Uncle Tom's Cabin Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

It’s important to remember that the novel isn’t just titled Uncle Tom – it’s titled Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which makes the cabin the most important symbol around. Tom̵...

On her deathbed, Eva insists that Miss Ophelia cut off her locks of curly blonde hair so that she can distribute them to her family and the family’s slaves. It was common in the Victorian per...

When Eliza leaps across the treacherous, icy Ohio River, she is literally leaping from the south side of the river to the north side, from slavery to freedom. You really couldn’t devise a mor...

We’ve got to say a few words about these contrasting regions in the novel; any 19th century book about slavery has to set up a dichotomy between the North and the South. Stowe deals with this...

There are lots of flowers all over the text of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, from the "scarlet bignonia and a native multiflora rose" that grow over the front of the cabin itself (4.1), to the "rare bou...

When Uncle Tom is carried off by the slave trader Haley, young Master George Shelby runs after him and gives him his dollar – clearly the savings of quite a bit of pocket money for the boy. G...

This novel is smothered with mothers. Many of the major and minor characters are mothers, including Eliza, Aunt Chloe, Cassy, Mrs. Shelby, Marie St. Clare, Mrs. Bird, and Madame de Thoux. Even spin...