Eva's Leitmotiv Of Propagandizing Anti-Slavery

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe uses the character of Augustine St. Clare to play a very important role in expressing her views of abolition to the reader throughout the novel. St. Clare is, in himself, a huge contradiction of a character, as his way of life is supported by the same system that he despises, slavery. St. Clare professes multiple times in the book that slavery is wrong, yet he holds slaves and refuses to release them, making him a hypocrite whose morals are right, mainly because of his mother, but he is unwilling to do the right thing. St. Clare symbolizes some of the southern slave owners at the time who knew that slavery was a sin and an act against God, but refused to stand up and stop it. St. Clare is such an essential character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and he is an important part of the overall message of the novel and Stowe’s interjection of her abolitionist views that are throughout the novel.

Stowe expresses the terrors of slavery, by giving the reader insight into what life was like as a slave in the south; and through this, it shows how inhumane slavery was. For example, when Uncle

Along with evil masters, I was glad to know that there were also kind masters who saw the good in all; even the colored. These type of people were portrayed by the Shelbys', Augustine St. Clare, Eva, and Miss Ophelia. I was happy that even during the worst times, people like them had the courage to go against the world and spread happiness in the world. However, I found it wrong that calamities struck to only those who did good. For example, due to debt the Shelbys' had to sell their slaves, Augustine St. Clare and Eva both died before they could free their slaves, and there was nothing Miss Ophelia could do to save Uncle Tom from being sold again.

As the novel began, Maria Teresa was merely a child and she was seen as a very sweet character. However, the revolution turned things around for her whole family. She longer perceived certain things as positively as she would have just a few years back. She believed “that the sun was shining

One of the things Harriet Beecher Stowe is known for in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is her many literary devices in her writing that have hidden meanings which emphasizes her abolitionist views. She is an effective author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin because her literary devices such as symbolism reiterate her very strong abolitionist views. Firstly, an example of Harriet Beecher Stowe using a character to help her anti-slavery views is during a dialogue between Evangeline and her father, Augustine St. Clare. Her father calls her over to show a statuette that he had bought just for her, and Eva tells him about her feelings that have been suppressed. She says to him, “‘O, that’s what troubles me, papa. You want me to live so happy, and to never have any pain,-never suffer anything,-not even hear a sad story, when other poor creatures have nothing but pain or sorrow, all their lives; … Papa, isn’t

Many reformers, especially in the northern states, dedicated their lives to abolish slavery, and gain success to The Abolitionist Movement in the United States. The main goal of The Abolitionist Movement was to end racial discrimination and murder segregation. After radical abolitionism was fueled by the religious fervor of the Great Second Awakening, many people were advocating for emancipation on religious ground. Maria W. Stewart was the first abolitionist and women’s right activist to speak and give speeches in public to mixed crowds of men and women. “Stewart practiced self-help to become educated and work for the uplift of all women, especially in the black community, from lives of

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was by no means a factual book. In fact, most, if not all of the events were completely made up. How then can a completely fictional book change the lives of so many? It comes from the power of Stowe’s rhetoric in conjunction with her target audience. Stowe was a white Christian female. She believed slavery was completely wrong and wanted to make a change. But how could she? She was a woman after all and during that time period women simply did not effect change through politics. According to Susan Harris, a respected Stowe researcher, “The men are not evil, but they are involved in the public world” (Harris). However influencing politics was the only way things were going to change and Stowe knew this. She henceforth targeted the white Christian mothers because they in turn could influence their men to make changes in the male dominant society of politics. A perfect method by which to achieve a change in slavery laws indirectly. Stowe especially used the power of sentimentalism to connect with her audience. She did not need facts or evidence, all she needed to effect change in the hearts of the women was a general feel for the subject. The women of that day were very sensitive and yet very powerful in the home. Stowe capitalized on this by using the Christ figures of Tom and Eva and their experiences during the slavery era to evoke a feeling of compassion for them in her audience. By using more emotion and targeting the human aspect of

So Stowe was accurate in portraying Eva’s mother as thinking slaves did not need to read and also accurate in her view of slaves in general. She viewed slaves as inferior when she said slaves were “not made for anything else” but for work (Stowe 286). This is an example or one theme in Stowe’s novel that is right in line with current historical research.

Ex: In Arvay, the characters are simbólico of those who hold prejudices and are never truly happy till they learn to love their

There are certain characters that show strong sympathy and understanding toward the protagonist’s situation. The financial backer of the brothel, after Eaddie shows her tiredness and detest toward the worldly love between men and women, falls in love with her deeply. However, due to the fear that her complex identity will

Characters Joss Byrd is the protagonist of the story, she is a young actor that is just trying to survive, she is expected to live up to her mother's expectations, has to deal with her crush on her movie brother and has to hide one of her biggest secrets. Her secret is is that she is dyslexic, that secret could end her whole acting career and is hard enough to manage by itself. Through it all Joss pulls through happy and never gives up. Viva is Joss’s mother that is the main antagonist. Viva wants Joss to become successful and is willing to do whatever it takes even if Joss doesn’t want to.

Thankfully, the power of Eva’s love towards Topsy not only inspires her to become good, but also inspires Miss Ophelia to care for Topsy as Eva did. For example, after Eva dies Miss Ophelia says “... Don’t give up! I can love you, though I am not like that dear little child. I hope I’ve learnt something of the love of Christ from her. I can love you; I do, and I’ll try to help you grow up a good christian girl.” (340) This quote show that Miss

While Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin overtly deals with the wrongs of slavery from a Christian standpoint, there is a subtle yet strong emphasis on the moral and physical strength of women. Eliza, Eva, Aunt Chloe, and Mrs. Shelby all exhibit remarkable power and understanding of good over evil in ways that most of the male characters in Stowe’s novel. Even Mrs. St. Claire, who is ill throughout most of the book, proves later that she was always physically in control of her actions, however immoral they were. This emotional strength, when compared with the strength of the male characters, shows a belief in women as equals to men (if not more so) uncommon to 19th century literature.

The first character we will discuss is Emily Shelby who is the wife of Arthur Shelby who is a Kentucky Plantation owner and the owner of Uncle Tom. Mrs. Shelby is a kind, loving, and Christian woman who is strongly opposed to slavery and takes it upon herself to treat them with most respect. Mrs. Shelby from a spiritual standpoint cares about her slaves relationship with God and teaches his word to them. Mr. Shelby and Mrs. Shelby treat the slaves with kindness but differ significantly in regards to slavery. Unlike other women of this time period, Mrs. Shelby stands by her views and morals regardless if her

Eva is the daughter of Augustine St. Clare whose full name is Evangeline, which is the angel in the Bible. In Chapter 14, when Uncle Tom first sees Eva, the author describes Eva as following: “Her form was the perfection of childish beauty, without its usual chubbiness and squareness of outline. There was about it an undulating and aerial grace, such as one might dream of for some mythic and allegorical being. Her face was remarkable less for its perfect beauty of feature than for a singular and dreamy earnestness of expression, which made the ideal start when they looked at her, and by which the dullest and most literal were impressed, without exactly knowing why.”