Literature is often touted as one of the best weapons that bring out a change in society. The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin that was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe can perhaps help explain that because it is a piece of work that brought out the evils of the 19th century with regard to slavery and the unequal treatment of African Americans in the United States. The protagonist of the story, Uncle Tom, is sold from the Shelby farm to a slave trader and down the Mississippi River, he sails a way in a riverboat. During his days on board, Tom meets Eva, a white girl and. When Eva fell into the river, Tom jumped in and saved her, and that prompts her father to buy him and with Tom, they head to New Orleans. The Christian faith brings Tom and Eva close to each other. But again he is sold to another family, the Legrees. Some slaves suffer in the hands of their masters while others run away to seek freedom. The slavery experience amidst religion helps bring out the picture of prejudice, stereotype when put in the perspective or Christianity that every white was professing at the time.
The most important thing to recognize about the novel is the representation of evil and good, that evil can coexist with good. Stowe uses a number of Christian illusions. For instance, Tom is a devout Christian, who is devoted to his faith so much so that even when Legree dissuades him from it he does not falter even in death, he forgives his persecutors. But again, whites were staunch Christians, and one wonders why they keep committing the sin of slavery. The very act of selling humans for work is discriminatory and wrong, separation of families and forcing people to work is utterly disgusting ad against any religious belief. Thus, when Stowe chose to write about these two issues, she wanted to present how bipartisan society was at the time, and how evils were committed by the very people who professed to be Christians. The Bible may require of a devout Christian to “feed the hungry, clothe the naked and comfort the desolate” ( Stowe 69). But that was not really the case when it came to the practicality of the issue in as far as white slave owners and African American slaves were concerned.
The novel assumes several settings on different farms in the south. The incidents reflect the real happenings of the time because that is what was happening to the slaves in plantations owned by whites. The best way to go about placing the book in its context is to look at how the 19th-century American culture has been brought forth. First, the author uses several different types of characters. They include slaves, slave owners, Quakers, slave catchers, the unsympathetic settled New Englanders, innocent children, mothers who could do anything to save their children, and there are the careless types of persons, the sympathetic ones, and even unprincipled politicians. That is to suggest that the society was riddled with all types of people who perpetuated evil while others tried to correct it. The reader meets scenes from Canada, Arkansas, Ohio, the Mississippi River and Kentucky. Thus, slavery is not seen as an isolated problem but one that had been institutionalized and nationalized, thereby, affecting everybody throughout the country and even beyond the borders.
The novel is a representation of the real happenings that affected many African American slaves. For instance, the novel is closely related to some of the things that happened to another influential slave named Fredrick Douglas. In his book, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave depicts the life and experiences of Douglass, a replication of what happened to Uncle Tom and other African American slaves. They were sold from one slave owner to another, and the inhumane attributes of slavery are clearly brought out in these two works. Also, The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself (1849), shares a close resemblance to the novel considering that it highlight the plight of slaves and how they went on to escape to safety in Canada. The best thing about all these narratives is the fact that they give detailed experiences of slavery and how slaves suffered at the hands of their owners and sometimes costing them their lives just like in the case of Uncle Tom.
Images of African American slaves dot the novel, from the beginning to its end. Stowe concludes her book with a happy ending, though, and that illuminated the fact that in the end slavery could be abolished and that African Americans could be free after all. In as much as there is a sad ending of Tom through death in the hands of his slave owner, that very act ushers in a new dawn. It is a bit surprising that Uncle Tom had to take up religion as a weapon to counter his problems, but did not overcome them thus ending up dying. The conclusion is implied because one could have expected the opposite, it is surprising that Eliza’s mother happens to be Cassy and the meeting between George Shelby, and George Harris’ sister seems unrealistic. Nevertheless, I would agree with her conclusion if she wrote the book just for literary purposes. But it seems more of a political statement, and that makes me disagree with the conclusion because it fell short of a realistic aftermath of slavery. Perhaps then Uncle Tom should not have died, neither could the freed slaves would have wanted to stay, because after all one could have expected them to embrace the freedom they so much wanted.
Work Cited
Stowe, harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. New York: OUP, 1998. Print
