Uncle Tom's Cabin Character Analysis Essay

Character Analysis Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe details the life of the main character Tom, who is extremely important to the novel’s theme of slavery and how it has impacted human morality. Tom’s ultimate struggles and experiences as a slave underline his will to persevere despite his uncontrollable shortcomings of being a black man in a racism fueled society. Tom, or Uncle Tom, is described as a strong, powerful, black man approximately in his mid-forties. He is a simple character, who mimics the actions of a well respected Christian man. Despite being a slave, he tends to have a positive outlook on life and tends to be quite passive in his decision making. One such example is Tom’s reaction when he first learns that he will be sold as a slave, and be moved away from his family. “Tom slowly raised his head,and looked sorrowfully but quietly around, and said,—“No, no, I an’t going. Let Eliza go,— it’s her right!”” (Stowe 45). Tom’s sorrow tied with his decision to put himself in danger before his family exhibits his will to protect his loved ones despite the consequences of slavery. Stowe uses …show more content…
Up until the Tom’s death from the repeated punishment of his abusive new owner Legree, Tom sticks by his will to protect his moral beliefs. Tom’s actions not only affect the reader, but affected even the evil Legree, where it states that, “Legree was provoked beyond measure by Tom’s happiness; and, riding up to him, belabored him over his head and shoulders” (Stowe 426). This part of the novel is my favorite because it is an example that no matter how tough a life one can have, morals are something that can never be taken away. I, as other people did in the 19th century, see this book as an eye-opening experience to the struggles that people live through on a daily basis, and make my shortcomings seem insignificant compared to the actions of Tom and