Only the Good Die Young

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.