Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is not without its fans and critics alike. However, despite the praise or criticism, the book is unique in that it uses characterization to symbolize the different forces involved in America's struggle to reconcile its duality as a "free" country supporting institutionalized "slavery". Many modern critics and readers alike, both black and white, harshly criticize the author for her stereotypical depiction of a black man as only being noble if he possesses a "superhuman capacity for love, kindliness and forgiveness," like her most noble and humane character in the work, Uncle Tom. However, a deeper analysis of character will demonstrate that to Stowe's Christian framework, the sacrifices and nobility of Uncle Tom are not ones of defeat and subjugation, rather they are his only option from a moral point of view-and Tom is of the highest moral character possible, some would say a level that is unrealistic in the face of his real abuses. This analysis will show how Stowe uses such characterizations to depict the horrendous nature of slavery in an attempt to change public opinion of her era regarding the once sacredly held American institution of slavery.

The character of Ophelia is used to contrast the North and the South at this period in history. Ophelia is an abolitionist who finds the atrocities of slavery horrible. However, she doesn't seem to care a great deal for slaves eit

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from her. I can love you; I do, and I'll try to help you grow up a good Christian girl," (Stowe 334) We can see in this characterization and Ophelia's that Stowe was also showing how both blacks and whites needed to modify their point of view so that true togetherness could progress. How? Through acts of love, kindness and compassion for others-the very methods of Little Eva and Uncle Tom-the very actions of Abraham Lincoln. The character of Simon Legree represents the pure evil and devil-like nature of men who can go against all of God's teachings and intentionally bring pain, suffering, torture and bondage to other creatures. Legree is pictured by Stowe as the devil incarnate, as is evidenced from the time when he asks Tom to join his church. He is a sadist and cruel, a man who destroys the minds, bodies and souls of his slaves, purchasing black women for his sexual perversion and takes pleasure in the abuse of his slaves. He is much like many Southern plantation owners in the south, or at least their overseers. Legree even trains other slaves in the art of brutality, "These two colored men were the two principal hands on the plantation. Legree had trained them in savageness and brutality as systematically as he had

Category: Literature - U