Uncle Tom's Cabin Language Analysis

Throughout history, artists have used their mediums to communicate their opinions on their environment and what is going on at the time. The ability to make societal change through representation has been a major theme throughout the texts this year. Abolitionists, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Northerners saw slavery as a moral detriment that was against Christianity. Southern states saw slavery as a financial gain and a political advantage, Harriet Beecher Stowe uses her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1850, to combat the morality of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act, also established in 1850. The Fugitive Slave Act required every citizen in the United States to report and return escaped slaves to the South; the forced complicity …show more content…
Stowe’s language shows the transition of Tom being seen as property to human. While Legree, the slave master, is condemning Tom and he’s calling Tom a “critter,” with a “cussed black shell” and a “dog,” however infused in the anger, Legree is also describing Tom as “pious,” a “gentleman” and a “saint” for not beating Lucy. The entire scene revolved around Lucy and how Tom refuses to beat her, and Legree being adamant about breaking Tom down and forcing him to submit to him and whip Lucy. Lucy being silent, and helpless emphasizes her portrayal of a concept rather than a character. Lucy represents Christianity and morality, and Legree represents slavery and how slavery destroys Christianity and morality. Lucy is described as “poor” and helpless in this scene, and Legree is attacking her. Like Christianity, Lucy needs to be defended and protected and supported to continue on. Tom is the savior of Christianity and represents multiple groups of people. Tom represents abolitionists, slaves, and Northerners who opposed slavery. Legree is represented as if he is an animal with “whiskers” and is “ferocious” and Sambo and Quimbo are described as “fiendish” and “gigantic” and they follow whatever Legree says. The three of them, Legree, Sambo, and Quimbo mirror the, three headed, hellhound making all three of them a product, tool, and slave to Hades, the Greek god of death and the underworld, and …show more content…
“The revolt of the intellectuals has a more valid meaning that it would have if one accepted all their phrases and assumption at face value. Of course they are not proletarians and cannot become proletarians. [. . .] The class struggle does not at this moment threaten to split the American people and lead to a triumph of the downtrodden workers.” (154) The Brotherhood is a group of primarily white male intellectuals that on the surface level seems as if they are for the people and they are urging people to follow their philosophy. The Brotherhood are not being treated unjustly like the African Americans in Harlem and the women that they have Invisible Man speaking to. However, the “class struggle” has yet to be made visible due to the facade that the Brotherhood puts up; Invisible Man is the facade they use him to speak to black people in Harlem and women downtown because he relates to both groups. The Brotherhood is a group of white educated men trying to create a classless society with no distinctions between people, however, they do not put themselves in the position of speaking to people outside of the Brotherhood, they use people like Brother Clifton and Invisible Man as their representatives and they control what is really going on, they are heard but they are never seen. Invisible Man and Brother Clifton are used as the “face” of the Brotherhood