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• Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Literature Notes
• Essay Questions
• Book Summary
• About Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Chapters 2-3
• Chapters 5-7
• Chapters 8-9
• Chapters 11-14
• Chapter 15-16
• Chapter 18-21
• Chapter 22-25
• Chapters 26-28
• Chapters 29-32
• Chapters 33-36
• Chapters 37-41
• Chapters 42-45
• Character Analysis
• George Harris
• Simon Legree
• Augustine St. Clare
• Character Map
• Harriet Beecher Stowe Biography
• Critical Essays
• Themes in Uncle Tom's Cabin
• A Mosaic of Movement and Conflict in Uncle Tom's Cabin
• The Haunted Cabin: Uncle Tom and the Gothic
• Full Glossary for Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Study Help Essay Questions

1. Tom has been brought up on charges in the court of public opinion, and you have been part of his defense team. Write a summation to the jury, defending Tom against the charge that he is an "Uncle Tom" — that is, "fawning and servile in his behavior to whites." Stress any points in Tom's experience, behavior, and / or philosophy that seem to you to be relevant in his defense.

2. Simon Legree has been charged with Tom's murder. You considered resigning from your law firm, which Legree hired to defend him, but your boss talked you out of it. Now you have been assigned to write a brief explaining why Legree should be convicted of a lesser charge. Write an essay in which you present any evidence and / or logical arguments you can find to support the idea that, considering Legree's culture and the circumstances surrounding Tom's death, Legree should not be charged with capital murder.

3. Compare and / or contrast any two characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin who seem to you to present an interesting opposition or likeness (for example, Chloe and Cassy, Mrs. Shelby and Marie St. Clare, Haley and Legree, Topsy and Eva, etc.). Focus on three or four points (character traits, important influences, effects on other characters, and so on) that seem to you especially characteristic of your choices.

4. Discuss how (or even whether) Uncle Tom's Cabin might be dramatized and presented in a modern production (in whole or in part) without offending modern audiences.

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Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-11

Chapters 12-16

Chapters 17-21

Chapters 22-26

Chapters 27-32

Chapters 33-37

Chapters 38-41

Chapters 42-45

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Stowe continually uses appeals to motherhood to make her argument in Uncle Tom’s Cabin . What role do mothers have in the novel? How do examples of motherhood correspond to Stowe’s Christian morality?

Many formerly sinful characters reform their ways throughout the novel. Examine these instances, as well as instances where characters fail or refuse to reform their ways. What does this say about the moral compass of the novel? What causes some characters to reform and others to continue to do wrong?

Examine the social hierarchy among the slaves in the novel. How do they treat each other? What criteria do they use to judge one another? Finally, what does this say about the society they are brought up in?

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Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin Essays

Mark twain's "huckleberry finn" as a literary response to harriette beecher stowe's "uncle tom's cabin" anonymous, uncle tom's cabin.

When Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn after the Civil War, it was in part a response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's pre-Civil War novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. While supporting many of Stowe's claims and motives, Twain also found fault...

Uncle Tom's Cabin: A Groundbreaking American Social Protest Novel Anonymous

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A Theology of the Heart: Methodism in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin Nathaniel Popper

While lying on her death bed, in Chapter 26 of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, little Eva says to the servants in her house who have gathered around her, "You must remember that each one of you can become angels" (418). In this chapter...

Denial of Womanhood in Uncle Tom's Cabin Christina Gulas

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, written during the period of boiling tumult that was to erupt into the Civil War, has struck it's readers in more ways than one. Wildly popular, Uncle Tom's Cabin was made into theatrical pieces and...

Uncle Tom's Cabin as a Romantic Racialist Novel Jane Platt

The cultural repercussions of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, are undeniable. Uncle Tom's Cabin became one of the most widely read and profoundly penetrating books of the nineteenth century. Richard Yarborough remarked that,...

Simon Legree and His Realm of Darkness Ginamarie D'Amelia

'During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens . . . [I] at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of...

Rising and Roman, African and Flat: Aphra Behn's Oroonoko Anonymous

In the 19th century novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe portrays Uncle Tom, a black slave, as an heroic figure. Written shortly before the American Civil War, the novel attempts to change negative moral attitudes towards blacks....

Effects of Syntax in Uncle Tom's Cabin Anonymous

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is powerful not only because of its moving plot, but also because of several literary tools used by Harriet Beecher Stowe to accentuate the evils of slavery. In the book, Stowe contrasts a detached and sarcastic tone with...

Reflections of Race and American Culture in the 'Tom Show' Anonymous

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Non-Traditionally Tragic Mulattas: Defying Notions of Denial and Self-Hate Anonymous

Inheriting the vices of both the black and white race, traditionally tragic mulatto characters have been comfortably depicted in much of abolitionist literature as intricately, and inextricably, conflicted individuals; miserable and without race “...

Domestic Grounding in 19th Century Female American Literature Eleanor Forder College

Jane Tompkins writes on how nineteenth century domestic novels characterise ‘a monumental effort to reorganize culture from the woman's point of view…in certain cases, it offers a critique of American society far more devastating than any...

Gender Roles in Uncle Tom's Cabin Anonymous College

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Fragmentation in the Realist Novels of Stowe and Crane Victoria Joss College

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Miss Ophelia Prays for Protest: Northern Responsibility in Uncle Tom's Cabin Kelsie Moody College

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The Function of Christianity in Slave Literature Anonymous College

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Every choice a person makes, every action a person performs, every thought that crosses a person’s mind is influenced by emotion. The strength and intensity of feelings in the decision-making process makes emotional manipulation a powerful tool...

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin , by Harriet Beecher Stowe, presents the linked stories of different slaves in Kentucky from the perspective of an omniscient narrator. “The role of the omniscient narrator is to chronicle the events of a story in an impartial...

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Uncle Tom's Cabin Essays

Introduction Critic Moira Davison Reynolds describes Uncle Tom's Cabin as "skillfully and artistically constructed propaganda that contributed mightily to massive reform" (ix). As such, its author, Harriet Beecher Stowe has been placed among the greatest Americans that ever lived and at one time...

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Few books can truly be said to have altered the course of history, and even fewer can be said to have started an entire war. Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was one novel to do both. Abraham Lincoln said to Harriet Beecher Stowe upon meeting her, "So this is the little lady...

2 886 words

Probably the most complex female character in the novel, Ophelia deserves special attention from the reader because she is treated as a surrogate for Stowe's intended audience. It's as if Stowe conceived an imaginary picture of her intended reader, then brought that reader into the book as a...

Book Review on Uncle Tom's Cabin While Harriet Beecher Stowe's, Uncle Tom's Cabin, deals with the wrongs of slavery from a Christian standpoint, there is a strong emphasis on the moral strength of women. Eliza, Eva, Mrs. Bird, Miss Ophelia, Aunt Chloe and Mrs. Shelby all exhibit power and...

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in order to help bring the plight of southern slave workers into the spotlight in the north, aiding in its abolitionist movement. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her work Uncle Tom's Cabin, portrayed slaves as being the most morally correct beings...

1 475 words

Characteristics of Melodrama in Uncle Tom's Cabin Melodrama is a play form that does not observe the dramatic laws of cause and effect and that intensifies sentiment and exaggerates emotion (893). Written by George L. Aiken, Uncle Tom's Cabin is an extremely good example for melodrama that emerged...

1 621 words

Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was the defining piece of the time in which it was written. The book opened eyes in both the North and South to the cruelties that occurred in all forms of slavery, and held back nothing in exposing the complicity of non-slaveholders in the upholding...

1 568 words

The purpose of this essay is to explain the main historical themes posed in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The novel is an anti-slavery novel by the American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, which was published in 1852. The novel had such a profound effect on the attitudes toward African Americans and slavery...

1 617 words

Uncle Tom’s Cabin By: Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin takes place during the slave period in the United States. It starts of with one setting and story line then breaks of into many different plots. It is about a slave named Toms who throughout the novel keeps up his faith in Christ and...

Rarely does a one work of literature change a society or start it down the road to cataclysmic controversy. One such work is Harriet Beecher Stowe's, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Considered by many, one the most influential American works of fiction ever published. Uncle Tom’s Cabin contracts many different...

1 855 words

The Effect of Uncle Tom's Cabin Seldom does a one work of literature change a society or start it down the road to cataclysmic conflict. One such catalytic work is Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). It is considered by many, one the most influential American works of fiction ever...

For slaves, the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ensured their doom in the perpetual cruelty of the slave market. This Act protected the rights of slaveholders, requiring - by law - that all slaves who escaped to the North be returned to their original owners. This action by the United...

; This thesis will mainly focus on Christianity in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and  attempt to analyze various characters, such as Uncle Tom, little Eva, and some pious, ideal Christian believers to reveal the Christianity in this novel. It is well known that western literature is based on two pillars--the...

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Mohammad Rabah Harriet Beecher Stowe and Other Influences on the Civil War Harriet Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin is often seen as a primary influence of the Civil War. She showed just how terrible and difficult the life of a slave really was. By doing so she caused a lot of disturbances...

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the more effective attacks against slavery in 1852, selling 300,000 copies during first year and nearly 3,000,000 since then. It Portrayed Uncle Tom as the first fictional Negro hero created by an American. With success along came criticism from...

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Critical Book Review Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in the United States in 1852. The novel depicted slavery as a moral evil and was the cause of much controversy at the time and long after. Uncle Tom's Cabin outraged the South and received...

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Struggles of Slavery and the Economy The economy was the underlying factor affecting multiple aspects of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The novel takes place in the 1850’s antebellum era, when slavery was a large portion of the economy – especially in the South. The moral division between the North and South...

1 526 words

The Realities of Slavery Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs are two books which were written against slavery. Both authors are deeply against slavery and write these books to convince their audience that slavery is bad. They both...

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Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and its Impact on the 18th Century’s Anti-Slavery Years Celestine Best During the 1800’s, anti-slavery writings and articles were not very popular in the Deep South. It was also a time when women needed to stay in their domestic roles as wives and mothers...

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Twentieth-century critics claim that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin expresses strong sentimentality and intrusive narrator’s/writer’s voice, which interrupts the story; however, Stowe cleverly uses these two techniques to convey her Abolitionist message. This message is full of Biblical...

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Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Christian Thought in Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Essay

Uncle Tom’s Cabin depicts the wickedness and immorality of slavery. Stowe manages to use Christian thought to fight the enslavement of humans. The novel ideally wanted to show aggression to the Fugitive Slave Act passed in the year 1850. This law prohibited anyone to offer help to a fugitive slave. The plot and setting of the scenes of the novel use the North to symbolize freedom and the South embodies evil slavery encompassed with oppression and immorality. Stowe uses Eva, Tom, Uncle Tom, and Eliza to approach the theme of Christianity and fight the destructive nature of slavery (Stowe 19)

Uncle Tom is depicted as a devoted Christian, he is promised freedom but maintains he wants to remain behind to convert St. Clare to be Christian. The meekness he possessed was overlooked, as he always resorts to the Bible for guidance, as his influence over slaves in the plantation grew immensely. Uncle Tom is a simple and noble Christian slave (Routledge 31). George, Emily’s son believes Tom is a friend and a perfect God-fearing man. Near the end of the novel, he frees the slaves. As the slaves leave George asks them to have a glance at Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He tells them to remember how Uncle Tom led a Christian life as they have a look at the Cabin. It’s ironic, but we see clearly how Christianity overcomes brutal treatment specifically afflicted upon Tom’s life in the cabin. Christianity softens the heart of the hardened Lords of slavery. Tom Loker a maestro slave hunter is shot by George, while helpless the Quakers treat him, and later he chooses to change his lifestyle, although he does not confess, plainly he is murdered in Legree’s plantation and dies a martyr after forgiving those who beat him to death (Stowe 38)

Stowe shows how slavery as a system is contrasted from ideologies of Christianity. Eva is used to show why Christian should not put up with slavery. She is depicted as a morally faultless person in the novel. She is white and she wonders why differences are being made between black slaves and ‘superior’ white, as depicted by Tom Loker a slave hunter. She is an Angelic daughter of St. Clare and Marie; she is sometimes referred as the Christ holy figure. She makes friendship with Uncle Tom up to when he dies as a martyr. Her faith, dedication, bravery as a woman, and death makes her mother converts to Christianity (Ammons 159)

Stowe uses several motifs in her novel to apply the fundamental extend of Christianity. Eva at one point was symbolized as Jesus by Ophelia, she receives a divine premonition of her death, she is shown a vision of heaven, and this strengthens her purity and drives her to reject slavery. In addition, there are other several divine intrusions, for example, Eliza Harris’ leap while escaping. The scene represents the most illustrious part of the novel, a transition from slavery to freedom. She leaps rapidly over blocks of ice with the least dread. She was desperate and God intervened giving her strength needed to flee away from slavery and oppression intended by Shelby to sell her son.

We clearly see how the evil encompassed in slavery and Christianity battle in novel. At the end, Christianity emerges the victor, representing an antidote to hostilities inflicted by slavery to Christian-devoted characters.

Works Cited

Ammons, Elizabeth. Stowe’s Dream of the Mother-Savior: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Women Writers Before the 1920s : New Essays on Uncle Tom’s Cabin . Cambridge University Press, 1986. Print.

Routledge, Rosenthal, Debra J. A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 2003. Print.

Stowe, Harriet B. Uncle Tom’s Cabin . Spark Publishers, 2002. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2022, January 27). Christian Thought in Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin". https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-thought-in-stowes-uncle-toms-cabin/

"Christian Thought in Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"." IvyPanda , 27 Jan. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/christian-thought-in-stowes-uncle-toms-cabin/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Christian Thought in Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"'. 27 January.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Christian Thought in Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"." January 27, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-thought-in-stowes-uncle-toms-cabin/.

1. IvyPanda . "Christian Thought in Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"." January 27, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-thought-in-stowes-uncle-toms-cabin/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Christian Thought in Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"." January 27, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-thought-in-stowes-uncle-toms-cabin/.

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