Being one of the most renowned books regarding the topic of
slavery, I thought Uncle Tom's Cabin would be a lot more violent and
paint a much uglier picture of the society of the time. However, as I reached
the end of this interesting novel, I realized that I was still left with
pressing doubts regarding not only the author's intentions, but some of the
themes in the book as well. How does the book critique society? What does it
show the reader in terms of equality and death?
After finishing the book and doing some research, I found
out that the book was published in 1852, only a couple of years before a civil
war broke out in the USA. Having this context I realized that this was a strong
a critique as Stowe dared make before people had really started fighting for
equality. Anything more radical or more graphic than that would have probably
landed her in jail, simply because she was denouncing one of the evils of
society. That's what makes this such an incredible and revolutionary book. It
may seem vague and somewhat detached from reality today, but at the time it was
a huge step forward in the fight for equality.
One of the other pressing questions that remained was why
did the author chose to kill most of the characters the reader grows more
attached to? After careful consideration I arrived at the conclusion that she
killed her most virtuous characters. Eva, St. Clare and Tom represented
kindness, and they had the values she believed a utopist society would have. It
was these characteristics which alienated these three characters from the rest,
making them stand out. Stowe made the reader grow attached to them because one
can relate to their thoughts and feelings. Killing them was her way of making
us feel, just for a second, the pain and outrage these slaves had to live
through on a daily basis.
Despite it being a more romanticized novel than I expected,
I ended up enjoying the book, particularly after having arrived at the
conclusions I did. This work of art not only manages to tell an intricate story
containing various characters who end up being somehow related, she uses the
narrative to make the reader experience what the characters felt in the most subdued
way possible. The lack of poetic justice is an accurate portrayal of how unfair
life was for the slaves at the time, and is, in itself, a critique to society.
