Uncle Tom's Cabin contrasts the many different attitudes that southerners as well as northerners shared towards slavery. Generally, it shows the evils of slavery and the cruelty and inhumanity of the peculiar institution, in particular how masters treat their slaves and how families are torn apart because of slavery. The novel centers on a pious slave, Uncle Tom, and how he is sold over and over again. It shows the different outlook that Tom's master's share about slavery, and how their slaves should be treat.Stowe is trying to prove to the reader that slavery is wrong and nothing short of evil and cruel.
She opens the novel, by showing two slave owners, making a business deal. Mr. Shelby is in debt to Haley, so he must sell Uncle Tom and Harry, tearing them apart from their families. Stowe shows a young slave woman, Eliza, and her affection for her son Harry, when she decides to take her son and run away. In a time when it was quite common for a black woman to see almost all of her children die, Harriet Beecher Stowe created Eliza, a strong and powerful woman fleeing slavery and risking everything to protect her son. This disputes the common belief of the time that slaves' mothers have less affection for their youth than white women. Here, there is a subtle yet strong emphasis on the moral and physical strength of women. Uncle Tom is sold again to Augustine St. Clare, whose daughter is Eva. To Tom, the girl seemed almost divine. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe supplies the reader with two diametrically opposed characters, the two children, and representatives of the two extremes of society. Eva is a fair, spiritual, highbred child with golden head, deep eyes, noble brow, and prince like movements; born of ages of cultivation, command, education, physical and moral eminence while Topsy is an African, born of oppression, ignorance, and toil. The two children, Evangeline and Topsy, teach us a lesson about love. Eva loves everyone, especially Uncle Tom. She makes Tom overcome his sorrows & makes an awesome companion. Tom receives good treatment at the St. Clare's, which proves that the novel is not one-sided, showing that there were kind slave owners.
However Uncle Tom is sold again, this time up the Red River to the "devil" Simon Legree. Simon Legree constantly beats his slaves, under feeds them, and over works them. Legree tries to break Tom's character by asking him," join my own church,"(I.e., To become cruel) .At the climax of the story, Simon Legree over works and beats Tom to the point where Tom dies. When George confronts Legree, he simply answers "what's the fuss over a dead nigger". Simon Legree is the worst of the worst. If he doesn't make you see the evils of slavery, then you're blind.Stowe has done an excellent work upon characterization.
Uncle Tom is described as strong, intelligent, capable, good, and kind, he is the most heroic figure in the novel. The list of Tom's virtues is endless. However his most important characteristic is his Christian faith. When given the opportunity to kill Simon Legree with an axe, he refuses and responds, "No good can come of evil." Uncle Tom's main relationship to society is that he a pious, hard working, Christian.I believe the story is effective. The novel has enormous power. Uncle Tom's Cabin may be a tearjerker, but it succeeds.
The novel also skillfully demonstrates the absurdities and contradictions of slavery. For instance, Mr. Shelby believes himself to be a good Christian man with a genuine respect for his slaves. He still is not respectful of them, although his treatment of slaves is better than most masters'. For example, when Shelby and Haley are discussing the ensuing trade, Harry enters the room and Shelby has him dance around like a clown and then tosses raisins at him. It is also ironic that after George invents a machine to clean hemp the employer congratulates not George, but George's master for owning such a slave. Ophelia prides herself on her liberal anti-slavery ideas, but shrinks when she herself has to touch Topsy and bathe her. Tom is black and a devout and kind Christian, but Legree's deputies, Sambo and Quimbo, also both black are un-Christian, savage and cruel. The moral is that it is not the colour of one's skin, which makes a man good or bad.
In another set of contrasts, the helpless and innocent Eva is crushed by the moral wrongs of slavery, while the persecuted Topsy, survives her fate through sheer insensitivity and high spirits. There are many such fascinating studies of character and ironic situations, which makes it both a dramatic novel and a powerful statement against slavery.
Stowe is constantly trying to prove that slavery is evil & immoral; popularizing the abolitionist cause .Her overheated style accomplishes that. Not only does this novel examine the attitudes of the nineteenth-century white society toward slavery, but also it introduces us to the hearts, minds and souls of several remarkable and unprecedented characters.
