showing its cruel aspects, Stowe motivated people to take sides over the issue and determine what kind of country they wanted. In effect, Stowe’s goal in the novel is to restore dignity to African Americans, to voice their concerns and aspirations and bring to the fore their suffering. This essay will examine the major themes tackled in the issue and conveyed through characterization.

The suffering set forth in the novel seems to be endless. Characters chafe under enslavement. In fact, the whole novel revolves around slavery and its repercussions. It represents a powerful wrong despite the fair treatment of slaves first by Georges and later by Augustine St Clare, and always by the narrator through the use of irony. It is unveiled unethical from the beginning of the book, despite the relatively generous setting of Shelby’s Kentucky farm.  This peculiar institution of slavery is, actually, based on the objectification of all slaves as commodities. Such objectification is twofold evil as it not only tolerates cruel deeds but also incurs much spiritual damage to individuals.

Throughout the novel, Stowe shows slavery as physically and emotionally pernicious to individual slaves, which brings an abominable emotional effect upon the audience. Thus, Harris’s forcing George to kill his own dog , Eliza’s painful and frightened flight away from the only home she can remember, Tom’s heartbroken farewell to his wife –all these incidents are effective in showing the institution as destructive and appalling.

Slaves are not the only people affected by slavery. The most obvious example of a slave owner destroyed by the institution is Marie St. Clare who has been weaned (raised) since childhood that she is superior. Marie’s sadism is a natural result of her condition, as is her unhappiness, she tells herself on one level “if these people are not real, as am real, then I may hurt them without guilt”. Shelby and his wife are both shallow people, as they must be if they are to continue owning slaves. At the physical centre of the novel is St Clare’s nephew , the 12- year- old Henrique , potentially as a kind , loving human being who is , carefully trained and educated to be as meaningless as Topsy , as spiritless as Marie. Even Legree whom slavery turned into stone, as it were evil, seems to be a dead – living creature.

The narrative also sheds light on the contradiction between slavery and the moral values of Christianity. Indeed, Stowe takes great pains to illustrate the fact that the system of slavery and the moral code of Christianity are in stark opposition. No Christian, she insists, would be able to tolerate slavery. As the novel unfolds, the more religious a character is the more he or she objects to slavery. For instance, Eva, the most morally perfect white character in the novel, fails to grasp the rationale behind slavery. In contrast, the morally revolting, non – religious Legree practises slavery almost as a policy of deliberate evil. In essence, Christianity, in Stowe’s novel, rests on a principle of universal love. If all people were to put this principle into practise, Stowe insists, it would be impossible for one segment of humanity to enslave and oppress another. Thus, not only are Christianity and slavery incompatible, but Christianity can actually be used to fight slavery.

Moreover, Uncle Tom ultimately triumphs over slavery in adherence to Christ’s command to “love thine enemy”. In this respect, he refuses to compromise his Christian faith in the face of the many trials he undergoes at Legree’s plantation. When he is beaten to death by Legree and his men, he dies with a forgiving serenity. In this way, Tom becomes a Christian martyr, a model for the behaviour of both blacks and whites. The story of his life both exposes the evil of slavery, its incompatibility with Christian virtue and heralds its transformation through Christian love.

Accordingly, these themes interrelate to produce a symbiotic work revealing the wrongs of slavery and its effects on the character’s soul in the narrative