Uncle Tom's Cabin Literary Analysis

Improved Essays
The author's intent in Uncle Tom’s Cabin was to change people's perceptions of slavery, she demonstrates this by adding emphasis that the characters in the book were courageous, optimistic, and faithful. As the book unfolds slavery progressively gets more evil.Some of the things that the author adds to show the malicious acts of slavery was when, Mr. Haley was in the process of purchasing some of Mr.shelby's slaves at first he is perceived as a kind hearted fair gentleman, but in reality he isn’t, He acted this was because he knew Mr.shelby wouldn't sell any of his slaves to cruel men. Mr.Shelby had no other choice but to sell some of his slaves since he was in debt to Mr.Haley. When Shelby and Haley got to an agreement they settled with …show more content…
Through various occasions in the book the author maintains a constant motif and that was the Christian faith. For example, when Uncle Tom was purchased by Legree he took all of his belonging except the bible that Uncle Tom had hidden in his pocket, he warns Uncle Tom that he didn't put up with any kind of religion (482).When the reached the plantation Uncle Tom realized it was a horrid place to stay, even people of their own kind were cruel to each other. After a while of being there Toms faith in God begins to slowly fade away. Tom was sitting by the fire and he drew out his bible for comfort, some women asked him what he was reading they mentioned to him that God wasn't anywhere near them and to stop thinking he was. The women filled his head with doubt about his faith. He sees a vision of Eva reading the bible to him it made him feel comforted and regains his strength and faith in The Lord (498). In conclusion Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was mainly written to change people's perspective on slavery and to show that slaves were just as courageous, optimistic, and faithful as white people

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Fugitive Slave Act Essay

    • 1801 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Tensions grew even higher than before after the book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was published in 1852. A woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of the book and was against slavery. Her book was and was about the life of a slave. The book showed the cruelty of slavery and the mistreatment of slaves in the south.…

    • 1801 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Harriet Beecher Stowe has witnessed many things that persuaded her to find a way to help slavery. And, she was determined to help put an end to slavery in the United States. In her book she included events that she had witnessed relating to slavery. It included dramatic events and vivid characters. Stowe made sure to show slavery as a very brutal system in the book. After, being published her book was instantly a success. She sold over 300,000 copies in the first year. Although, the book was a hit the book was banned in the south. While. many people loved the book people such as slaveholders did not. She did very much research over the slavery in the south and was very determined to help. Many people were very emotional about the book including Abraham Lincoln that stated “So you’re the little woman that wrote the book that started this big war.” She continued to fight against slavery and even after the Civil war she still worked hard. She began public speaking, continued to write, and read her book aloud to many audiences. Her book was so successful that even after she died people still remembered her and how big of an impact she made on the idea of slavery. Uncle Tom 's’ Cabin made a huge impact on slavery by changing many people 's perspectives and creating one of the biggest wars the United states has been a part of. It helped shape the people 's minds to what they want to believe in…

    • 2689 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was one of the most influential novels in the 19th century, selling 300,000 copies in 1852, the first year after it was published. It contributed significantly to the spread of the anti-slavery ideas in America. Despite of its political influences, the novel is also considered as a representative work of modern American literature.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Stowe, her only reason for writing the story was “to awaken sympathy and feeling for the African race.” The novel had sanctioned colonization rather than abolition which alarmed many northern radicals. In the south, the novel was seen as propaganda; whereas in the north, it was interpreted as a moral romance. Harriet Beecher Stowe was very important because her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin displayed the cruelty and inhumane practices done to chattel slaves in the upper and lower south to the public…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in hopes of making a change. The themes she used to write this great work shines through even…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harriet Tubman Dbq

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Uncle Tom’s cabin, an anti- slavery novel (Document B) which talks about a long suffering black slave. This book became the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. This novel was very well written by Harriet Stowe which inspired many abolitionists to rise up to fight against slavery and freedom. Infact this novel helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To start off, the North and South differed with their social differences. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a book by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American woman. This book’s main point was to illustrate slavery’s effects on families. It was a revolutionary…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was very against slavery. The book is about three slaves, Tom, Harry, and Eliza being sold to A rich and cruel plantation owner Simon Legree. This book demonstrated the horrors of slavery that the Northerners were oblivious to at the time. The book flew off the shelves and became one of the most sold books of the decade. This novel shocked the Northerners about how harsh the slaves were treated and it raised awareness of the wrongdoing of slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin also shocked the southerners. They believed that this was a miss-interpretation of slavery. In reality, most slave owners did not treat their slaves as badly as it was portrayed in the book. This angered the south. The North was also angered at the south because they believed that this was how all slaves were treated because for most Northerners, this was their one resource about slavery. Many people believe that this was the main cause of the civil war. It may have been just a tiny book but it was a cause to the bloodiest war of…

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, reveals how slavery in the United States not only damaged the human soul of the slaves but destroyed the mankind of the slave owners as well. The main focus in Uncle Tom’s Cabin was to show that African Americans have feelings just like other human beings. Black’s suffer just as much as whites, and therefore it is just as wrong to mistreat them. As well as the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass purpose for writing was so that others could see what he had to go through and that there is hope. Both of these stories make a strong statement against the injustices of slavery and how the understanding of slavery needs to be heard.…

    • 130 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is known as one of the most influential pieces of literature in the anti-slavery movement. It was accredited by Lincoln for touching off {Note: he said she was the little lady who made the great war - not sure touching off is the best way to paraphrase that. Perhaps say Lincoln accredited her novel as being a cause of the Civil War} the Civil War. Stowe grew up in the North and came from a famously devout Christian family. Due to her up bring and personal beliefs, she had a huge underlying motive of compassion for slaves, which prompted her to write the story of a slave’s life. In the book, Uncle Tom was a sympathetic Christian character, who exemplified the use of moral persuasion, which condemned slavery for the destruction of family. It is also important to note that Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, was also a very influential and compelling piece of anti-slavery…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Anti-Slavery Book Review

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Also during the 1850s abolitionist books were becoming popular, in particular, anti-slavery novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, written by author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. This book is recognized for aiding the anti-slavery movement and was a hugely successful selling book, inspiring many people globally after being spread throughout mass press, creating a prevalent anti-slavery community throughout America and the world. She appears to have inspired H.G Adams, author of the chapter this essay is reviewing, as the book, which was published in 1854, credits her in the preface for giving momentum to the movement against slavery. Adams also mentions while there were numerous anti-slavery books being published at this time, the purpose of his book was not only to argue the idea that slavery is wrong, but to also demonstrate that blacks are ethically, mentally and physically equal to the white…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is an anti-slavery novel written just prior to the Civil War. It is a fictional yet realistic view of slavery that impacted American people with the brutalities of unfair slave practice. The novel had provoked intense controversy and discussion throughout the country and is even credited as to being a cause of the Civil War. Stowe uses aspects of religion, temperance, and gender roles to argue the issues of her time, such as slavery. Slavery is a practice in which a white man, controls the life and liberty of an African, which had existed in the United States since colonialism, until post civil war 1865. Uncle Tom’s Cabin portrays the contradiction between the evil of slavery and the good…

    • 130 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an abolitionist novel focused on the evils of slavery and was inspired by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. The book is dominated by a single theme: the immorality of slavery. A scene is depicted in the novel which Simon Legree disciplined Tom for aiding a friend. Legree quoted “Didn’t I pay down twelve hundred dollars, cash, for all there is inside yer old cussed black shell? An’t yer mine, now body and soul?”1 This phrase symbolized that slaves were treated as if they were chattel. The Bible was used as a justification that it was the norm to have slaves. Stowe wanted the reader to feel alarmed at even the possibility that someone like Legree could rule men, women, and children with impunity. Legree served a great moral purpose in the novel: he represented what happens when man is given total power over another. That man inevitably grows corrupt, wicked, and…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Slavery was a time where people suffered harsh beatings, working all day and night, and an era where no one wants to go back. It was a time where life was not fair for people and where half of America begged for equality. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written for a specific purpose, to demonstrate the “living dramatic reality” of slavery, as author Harriet Beecher Stowe put it. Many people, especially those in the North, had no clue what was happening on the other side of the country. They did not know the day-to-day hardships of African Americans living in slavery, and literary works could provide these details in the form of exciting, dramatized stories. Back then it was easy being free and turning into a slave the next day. This novel acknowledges Toms suffrage, religious fortitude, and…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Slaves were living their lives through suffrage no matter who their master was. Women were used to show they had moral power to direct their husbands or sons towards the right path. She also includes her viewpoint of christianity and how religion can be used to abolish slavery.…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays