Uncle Tom’s Cabin
By Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Genre is a classic, romance, and adventure book
The theme of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is look to the future and don’t lose hope
Review by Rodez de la O
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an astounding book, it was filled with love, action, despair,
sadness, and adventure. I never knew that much about slavery except that it was the
1800’s and that the South has a lot of history with slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe is an
author that was able to take me back in time to the mid 19th century. When reading Uncle
Tom’s Cabin I was able to feel his experiences as he was transferred from slave owner to
slave owner. I was able to view his happiness upon meeting friends and I was able to
connect with his hopes and morality. There are many characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
that I was able to connect to and view their views on slavery and their struggles. From
Uncle Tom’s experiences, to a former slave named George who is fleeing his slave
master to run away to Canada, to Simon Legree a harsh and brutal Southern slave master.
This book accounts for slavery in the mid 19th century and the significant views of the
slave and slaver master as they fight for what they believe is right and moral.
Uncle Tom is the main character in this fantastic book, he is the main person who travels
from slave master to slave master enduring the worst and hoping for the best. Uncle Tom
has gone through many experiences from the time he left his kind Kentucky master
Arthur Shelby to the time he ends up at the Southern plantation where Simon Legree
works the slaves to death. There is much more to this book than meets the eye but I do
know that this book is filled with hope, sadness, action, and betrayal. Many things happen
in this book such as that of a shoot out between bounty hunters and slaves, the Quakers
and their views, and the journey to Canada by slaves to flee their slave masters.
This book was great and was filled with many experiences and points of time where there
was a climax. One of the points that I loved was when George Harris and runaway slave
told Mr. Wilson a slave master and friend of George’s that he didn’t care if the law was
after him but he was ready for them. He then threw his coat open revealing two pistols
and a knife. Uncle Tom who was one of my favorite characters had gone through many
experiences. What made him survive the countless situations he ended up in such as
being sold off to another slave master, experiencing the death of one of his kind masters,
and nearly being beaten to death was that he always believed in the power of god. He
trusted his morality and clung to it even on the verge of death. That is inspiring that he
was able to survive all his experiences of being a slave just by clinging to God and his
own morality. One of the characters that I disliked and despised was a Southern slave
master known as Simon Legree. Simon Legree was a brutal slave master who drank
alcohol and worked his slaves to death so that he was able to be prosperous. What really
turned this story though is that Cassy who is a slave was able to strike fear in Simon
Legree. The story then starts to take a twist when Cassy is able to disappear from his
plantation with out a trace and Simon Legree offers a reward for her head to any slave
that is able to catch her and find her.
Harriet Beecher Stowe is a great writer and the book, which she published; Uncle Tom’s
Cabin was a very exciting book to read. She was able to narrate the book so that each
character’s experiences portrayed how they were feeling and their thoughts. She did a
great job with filling in the reader with background information on the characters before
delving into the development of the characters and their roles in the book. Her
descriptions in the book such as the experience of Tom leaving his Kentucky master are
filled with emotion and emphasis so that the reader can capture the true feeling of the
characters. She uses a lot of detail so that the reader can vividly imagine the action and
flow of the book as the story progresses. One of the experiences that I was able to capture
was when George Harris fended off a couple of bounty hunters who were after him and
his group who were running away from the law. The author used detail of the terrain, she
used emotion, and she used their thoughts so that that the reader could capture the
moment and situation in the book. The writer really fought to emphasize the characters
feelings and emotion. This book is great just because the language is powerful and
because this book is a great adventure filled with action and despair.
Being a book that is set in the mid 19th century instead of the 21st century might lead you
to believe that this is a boring book and that the time era is boring. This shouldn’t stop
you from picking this book up and reading it. When you read this book the time era
which is was set seems to come alive. You are able to read this book and imagine the
musty air, the dirt path roads, the plantations, and even the cold flow of the Mississippi
river. The author does a great job of brining out the culture, customs, and society of the
slavery era. Also the perspective of the characters is different to each character in the
book. George Harris who hates slave masters, slavery, and America is different to that of
Uncle Tom who doesn’t mind the slave masters, views slavery from that of God, and
attempts to understand the predicaments that he in as message from God. Harriet Beecher
Stowe makes it known to the author of how each character perceives slavery.
The slavery era was an era filled with a lot of grief. This book is one of the best novels to
read and it is a novel that can easily entertain you. Each characters perspective will
change yours according to how you feel about the moral of the characters and the story.
You will be wishing for the slaves to escape to Canada with out ever coming to harm
even though you know that one can easily be shot. This is one of the best books to read
because the book is written well and because you will be able to easily imagine the story
of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a great novel
to read. If you want to know what happens to Cassy, Uncle Tom, and Simon Legree who
are a few characters in this fantastic novel than I urge you to pick up this book and read
it. Once you have read this book you will know that it is a fantastic book to read.