Abraham Lincoln said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war." , when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first time. This little lady—under five feet tall—was the writer of Uncle Tom's Cabin which was widely read and one of the most successful book of its time. And many historians have credited the novel with contributing to the outbreak of the Civil War. So this book is the silent beginning of the war.

Stowe was born into a family of eccentric, intelligent people as the daughter of an eminent New England preacher. Stowe grew up in the Northeast but lived for a time in Cincinati, which enabled her to see both sides of the slavery without losing her perspective to abolish slavery. Throughout her life, she remained deeply involved in religious movements, feminist causes, and the abolition of slavery, which can always be the theme of her novels including Uncle Tom's Cabin.

This was a story began in a Kentucky farm, the owner named Arthur Shelby ran into large debts. So as to raise money, although he was a kind master, he had to sell two of the slaves to a coarse slave trader called Haley. The two slaves are honest Tom and the young son of Mrs. Shelby's maid Eliza. However, Eliza overheard the  conversation that Mr. Shelby was to sell her son and Tom, after warning Tom, she decided to ran away and tried to meet and get together with her husband George who also ran to Canada to find freedom. Tom, as a pious Christian, didn't ran away and left with Haley. Meanwhile, Haley sent two slave hunters to get Eliza and her son back. Haley took Tom to a slave market on boat, then Tom met a little girl named Eva who behaved like an angel. After accidently saving this girl, her father St. Clare bought Tom. At this time, suffered all kinds of difficulties and helped by a lot of people, Eliza met her husband, and during the flight from the slave hunters, one was shot by George, however, they saved this man's life who later became much kinder. Finally the couple successfully went into Canada. After Tom has lived with the St.Clares for two years, Eva grows ill, then dies. Her death made St. Clare to set Tom free, but after a accident, St. Clare was stabbed to death, but he found God at his last moment with Tom's help. St.Clare's cruel wife, Marie, sells Tom to a rather vicious platation owner called Simon Legree. There, under such abominable enviroment, Tom once doubted his belief, but finally insisted on it, that he didn't break the rules to beat other slaves, nor hate his master. In the end, although his previous owner George came to save him, it was too late, he can only watch him dying. After he went back to his home, he set all his slaves free, and asked all the people to remember Uncle Tom's cabin when they were happy with their freedom.

So from the content, we can see two clues: one is that Tom was sold and went to different masters, the other is that the family of Eliza ran to Canada of freedom. Actually it is very interesting that they went to the opposite directions. Tom was sold to the south, each time deeper, and died in the end; while Eliza them went across the north, and finally found happiness and freedom. According to the American history, in the early 1850s, the south and the north stood different cultures. The author used the north to represent freedom and the south to slavery and oppression, she tried to show how miserable the slaves' life in the south and contrasted the differences between the two. This used contrast to point out the cultural differences and emphasize the horror of slavery, kind of encourage the slaves to look for the freedom.

Just as the structure that the author used, contrast is the one of the most important rhetoric method., she used it to express the themes through the story. For example, at first the happy evening in uncle's Tom's cabin and at the same time Mr. Shelby signed the papers that sold Tom and Harry; uncle Tom's obedience to the masters and George Harris's active heroism that ran to the freedom; the different opinions to the slaves between Mr. and Mrs.Shelby and other couples in the story; the attitude to the slaves of the three masters that Tom once served; the attitude to the Christ between Tom and Legree; as children the different appearances between Eva and Topsy; as well as all the women and slaves. With these associations and the contradictions, Stowe challenged the existence of the slavery, proved that the system of slavery and Christianity opposed each other, also expressed the women's influences to their husbands and their great conscientious and courageous, in a word, she was asking to abolish the slavery.

As I mentioned in the second paragraph, we can also found out the feminism in the story, which was another theme in it. Some critics regarded this book as a specimen of early feminism. Most of the women characteristic were very noble, trustworthy and full of tender feelings, they judges things by inner conscience not the so called "law". Actually in the text, not only the black people were oppressed, but also the women, we can see that most women's words can not effect how things were going to be. But still, the white women can use their influence to convince their husbands. She aimed to praise the inherent moral wisdom of women, and encouraged this power to do something for the society.

Apart from contrast, the symbols also played a very important role, such as the title. At the very first beginning of reading the book, I was confused the reason to use this one as most of the story didn't happen around uncle Tom's cabin. I understood it until the last chapters. George Shelby's speech to his slaves after he set them free, "Think of your freedom, every time you see UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; and let it be a memorial to put you all in mind to follow in his steps, and be as honest and faithful and Christian as he was." In this way, the cabin stood for the power of Christianity and love, Tom's death shocked and motivated Shelby to set his slaves free, so it also meant as free to the slaves and their companies. It united the two most important themes together, so it could be the best tittle. The scene of Eliza' leap across the half-frozen Ohio river also used the symbol. The danger she faced in her leap, and the courage she owned, represented the great danger should be faced during the process of leaving slavery for freedom, and overcome these with greater courage.

To some readers, they think uncle Tom seemed too much obedience to the slavery, and it does not fit the resolve and strength of modern black Civil Rights crusaders, so they treat "Uncle Tom" as an old black man eager to please his white masters and happy to accept his own position. But in my understanding, uncle Tom does not accept his position of being happy with his position, I think his behaviour was because of his religious belief, that he was a very pious Christian. We can see that he tried to help other people, love others even his enemies, spread his religious belief to the people he met. His not running away did not mean that he was weak, it was because his belief made him to be an honest man, he practiced another kind of resistance to fight against the unfair, for example, he refused to beat other slaves, meanwhile he supported other slaves' escape, which meant he had to be beaten by the master. And the author was trying to appreciate Tom's death, because after his death George set all his slaves free, which meant the hope.

Besides, there is another problem, which looked like a contradiction. The first two masters were very nice persons to the slaves, so it may seem that the slavery has its advantages. However, they were hypocrisies of the slave system. Although Tom and Harry may be comparatively to live happily when their owner is Mr.shelby, Stowe showed how easily a slave can slip from a stable life to a miserable one. Because the essential problem is that the slaves had no human right, they were possessed by the slaveholder, they can be traded as the goods. Under such environment, there is no difference to have a good or bad owner. Further more, the comparative nice masters can easily show how bad the last owner was, and this wrong system can turn decent men into cruelty ones,which was used the contrast.

In fact, after I have read another book written by Da Lin, which describes the actual background of the Civil War. It seems that the white people are actually the powerful group against the slavery system, and of course, the black people also did a lot to get their deserved rights. I believe that it is the basic conscious of human help the black people to get what they want so badly. This book Uncle Tom's Cabin opened a door to the educated people how actually the black people live in the bottom of the society, and arouse their kindness. All in all, the society has the power to make the right choice and make progress.