Literary analysis

My theme, dehumanization, is fairly strong within UTC and has many implications on the final meaning of the novel. For starters, many of times, slaves are referred to as “critters” instead of people. I believe this allows the white population in the book, as well as in real life, to put distance between themselves and what they see as a different species. However, this is contrasted well in situations where the novel is pushing the audience to see blacks as people as well as, families, households, and communities. For example, on page 100-101, while George is talking to Mr. Wilson, he states: "See here, now, Mr. Wilson....look at me, now. Don't I sit before you, every way, just as much a man as you are? Look at my face, -- look at my hands, -- look at my body," and the young man drew himself up proudly; "why am I not a man, as much as anybody? Well, Mr. Wilson, hear what I can tell you. I had a father -- one of your Kentucky gentlemen -- who didn't think enough of me to keep me from being sold with his dogs and horses, to satisfy the estate, when he died. I saw my mother put up at sheriff's sale, with her seven children. They were sold before her eyes, one by one, all to different masters; and I was the youngest. She came and kneeled down before old Mas'r, and begged him to buy her with me, that she might have at least one child with her; and he kicked her away with his heavy boot. I saw him do it; and the last that I heard was her moans and screams, when I was tied to his horse's neck, to be carried off to his place.". This is a clear and cut scene where George is not so much trying to appeal to Mr. Wilson, but to the audience, with a fairly simple message, “I am a man, just like you, why am I not seen as such” and takes two routes in doing so. One being that, physically, George is a man as much as the next, but also has just as much heart and emotion as the next man. This allows the audience not only to see into George's life, but allows them to substitute their life into his and ask “what would I do if that was my family and I were treated as such?”. This statement also allows for a larger audience (that being both whites and blacks) because it asks the read to see past such things. Such an argument can also be seen in in chapter 30 when the slave sale is taking place. For a quick recap, there are a mother and daughter hoping to be bought as a pair, but when it the mother is sold: “Down goes the hammer again, -- Susan is sold! She goes down from the block, stops, looks wistfully back, -- her daughter stretches her hands towards her. She looks with agony in the face of the man who has bought her, -- a respectable middle-aged man, of benevolent countenance. "O, Mas'r, please do buy my daughter!" "I'd like to, but I'm afraid I can't afford it!" said the gentleman, looking, with painful interest, as the young girl mounted the block, and looked around her with a frightened and timid glance.” This is obviously trying to show the reader that the whole system of slavery goes beyond physical torture, but goes farther with emotional torture while families are constantly being ripped apart for the convenience of the buyer. This once again allows the reader to step into the soles of the slave and see how destructive it would be to them it it were their families. It also shows how the slaves are viewed as nothing but objects with a price tag. Price is also a fairly common theme in UTC, constantly asking how much a slave is worth by their skills and physical form. This just further dehumanizes the slave into an object that can be do with however the master pleases. Overall, dehumanization is an essential theme to not only Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but to slavery in general and the novel gives many situations to show how dehumanization is essential to the system of slavery. Without it, the system would fail and that, in my opinion is one of the strongest arguments that Uncle Tom’s Cabin makes.